How do I convert toe in degrees:minutes:seconds to millimeters orinches?

My 2001 BMW 525i front total toe spec is 0°5'±10' and the rear total
toe is 0°22'±4'

How does one convert that to inches or millimeters?

On Thursday, July 11, 2013 1:47:47 AM UTC-4, Fran Jones wrote:
> My 2001 BMW 525i front total toe spec is 0°5'±10' and the rear total
>
> toe is 0°22'±4'
>
>
>
> How does one convert that to inches or millimeters?

You didn't look very hard. Google.

On 07/10/2013 10:47 PM, Fran Jones wrote:
> My 2001 BMW 525i front total toe spec is 0°5'±10' and the rear total
> toe is 0°22'±4'

those are numbers you use when you have the car on an alignment tool.
even if you had the ability to determine front and rear toe, neither
tell you thrust angle so you need the proper tooling.


>
> How does one convert that to inches or millimeters?

ok, you shouldn't be touching this stuff. take the car to an
experienced professional.


--
fact check required

On 07/11/2013 01:47 AM, Fran Jones wrote:
> My 2001 BMW 525i front total toe spec is 0°5'±10' and the rear total
> toe is 0°22'±4'
>
> How does one convert that to inches or millimeters?
>

Need to know the diameter of your tires to figure it out.

Let's assume you have 235/45R17 (according to Tire Rack that was one of
the two available tire sizes for your car)

so the nominal diameter of your tires is (235)(2)(0.45)(1/25.4) + 17 or
about 25.3" (or you could look up the specs for the exact tire you're
running on Tire Rack or the tire manufacturer's web site.)

so the toe in of each front tire would be 5 minutes or 5/60 degrees

so then the actual toe of one front tire in inches would be sin(5/60) *
25.3 = 0.037"

so your total toe, assuming you're using trammels and measuring the
overall distance between the front and rear of the front tires at the
center of the tread would be twice that or about 0.074"

rear done the same way would be 0.33" total toe

here's an online calculator that will do it for you

http://robrobinette.com/ConvertToeDegreesToInches.htm

but you will need to figure out your tires' diameter if it is
significantly different from what I posted above.

I am also ASSuming that the specs you gave are the normal type e.g.
where you say 5 minutes +/- 10 minutes that that means each front wheel
is toed in 5 minutes from the centerline of the car. The terminology
"total toe spec" is a little confusing as that seems to imply that each
wheel is toed in only 2.5 minutes? If the latter is the case, then
halve the numbers given above.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

jim beam > wrote in :

> On 07/10/2013 10:47 PM, Fran Jones wrote:
>> My 2001 BMW 525i front total toe spec is 0°5'±10' and the rear total
>> toe is 0°22'±4'
>
> those are numbers you use when you have the car on an alignment tool.
> even if you had the ability to determine front and rear toe, neither
> tell you thrust angle so you need the proper tooling.
>
>
>>
>> How does one convert that to inches or millimeters?
>
> ok, you shouldn't be touching this stuff. take the car to an
> experienced professional.
>
>

He didn`t say anything about doing it himself, he only asked for some info.
So go stuff your worthless opinion where it belongs. (and your opinion of
yourself is WAYYYYYYYYYYY above any reasonable one.) KB

On 07/11/2013 12:43 PM, Kevin Bottorff wrote:
> jim beam > wrote in :
>
>> On 07/10/2013 10:47 PM, Fran Jones wrote:
>>> My 2001 BMW 525i front total toe spec is 0°5'±10' and the rear total
>>> toe is 0°22'±4'
>>
>> those are numbers you use when you have the car on an alignment tool.
>> even if you had the ability to determine front and rear toe, neither
>> tell you thrust angle so you need the proper tooling.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> How does one convert that to inches or millimeters?
>>
>> ok, you shouldn't be touching this stuff. take the car to an
>> experienced professional.
>>
>>
>
> He didn`t say anything about doing it himself, he only asked for some info.
> So go stuff your worthless opinion where it belongs. (and your opinion of
> yourself is WAYYYYYYYYYYY above any reasonable one.) KB
>

all you need is a perfectly level garage floor and a trammel - or even a
good tape measure and a helper - to set the front toe.

I would shy away from messing with the rear toe on a Bimmer because the
rear suspension is kind of complex and you might end up screwing up one
of the other adjustments at the same time, unless you know what you're
doing.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On Thu, 11 Jul 2013 05:47:47 +0000, Fran Jones wrote:

> My 2001 BMW 525i front total toe spec is 0°5'±10' and the rear total
> toe is 0°22'±4'
>
> How does one convert that to inches or millimeters?

Just make the toe 1/8 inch wheel to wheel for both axles
and you won't have to do any calculations.

On Thu, 11 Jul 2013 07:15:30 -0700, jim beam wrote:

> take the car to an experienced professional.

Hi Jim Beam,

I appreciate your plug for the professional, and certainly
they can accurately measure toe ... but I have to then ask:

Do you take your car to a car wash or wash it yourself?
Do you repair your car or do you take it to a mechanic?
Do you change your own oil or do you go to JiffyLube?

This is rec.autos.tech. It's the kind of question that
could/should be asked on rec.autos.tech.

All I want to do is measure my front and rear toe.
Measuring toe, in inches, should be relatively simple.

It's the distance from the center of the tire tread to the
centerline of the vehicle.

What I want to know is how to convert that center-to-center
measurement to the degrees that are listed in the shop manual.

How does this approach look for the conversion?

0. Total front toe = 0°5', so toe to center line is half that
1. Toe to centerline is 1/2 of 0°5' = 0°2.5'
2. 0°2.5' divided by 60' is ~0.0417 decimal degrees
3. 17" diameter rims * tangent ~0.0417° = 0.0124"
4. 0.0124" is roughly about 3/256ths" (or about 0.3mm)

On 07/11/2013 03:15 PM, Fran Jones wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Jul 2013 07:15:30 -0700, jim beam wrote:
>
>> take the car to an experienced professional.
>
> Hi Jim Beam,
>
> I appreciate your plug for the professional, and certainly
> they can accurately measure toe ... but I have to then ask:
>
> Do you take your car to a car wash or wash it yourself?
> Do you repair your car or do you take it to a mechanic?
> Do you change your own oil or do you go to JiffyLube?
>
> This is rec.autos.tech. It's the kind of question that
> could/should be asked on rec.autos.tech.
>
> All I want to do is measure my front and rear toe.
> Measuring toe, in inches, should be relatively simple.
>
> It's the distance from the center of the tire tread to the
> centerline of the vehicle.
>
> What I want to know is how to convert that center-to-center
> measurement to the degrees that are listed in the shop manual.
>
> How does this approach look for the conversion?
>
> 0. Total front toe = 0°5', so toe to center line is half that
> 1. Toe to centerline is 1/2 of 0°5' = 0°2.5'
> 2. 0°2.5' divided by 60' is ~0.0417 decimal degrees
> 3. 17" diameter rims * tangent ~0.0417° = 0.0124"
> 4. 0.0124" is roughly about 3/256ths" (or about 0.3mm)
>

Traditional way to do this is to measure from the center of the tire
tread not the rim, because the measurement will be larger and therefore
less prone to error. Hopefully your tires have a tread that makes
identifying same easier (or at least one straight circumferential rib
that you can use for a reference.) See my previous post for how to
calculate it that way. I used sine not tangent because I'm considering
the radius of the tire to be the hypotenuse (theoretically your
measurements are going to be taken at right angles to the centerline of
the car, or an imaginary line through the steering axis parallel to
same) not at right angles to the tire centerline; but at these tiny
angles sine and tangent are basically the same anyway so that makes no
significant difference.

With measurements these small, if you're going for accuracy (that is,
you're going to set it and drive the car, you're not asking because e.g.
you just replaced the struts and are trying to do a driveway alignment
to get you to the real shop) it is worthwhile to spin the wheels and
observe that they aren't bent and that the tires don't have any lateral
runout in them, because it's entirely possible to have a wobble that
dwarfs a fraction of a millimeter but isn't perceptible while driving
down the road.

I have my doubts that you can do a driveway alignment to plus/minus ten
minutes, but you probably can get it close enough if you are careful
that it will drive well and not wear the tires.

If you lift the car to spin the tires, after lowering it back down
either bounce each corner several times to resettle the suspension, or
drive it around the block before starting for the same reason. Bounce
it again after making any adjustments, or make yourself some turn plates
to position the car on before starting. (some pieces of sheet steel
with grease between them would work fine.)

good luck

nate


--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On 07/11/2013 09:52 AM, Nate Nagel wrote:
> On 07/11/2013 12:43 PM, Kevin Bottorff wrote:
>> jim beam > wrote in :
>>
>>> On 07/10/2013 10:47 PM, Fran Jones wrote:
>>>> My 2001 BMW 525i front total toe spec is 0°5'±10' and the rear total
>>>> toe is 0°22'±4'
>>>
>>> those are numbers you use when you have the car on an alignment tool.
>>> even if you had the ability to determine front and rear toe, neither
>>> tell you thrust angle so you need the proper tooling.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> How does one convert that to inches or millimeters?
>>>
>>> ok, you shouldn't be touching this stuff. take the car to an
>>> experienced professional.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> He didn`t say anything about doing it himself, he only asked for some
>> info.
>> So go stuff your worthless opinion where it belongs. (and your opinion of
>> yourself is WAYYYYYYYYYYY above any reasonable one.) KB
>>
>
> all you need is a perfectly level garage floor and a trammel - or even a
> good tape measure and a helper - to set the front toe.

actually, you need a wrench to set the toe - you need a tape to
/measure/ it. well actually, you don't, because unless you know what
you're doing, it'll get screwed up by tire imperfections, gravitational
bow, etc.


>
> I would shy away from messing with the rear toe on a Bimmer because the
> rear suspension is kind of complex and you might end up screwing up one
> of the other adjustments at the same time, unless you know what you're
> doing.

you're such an idiot. "here be dragons" he bleats. granted, it's not a
solid axle, but rear alignment is no harder than front. if you know
what you're doing. which you clearly don't.


--
fact check required