Wheel Alignment
Your car or truck may need a wheel alignment:
- When you purchase new tires. If your previous set of tires did not wear down symmetrically, it was most likely due to poor alignment. You want to be sure the new set does not wear unevenly in order to extend its life.
- When the rack and pinion steering unit or other steering components were replaced.
- When you begin noticing signs that suggest an alignment would resolve these problems.
- When you’ve traveled 30,000 miles from the time you bought the vehicle or since the wheels were last aligned, regardless of whether any warning signs appear.
Daily driving brings encounters with obstacles in the road that may rattle parts of the car’s undercarriage out of their normal positions. This can take a toll on the vehicle’s performance and safety.
What is an alignment?
An alignment resets all four wheels back to the position they were in when the car came off the assembly line. In other words, the wheels should function parallel to one another through all maneuvers, and the tires should make contact with the road at the appropriate angle. A wheel alignment fine-tunes the distances and angles between the suspension, steering column, wheels, and frame of the automobile. Car manufacturers usually provide figures for these angles for every automobile they produce. The vehicle is aligned when these angles meet the manufacturer’s specifications. Perfect alignment reduces rolling friction, increases tire mileage, and improves stability and steering.
Spotting warning signs
- Examine all four tires for disproportionate wear on one side of the tire. Check for wear in cupped, scalloped, or slanting streak patterns along the edges or across the tread.
- Test the steering wheel to see if it’s more rigid than usual or does not return to its natural resting place when let go of.
- As the car is in motion, determine if the steering wheel is centered when the car is going in a straight line.
- See if the vehicle has a tendency to float to one side or drift all over the road.
- Check if the front end of the car is on the same plane as the rear. Sometimes, the back end may swing out to one side.
Three angles of the wheel prove whether a car’s alignment is precise and responds to steering as you’d expect:
- Camber – inner or outer tilt of the wheel in comparison to a vertical line.
- Caster – degree of tilt of the steering axis from a viewpoint alongside the vehicle.
- Toe – direction one wheels is pointing in relation to another. “Toe-in” refers to two wheels pointed toward each other, while “toe-out” means they are aimed outward.
Keep in mind that all three angles are not applicable to each individual wheel because not every angle is capable of being altered on certain cars.
A wheel alignment is even more necessary for vehicles with front wheel drive or independent rear suspension. If the rear wheels do not follow an identical path to those in front, it verifies that the rear wheels are not pointing in the same direction. This position creates an effect known as “rear axle steer,” which impacts a car’s stability.
How is an alignment performed?
Prior to an alignment, the mechanic meticulously inspects the vehicle’s entire undercarriage in an attempt to spot loose, crooked, or ailing parts. Next, the vehicle is driven onto the calibration machine where the mechanic checks and adjusts (if needed) the camber, caster, and toe starting with the rear wheels and finishing with the front.