Wheel alignments are essential for the right control of your vehicle. Improper wheel or tyre alignments can lead to uneven wearing of the tyres. When your car’s wheel isn’t aligned it can further cause poor control or complete loss of control of your vehicle.
Thus, it is important that your car’s wheels are properly aligned by a professional. If the wheels of your car are out of alignment, the tyres can be pointing in a completely wrong direction or angle. This affects the steering and the suspension of the vehicle and can greatly affect the safety of the passengers.
Wheel alignment in Brampton can significantly increase the life of your tyres. An alignment is needed overtime because driving causes car’s steering and suspension systems to push further causing the ball & socket joints and mechanical links to wear out. This causes the alignment to deflect from the factory setting and if not improved can lead to poor cornering and handling, making the tyres wear out.
What is a Wheel Alignment?
To function properly, vehicle relies on precision and if tyres become misaligned due to road conditions or rash driving, the wheels loses proper displacement as well as the alignment.
The process of alignment varies according to the type of vehicle you may have. Your car wheel suspension has a completely different alignment process and will not be the same as that of a food truck (as this is used for heavy loads only). Thus, it is important that you get your wheel alignment done only by professional technicians with proper alignment equipment. The technicians must be expert and certified by the automaker. Before getting the wheels alignment service in Brampton, make sure that the repair centre has a piece of equipment specifically for the vehicle.
Unaligned wheel can cause:
• Toe- When the edges of the tyre points towards each other, then the wheels are said to be toed-in. However, if the edges are pointed in opposite directions or away from each other, then the tyres are said to be toe-out. The value of the toe is expressed in degrees and this will affect the vehicle’s: tyre wear, stability, and corner entry.
The wheels should always be pointing ahead so that the car runs a straight line. This also slows down the tyre wear and power loss. If the tyres are toed-in it causes accelerated wear at the outboard edges and tyres toed-out causes accelerated wear at the inboard edges. A zero toe isn’t recommended either as this can greatly impact the directional stability. In the wheel alignment procedure, the amount of toe-in or toe-out depends on the suspension and the handling of your car. For example- A streetcar will have a greater toe-in than that of a race car because the former requires more static.
• Caster- This happens when the steering pivot is tilted from vertical. Your car can have either a positive caster (Happens when the axis is tilted backward) or a negative caster (when the axis is tilted backward). When the car has a positive caster, the vehicle tend pulls toward the side causing the steering to be heavy. With the negative caster, your car will wander off freely and you’ll have a hard time keeping it straight.
To visualize caster, think of a shopping cart wheel. The wheels of the cart are a pivot in an angle when it moves behind it has a positive caster and when you push the cart forward, the caster is set to a negative. Unbalanced caster indicates something is worn out and needs to be replaced.
• Camber- This is an angle which is vertical to the wheel and can be viewed from the front or the rear of the car. The car has a negative camber when the wheel leans towards the chassis and has a positive camber when it leans away from the car. Camber depends on the driving style and the condition of your vehicle.
Although wheel alignment seems expensive it prevents serious accidents and increases the life of your car. Getting wheel aligned by Harrad Auto Service will ensure your car remains safe.