Jimny Toe in questions.

I took my 2014 Jimny for tracking check.

They charged me £45 to adjust the toe in but the car didn't feel right driving down the road and I went back 3 times to ask them why it didn't feel right.

I tried to get them to tell me to prove that the £32,000 tracking machine had the correct settings.

Suzuki emailed be the toe in in mm and the wonderful machine only worked i degrees and minutes.

The guy thought that the inches shown as mm equivalents on the Suzuki specification was the tow in because the number had in (short for inches) after it.

They said that the £32,000 machine could not be wrong.

They could not tell me how to convert mm to degrees and minutes and in the end they refunded my money and questioned my mental health.

Took the Jimny to another tracker who used a mechanical tracking company.. I took them one minute to find the cause.

The first company had not checked the tyre pressures.

OK, question time.

If the toe in is say 4 mm is this the total distance between the front of the wheel rims is less than the distance between the rear of the wheel rims, at the height of the centre of the wheels?

In other words, are the measurements taken at the wheel rims at hub centre height?

In the manual it shows this:






However, it says toe-in was measured using a toe-in gauge, which measures between the rims at the centre of the wheel as you suppose.

I can see why the fancy optical measures the angle, it is easier than the actual distance, but you'd have thought that there would be a converter built in.

Mathematically, if each wheel is 15" diameter, and toed in 1-3mm (0.04-0.12") then the angle each wheel is toed in is found from arc-sin (0.04/15) to arc-sin (0.12/15) which is between 0.153 and 0.458 degrees. (9.2' to 27.5' )
Likely the machine measures each one separate for this 4 wheel alignment thingie, but it could double them up to give the total.

The answer to your question is Yes. But before they can get accurate readings the garage should check the wheel bearings, steering track rod and track rod ends, and suspension components for wear, security and damage. The road wheels also need be checked for distortion, as well as tyre pressures.

Absolutely great response, thank you.

I'd better bone up on my trig, last used 50 years ago.

Just found a conversion chart that can be lifted off the internet.

The link is www.trackace.co.uk/manual/conversion%20chart.pdf

Excellent response, thank you.

Just what I needed to understand toeing.

The company with the £32,00 tracking machine couldn't even tell me what the printout colours or numbers meant and they would not let me watch the mechanic working on my car.

Their printout showed 10 areas of adjustment but the Jimny only has 2. Still charged me full price which is about double the local tracking charge.

Something to be said about the piece of string and an adjustable measuring rod method for a Jimny..

Crumbley wrote: Absolutely great response, thank you.

I'd better bone up on my trig, last used 50 years ago.

Just found a conversion chart that can be lifted off the internet.

The link is www.trackace.co.uk/manual/conversion%20chart.pdf

Hey look at that- 1mm = 9' 3mm = 27'

I had The Other Car on a 4 wheel alignment rig once, I'm sure they don't use them correctly, all the measurements I assume are relative to the longitudinal axis of the car, but they don't make any effort to set this, so I can't see how they could claim "one back wheel is to-ed in more than the other" when they have no zero reference.

Looking a bit closer at the settings reports from the £32,000 tracking device, the the toe and camber on the rear are shown as negative camber and positive toe in. Different figures are shown for the before and after settings.

It's a solid rear axle on the Jimny, there isn't any camber or toe is there?

Is it operator error or machine error or a due to the tyre pressures being wrong?

The front toe in is greater on the right front which is the wrong way round if the operator was trying to avoid the car tending to drift down the road camber.

The total toe in is exactly on the limit of the 2 mm(17 minutes) to 6mm(51 minutes) range according to the Suzuki official figures for my Jimny LM14DWJ and the conversion chart link above. The setting is 17 minutes, one less minute of toe and it would be outside the manufacturers tolerances. My Jimny has 16inch wheels.

The £32,000 machine shows a permissible toe in range of 9 minutes to 28 minutes for my Jimny.

Is the £32,000 machine wrong?

the toe-in figures quoted by the manufacture will be for the vehicle as it left the factory. if you have fitted different wheel rims ie wider and greater diameter, then it is probably better to go by the angular measurement as the mm measurement will be for 15" wheels. Wheel alignment (tracking) is the relationship between the front wheels with the wheels straight ahead and therefore isn't L/H or R/H'd
the rear axle figures could well be with manufactures tolerances, but could also be caused by a slightly bent axle or possibly worn wheel bearings.