If you want to know if your car needs a tire alignment, you can check the tires first. If the tire wears unevenly, and especially if the outer side of the tire wears more seriously, you can basically determine that your car needs to make a tire alignment. In addition, you can also refer to the following indicators:
– The car seems to always drift to one side, even when you think you are driving straight;
– Steering Wheel vibration;
– The car is driving in a straight line, but the steering wheel is not centered.
If you haven’t find that your car has the above phenomenon, but it has been a long time since the last tire alignment, please check your user manual to see what the manufacturer has to recommend tire alignment.
Tire alignment deviation is a normal result of daily driving. Car tire alignment does not actually refer to the car wheel, but to the car’s suspension system. For normal driving, the suspension system of the car may be worn and the spring may stretch. Even small accidents, or accidental bumps into roadways, can cause damage to the suspension of the car, causing those highly calibrated components to deviate from equilibrium and deflect the wheels of the car from the correct position. Tire alignment is to restore the suspension to the correct position to ensure that the wheels do not deviate.
The most obvious benefit of tire alignment is the reduction in tire wear. A properly installed suspension system, even if the tire is worn, is evenly worn. Changing a set of tires can be quite expensive – the price of each tire can easily reach hundreds of dollars or more. And doing a four-wheel alignment usually costs between $50 and $100, making it a cost-effective car maintenance, so it should be part of a regular car repair.
Good tire alignment ensures that your car is easy to drive and simple to operate, making your journey safer and more fuel efficient, as the car’s tires are aligned with the road surface and evenly connected, so resistance is low.
How is the tire alignment done?
Car tire alignment is actually a complex process that restores the car’s suspension to its optimum position. Reposition the parts, adjust the parts, and align the wheels with each other and the wheel and road surface. Tire alignment should be performed by experienced mechanics. Tire alignment needs to be performed on a dedicated tire alignment device.
Newer tire alignment devices have devices like calipers. The device is mounted on the tires of the car (when the car has been raised) and then coupled to a computer to accurately measure the various parameters of the tire. The mechanic will also use this as an opportunity to check the car for excessive wear or damage to the suspension components.
The essence of tire alignment is to adjust the four tire directions of the car to the same height, so that the tires are completely in the same direction when the car is traveling straight. On the tire alignment device, the mechanic measures and adjusts the position and angle of each suspension, such as thrust, camber, etc., to adjust various parameters that affect the movement and position of the tire, and the technician also adjusts the steering wheel to the center.
Each car manufacturer has a set of standard tire alignment angles, measured in degrees. If you are driving a high-performance car or sports car, your mechanic may be able to improve the car’s handling and tire performance by adjusting the car’s suspension, but such adjustments may still result in uneven tire wear.
The type of tire alignment you need to make depends on the type of suspension your car has. For four-wheel drive vehicles or front-wheel drive vehicles with independent or adjustable rear wheel suspension, the front and rear axles must be properly aligned, and all four wheels must be perpendicular to the car’s center axle, parallel to each other and perpendicular to the ground.
For non-four-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicles, it may only be necessary to position and align the front wheels of the car. In this case, only the front axle assembly needs to be adjusted, or the thrust angle is aligned. The rear wheel is adjusted to align with the center axis of the car so as to be parallel to the front axle and perpendicular to the centerline of the car.
After the wheel alignment adjustment is completed, the technician can be required to print out a positioning result report. The report should record data before and after the suspension adjustment.
Jul-18-2018
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