Rim Reader: Wheel Alignment

Middle TN Auto Repair

In-app purchases

About this app

Align your wheels in your driveway. Rim Reader turns your Android phone and a 3D-printed bracket into an alignment gauge: it checks and helps you set toe, camber and thrust angle. No rack, no strings, no lasers.

HOW IT WORKS
• Fit your phone in the bracket and calibrate once a month: a few minutes on a hard floor against a wall.
• Hold the bracket on top of each wheel the screen lights, with its prongs on the rim's metal lip. When it is level and still, the phone takes the reading by itself and beeps.
• A full lap of the car takes about four minutes, or about two and a quarter once you've done a few.

WHAT YOU GET
• Each wheel's toe and each axle's total toe
• Steer-ahead: where your steering wheel will sit when the car drives straight
• Thrust angle: whether the rear axle is steering the car, and which rear wheel is off
• Camber for each wheel, with the floor's slope measured beside each tire
• For each front wheel, one plain line: turn the front of the tire in or out, and by how much
• A spec check against the specs you enter, or against generic targets
• A three-page PDF report anyone can read

IT CHECKS ITS OWN WORK
Every wheel is read twice, with a lift between, so a bracket that didn't go back on the same spot is caught at that wheel. Each wheel is visited twice, so the gyroscope's drift is measured and removed rather than guessed. Every result comes with a confidence rating, High, Medium or Low, and the reasons. If a lap doesn't add up, it shows no numbers rather than wrong ones.

WHO IT'S FOR
Do-it-yourselfers setting toe after new parts or a pothole. Enthusiasts who change their alignment often. Mobile mechanics who check alignment in a customer's driveway and hand them a report. Shops without a rack.

PLANS
Free: one vehicle and its first full alignment, with every result.
DIYer: unlimited measuring on one vehicle, bought once.
Garage: up to five vehicles, bought once.
Mobile Mechanic (yearly) and Mobile Mechanic Pro (bought once): unlimited vehicles, your shop's name and logo on the report, customer details, notes and before-and-after compare.
Extra vehicles can be added to DIYer and Garage.

WHAT YOU NEED
• An Android phone running Android 10 or newer, with a gyroscope (the free Phone Check tells you in two minutes)
• The Rim Reader bracket and one wedge, printed in PETG. The print files are free at rimreader.com, or make your own.
• Level, firm ground and wheel chocks

Works offline. No account. Your readings stay on your phone.

After suspension or steering work, and before highway driving or carrying heavy loads, have a qualified shop check the alignment.

What’s new

Get a Bracket now has three choices: buy a printed bracket from the Rim Reader shop, print your own from the free files, or make your own.