Lining Up Your Wheels

Our editor says if your wheels aren't lined up properly your car will go boom.

Case in point – see ripped tyre here.

And by lining up your wheels, we aren’t referring to those who live in Bukit Timah and obsessively, compulsively ensure that their collection of cars are perfectly spaced and in line with one another.

No, we’re talking about lining up the four wheels of your car according to the way its maker intended.

Wheel alignment is a routine part of your car’s maintenance programme, and you should definitely not scrimp on it.

Every car is setup with a pre-determined wheel setting to give it its handling characteristics as intended by the manufacturer. However, as you drive along, things like potholes, curbs and even wear and tear to suspension components may cause the alignment setting to be affected.

A misaligned set of wheels can result in premature wearing of the tyres, uneven tyre wear and most importantly compromised handling that can range from the car pulling to one side to unintended over/understeer.

So definitely get your wheels aligned every time you change your tyres at least, or after any major bumps like potholes or hitting a curb.

The process of wheel alignment basically makes use of a machine that shoots lasers to a sensor mounted on each wheel. The lasers track the position of the wheel and compare them against preset manufacturer specifications which will tell the technician each wheel’s position and therefore which variable to adjust.

There are three variables to be adjusted in wheel alignment – camber, castor and toe.

Camber refers to the tilt angle of the wheels when the reference point is facing forward; i.e. whether the tyres are slanted towards or away from the vehicle.

Castor refers to the difference in angle between the steering axis and the vertical axis of the wheel, which in simple terms is basically how slant the wheel is mounted in relation to the true vertical axis when viewed from the side.

Finally, toe refers to whether the wheels are pointed forward, inward or outward when viewed from the top down.

Essentially therefore, the technician will adjust one or more of these angles back to manufacturer specs, and this will give the car its intended handling characteristics and ensure the tyres wear evenly as you go along.

#Tyres #Alignment #Wheels #Autos #Cars

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