Discover how to get your car aligned correctly. Find out how often you should get an alignment.
Alignment is the process of adjusting the angles of the wheels so that they are all at the same angle, to improve how well your car handles while driving. Alignment also increases how long your tires last. You may want to get an alignment if your car drifts to one side while driving, feels squirrely when turning, pulls to one side while braking or has uneven tire wear. Getting an alignment periodically is recommended because our roads are not perfect and tire treads aren’t uniform throughout their life either. When your car is out of alignment, it can actually cause uneven tire wear and incorrect tire pressure.
Before you take your car to the shop for an alignment there are several things you should check yourself to see how severe the problem is. First check how much your steering wheel is turned when driving straight. If the car drifts left or right, you have a toe alignment issue. You can check for this by using a visual inspection or using a ruler. Turn your steering wheel all the way to one side and then place the ruler next to the tire. Then turn your wheels all the way in the opposite direction and make sure that there is no more room on either side of the ruler. If you find that there is more room one way or the other, then your car needs an alignment. Another sign of a front end alignment problem is uneven tire wear on either side of the car. Uneven tire wear can also be caused by bad shocks and/or struts, so make sure you check all of these components before taking it to the shop for repairs.
If you notice that your steering wheel is centered and yet your tires are wearing unevenly, this means that you have a rear end alignment issue. To fix this problem make sure both tires are adjusted equally; try jacking up each side and adjusting each tire one at a time until they appear level with the ground when looking at them from behind. You may need to drive the car to check if the straightness is sufficient enough which can be difficult with a rear end alignment issue. Sometimes, it is easier to put your car up on ramps and see if both tires look level from above.
You may also want to get an alignment done periodically because roads and tire treads change over time. As roads age they wear out and develop potholes which make them uneven, this in turn causes misalignment issues when driving at high speeds or when braking. Also as your car ages, the suspension components such as shocks and struts wear down and become loose making it harder for your car to stay in alignment; along with that worn shocks and struts damage tires faster by bouncing them around while driving instead of dampening their movement.
There are four different types of car alignments, depending on what part of your car is out of alignment. There is toe alignment which involves adjusting the angles in which your tires point relative to each other. Caster alignment means that one side of the front end or back end is higher than the other, making it harder for you to see when driving straight down the road. Camber alignment occurs when your wheels lean in towards each other at the top instead of being perpendicular with each other; this causes uneven tire wear because it puts more pressure on the outside edges of the tires and not enough weight on their inner edges. Lastly there is wheelbase (or kingpin) alignment where one wheel has a higher angle of incline than the other; this is tricky to check yourself because you need special equipment.
Have your car checked again after doing your own repairs. Make sure that all of the parts are tightened down and secure, or replace worn out suspension components with new ones if needed. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to get an alignment issue under control so before taking it to a shop for repairs try some DIY methods first! If these simple measures don’t work then take it in for service or call a tow truck to get it where it needs to go.
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