Understanding the Need of Wheel Alignments

Don’t you hate when you’re driving down a straight road and your car pulls to the right or left? Understand why!

Transcript: 

Hi, I’m Nancy at Kneble’s Auto Service Center. Now I know a lot of you can relate to this story. My son comes home the other day and he says, Mom, I had a hold my steering wheel extra tight or my car would drift to the right. I said to him, Son, your vehicle’s misaligned. Also having your steering wheel crooked instead of centered is a sign of a misaligned vehicle. Now if you hit those potholes or that curb, shh, I won’t give away your secret. Or just over your time as your vehicle ages, the rubber components can crack, the ball joint and socket can loosen, and these all can cause a misaligned vehicle.

Now when your car comes off the assembly line, the manufacturer has set certain specifications for your tires to be set at. Now a misaligned car I will give you uneven tire wear. It will give pulling left to right or it will give the steering wheel being crooked. So having your vehicle aligned is extremely important. There are three terms when talking about alignment. The first one being camber. Let me explain what that is.

Oh, I am glad I am strong today. Now if you are looking at your car and your tires straight on, so you’re in the front of the car looking at your tire, and the tire you notice is slightly tilted. That is negative camber. You notice more pressure on the inner part of the tire. That’s where you’re going to get the wear. If your tire is tilted outwards, that’s positive camber. You’re going to have wear on the outer part of your tire and these are all signs of a misaligned car. Could be your ball joints being worn. The next term, I’m going to say his toe. Now if you’re on top of your vehicle looking down at your tire and your tire is in, toe-in. If your tire is toe out, toe-out. These are also signs of your vehicle needing an alignment.

The final term we use is a caster. Caster is looking side view of your vehicle. So if you on the side of your car and you’re looking at your tire, and you notice if we had an imaginary steering center axis here and we noticed the tire to be slightly forward towards the driver, that is called positive caster. And if we notice the tire, slightly towards the back of the vehicle, that’s a negative caster.

These are all things that can be corrected with an alignment. An alignment once again will give you even tire wear. It will give you better stability and steering for your car, so you have good control. So remember, have your alignment checked.

Thank you for watching this video. If you like it, press the like button. Please share the information. Remember, we want everybody to know about their car. Press the share button. Also, if you have something you want to know, or you have a comment? Put it in the comments section below. Once again, thank you for watching our video.