Vehicle Wheel Alignment: Everything You Should Know 

Regular driving wears on a car, and not just through issues like car scratches, but also tires work that develop friction, and eventually, they’re worn to the point they need replacement. Normally, this happens when you’ve reached tens of thousands of miles, especially with regular rotation. But if you’re replacing your tires after just a few months, you may need a wheel alignment.

How To Know When Your Car Needs a Wheel Alignment?

As you drive your car, you’ll likely encounter potholes, bumps, and other imperfections. Your suspension and tires naturally help blunt the worst of the impact. But these impacts affect the suspension components from their ideal settings, Experts explain that once this happens, your wheels are out of alignment.

It’s like using a wrench to unscrew a bolt. Even if it’s stuck at first, the bolt will come loose if you keep tapping or pushing on the wrench. Replace the bolt with your suspension and the wrench with a pothole, and that’s what happens on the road. And sometimes, it doesn’t even take a pothole. Tire Rack reports that if you lower your vehicle improperly, you also risk getting the wheels out of alignment.

It’s recommended to rotate your tires to keep them wearing evenly regularly. But an out-of-alignment wheel causes uneven tire wear, another expert explains. Sometimes it’s in the form of ‘feathering,’ when the tread is smooth on one side but sharp on the other. Or the tread might be more worn on the outside edges than in the center.

But it’s not just visual tire wear differences that can signal if your wheels need an alignment. Once the tires wear enough, they start affecting the vehicle’s handling. The steering wheel may start shaking excessively because the wear has unbalanced the tires.

Or your vehicle may pull strongly to one side or another. If you’re trying to go straight but have to turn the steering wheel to do so noticeably, you need a wheel alignment. And it’s not just cars that need wheel alignments; motorcycles also need them. 

What Happens During a Wheel Alignment?

A wheel alignment is sometimes called a ‘tire alignment,’ but they both refer to the same thing. Basically, adjust your suspension back to its factory settings. These settings boil down to changing 3 things, toe, caster, and camber. Toe is how much your tires point in or out horizontally. Camber is like a toe but oriented on the vertical axis. And caster refers to the angle your steering’s upper and lower pivot points make with your tires’ contact patches. During a wheel alignment, technicians adjust the various suspension components until the toe, camber, and caster are back where they’re supposed to be.

Note that a wheel alignment is separate from a wheel or tire balancing. However, the two are sometimes performed together. An alignment is about adjusting the suspension. Balancing the wheels and tires is purely about the weight of the wheels and tires.

Can I do a Wheel Alignment Myself?

 Hagerty reports that it’s possible to perform a wheel alignment on your own using some string and, for extra help, toe-in plates. Using an angle finder and a straight edge, Camber can also be adjusted on your own, Mobil reports. Caster, though, involves adjusting chassis components and is best left to professional technicians.

Conclusion

A DIY wheel alignment can take several hours, if not longer. The string and angle finder method is best used to check, rather than adjust, alignment. It’s recommended you do so every 6000 miles or so, roughly when you change your oil. Taking your car or bike to a mechanic shop is usually best.