Wheel Alignment Explained
Wheel Alignment Explained
Posted on March 22, 2024
What is a wheel alignment?
A wheel alignment, also known as an alignment or front-end alignment, is a critical piece of your vehicles regular maintenance. It is an adjustment of not sure your tires, but of your vehicle’s suspension. Your suspension is the system that connects your vehicle to your tires. An alignment ensures the angles of your tires are making proper contact with the road while keeping the components of your suspension straight and prevents them from rubbing together – which causes them to wear easily.
Remember, it is best to perform a wheel alignment once a year as hitting one pothole or curb can cause your tires to misalignment.
How do I know if I need an alignment?
There are a few very obvious signs your vehicle needs an alignment.
- Drifting/Pulling: When driving straight, your vehicle drifts or pulls to the left or right. This can be worse when you are braking.
- Shaking: Your steering wheel sakes when driving on a flat surface
- Uneven Tread: Tire tread is patchy, worn on one side of the wheel but not the other, etc.
- Steering wheel not straight: when driving straight, your steering is off center (tilted) to one side
Please note, if any of these are present that means your wheel alignment is severely out. Minor misalignments might not cause any obvious signs which is why it’s important to have your alignment inspected regularly.
Alignment Lingo
When a licensed technician looks at your wheel alignment, they are concerned with 3 things: Camber, Toe, and Caster. Here is what each of these mean.
Camber: This is the angle of your tires when facing the front bumper of the vehicle. Negative Camber is when your wheel is tilted inwards. Positive Camber is when your wheel is tilted outward. When your vehicle has a proper alignment, there would be no tilt, your wheels would be straight.
Toe: This refers to the direction of your wheels when looking from above. The “toe” of your tire is the part of that is faces the front bumper of your car. Toe in means the “toe” is pointing inwards. Toe out means the “toe” of your vehicle is pointing outwards. When your vehicle has a proper alignment the “toe” would be pointing straight.
Caster: This is the angle of your steering axis when looking at your tires from the side. Negative caster is when your steering axis is tilted away from the driver. Positive caster meaning the steering axis is pointed towards the driver. When you vehicle has a proper alignment the steering axis would be centered in your wheel.