Wheel alignment: Importance of wheel alignment


Wheel alignment is not a periodic maintenance service as per the service manual. But for the proper usage of a vehicle, it is very important and essential to do the wheel alignment at particular intervals.


Wheel alignment means?

It is an adjustment of some kind of angles. Mainly there are three types of angles related to this.

   Camber
   Caster
   Toe


Camber angle



It is the inward or outward angle of the tyre when viewed from the front of the vehicle.

The inward angle is called positive camber and the outward is called negative camber.


Caster angle




It is the angle created between the vertical line to the steering axis when viewed from the side of the vehicle.

The caster angles are of two types

   positive caster
   negative caster

While the positive caster is usually used in automobiles.

It is an important angle among them because it helps to keep the steering stable and balanced during cornering.


Toe




It is the angle created between the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and the tyres when viewed from the top.

The toe angles are of two types

   Toe-in (inside the axis)  
   Toe-out ( outside the axis)
The above-mentioned angles are relatively small in size,  so we can't identify the difference with our eyes.

So we can only check and do the alignment with the help of an alignment machine.

Some of the reasons for losing the alignments are:
 
   Damaged Suspension parts
   Broken or damaged Bearings
   Damaged Steering linkages 


How to identifies whether the alignment is correct or not? 

We can identify whether the alignment is correct or not by using the below-mentioned symptoms.

   The steering wheel is not centred when driving through straight roads.
   Uneven wear and tear of the tyre.
   Vehicle pulling to right or left even on smooth roads.
   Abnormal vibration in the steering wheel.    

To avoid this kind of issue, it is important to do the alignment properly.
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