Used Cars: Wheel alignment

Wheel alignment plays a crucial role in relation to safety of a car, but is mostly overlooked. Well, overlooked until new tires are unevenly destroyed in 6 months, your car pulls to one side or can’t be kept in line on highway speeds. Then, it is not overlooked anymore.

What is a Wheel Alignment

Wheel alignment is an adjustment done to vehicle suspension keeping wheels within optimal specification in relation to each other and road surface. Wheels on both sides of your car should be in line with each other and contact ground evenly.

If wheels are out of line, steering wheel will pull to one side, tires will have different friction with the road and wear unevenly. Suspension in your car will not behave normally.

Wheel alignment is a safety issue.

Symptoms when wheels are out of alignment: excessive and uneven wear on tires, car pulling on one side at high speeds, suspension premature failure and lower fuel efficiency. Pretty much, vehicle won’t be stable on the road, especially at high speeds.

How Cars Come Out of Alignment

There are a lot of reasons but most common are: hitting a pothole or a curb, driving your car off-road, replacing components related to steering or suspension, accidents or collisions. Most common symptom of your car being out of alignment is steering wheel position is not straight or centered while driving.

Fuel Consumption

Fuel efficiency suffers when alignment is out of normal specifications. Resistance or friction between misaligned wheels and ground is higher resulting in worse fuel efficiency. Engine will need to work harder to overcome increased resistance, hence higher fuel consumption. Even if fuel consumption is 5% higher, that adds up on yearly fuel costs and greatly surpass alignment cost.

Suspension will also suffer if a car is driven out of alignment for longer periods of time. Misalignment will add uneven pressure to suspension components resulting in premature wear and expensive repairs down the road.

Wheel Alignment Adjustments

1- Camber

Negative and positive camber. Camber is angle of a wheel when viewed from front of the car. Inward angle is a negative camber and outward angle is a positive camber. Camber angles are adjusted during a wheel alignment.

2- Toe

Angle of front wheels when seen from above, wheels should be parallel. Toe in/Toe out will cause frontal part of wheels looking inwards or outwards, front wheels pointing at each other or looking away from each other.

3- Caster

Caster is wheel position in relation to suspension, usually suspension struts. Struts should be vertical (90 degrees) in relation to wheels. Positive caster is when wheel is in front of the strut and negative camber is when wheel is behind in relation to strut.

When to get a wheel alignment

Most common symptoms of your used car needing an alignment: If your steering wheel is off center. Your car is pulling to one side and is hard to keep it centered on the road. You notice uneven wear on your tires.

Wheel alignment is recommended after repairs are made on front suspension or steering components. When you buy new tires is advisable to check alignment to maximize tire longetivity.

• Uneven Tire Wear

• Car tendency to pull to one side

• Vibrations or shaking of steering wheel

• Steering wheel is not straight (Off center)

How Much Wheel Alignment Cost

Costs for wheel alignment vary from place to place, most garages in Ontario (and Toronto) charge about $100 for a normal adjustment. However, costs might be higher depending on work time and level of adjustments required.

While alignment might initially look like an extra unneeded expense, wheel alignment improves fuel efficiency, prolongs tire longevity and makes driving safer.

Check alignment periodically and especially after you install new tires, repair suspension or steering components in your car. If your car is out of alignment, tires will will eventually wear prematurely costing you more in long run.

Talking about wheels, How To Check Age of Tires on your used car.

(If you are also looking for a fast and easy solution to sell your car, more here on “How To Sell Your Car Fast In Ontario” )

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