If your vehicle’s wheels are not aligned correctly, they could be causing premature wear on your tyres and suspension components. This will cause problems with your vehicle’s handling, performance and the overall safety of the vehicle. Simple things like bumping into a kerb or driving over a pothole can throw your wheel alignment out of place. It’s important to get this fixed quickly before it leads to larger problems.
So how do you know if you need a wheel alignment? Did you just purchase new tires? Make those tires last longer with a proper wheel alignment.
If you see uneven tire wear, or if your car drifts or pulls to one side of the road on its own, there could be a problem with your wheel alignment. And there could even be other symptoms like a noise, shaking or vibrating in the steering wheel, or maybe the steering wheel is crooked after hitting a big pothole or curb.
All of these things could be a sign that your vehicle needs its wheel alignment checked, and depending on what you’re driving, a 2 or 4 wheel alignment just may get you fixed up and running straight again; but the key word there is checked.
Every decent car alignment should start out with a full inspection of every steering and suspension component to be sure there’s not a damaged or worn out part that is causing all this in the first place, or if you simply need tires replaced. Just like a doctor would assess your overall health before performing any surgery, we need to be certain that your cars steering system will hold any adjustments firmly before we begin this detailed task.
Components like tie rod ends, ball joints, idler and pitman arms, struts, and stabilizer bars and bushings all need to be in solid condition, or else all our hard work in aligning your car could be lost when you hit the first little bump down the road. These are things we check for you to make sure you are informed about the condition of your vehicle.
A four wheel alignment consists of adjusting the suspension of your vehicle so that all wheels are parallel to each other and perpendicular to the ground. Three primary angles contribute to proper wheel alignment: camber, caster, and toe. Camber is the measure of the degree of perpendicular offset from the road surface. Caster is the angle of your wheel’s pivot points, which are attached to the suspension. When this angle is out of alignment, straight-line tracking or directional stability is affected. Toe refers to the angle of directional difference between the tire and the centerline of the vehicle. The front and rear wheels on your vehicle should always be perpendicular to the ground and parallel to the tire beside it. Routine wheel alignments have the potential to save you money in the long run while promoting optimal vehicle performance.
