On Sat, 08 Jul 2017 13:01:58 -0400, wrote:

You can have an alignment CHECKED - if no adjustment is required,
for a whole lot less than $100 if you get it to the right shop.

That's the HOLY GRAIL of services if it exists.

What would be perfect is a "free alignment check" and no charge if the
alignment doesn't need adjusting - but that may never happen for two
reasons.
* Alignment is a range (it's not just a single number), and,
* Nobody offers that anyway (that I can find).

Second-best (and perfectly acceptable) is a $25 alignment check-only, just
like I go to diagnostic-only smog stations, where all they do is MEASURE
the front toe and front camber (which is all that I need).

Also, you do not need a "4 wheel" alighnment.

I've been reading up on alignment where the Toyota only has front
camber/caster (which is one setting) and toe, so that's all I need are
those two things.

If I can find a shop who will do those two CHECKS for around $25 that would
make logical sense.

But to pay for an entire mounted tire just to save on a mounted tire seems
like throwing good money away logically as it was aligned two years ago
(and at that time, it needed it because the front left was wearing really
fast).

Now they're wearing evenly.

The toe in can be easily
checked, even without a fancy alignment machine, by anyone worthy to
call himself a mechanic. Less than half an hour's work either way if
no adjustment is required.

I googled how to check toe and LOTS of people seem to be using string.
All I need is to tie a string to the center point and then cut the ends off
on each side at the center of the tire tread in front and in back at the
midpoint of the wheel axle.

That's a cost of four strings!

Either way, I'd pay to MAKE SURE rather than take a chance on having
to keep throwing tires at it.

I completely understand and agree that if EVERY tire was wearing unusually
fast (which is what happened two years ago to the left front tire), then a
$100 alignment makes perfect logical sense.

But to pay the cost of an entire 40,0000-mile tire just for a remote chance
of getting a thousand or two thousand miles out of the process seems like a
horrid cost:benefit ratio to me.

A $100 alignment is an entire $100 tire completely wasted (in terms of
opportunity cost) if the $100 alignment is not needed.

That said - in YOUR SITUATION, the first thing I would do is check and
verify tire pressures, and AIR UP 5 PSI.

Here's what I definitely will do given the really sound advice.
* Since I never check PSI, I'll start using 40psi (35 is normal)
* Next time I'll get stiffer sidewalls (105S instead of 102S)
* I will rotate every change of seasons (I cross hatch with no spare)
* I will take the downhills slower (if I can but I'm always the slowest)
* I will look for a $25 toe/camber-caster only check around town

To me, if a $25 toe/camber-caster only check existed, it would be a no
brainer. But to definitely throw away a perfectly good $100 40K-mile tire
in opportunity cost just to possibly save a couple thousand miles of wear
on two tires seems not like an obvious cost:benefit logical decision of a
$100 alignment.