Wheel alignment is one of those necessary auto maintenance details that can have a profound impact on two of the most elemental issues associated with any vehicle: handling and safety. When your wheels are out of sync, your tires will wear unevenly, your ability to control the drive will feel compromised, and you’ll probably get lower miles per gallon. Underscoring the importance of correct wheel alignment, we look at the link between the two in this post, touching on when it should be checked.

Understanding Wheel Alignment

 Wheel alignment involves adjusting the angles of the wheels to the manufacturer’s specifications. The three angles in wheel alignment include:

 Camber: The angular displacement of the wheel as viewed from in front of the vehicle. Wheels can have positive or negative camber, depending on whether the wheel tilts out to the side or in to the side at its top.

 Toe: Inclination of the wheels relative to the long axis or centre line of the vehicle as seen from above. ‘Toe-in’ means that the front of the wheels is arrowed together; ‘toe-out’ means that the front of the wheels is arrowed further apart.

 Caster: the angle of the steering axis when viewed from the side of the vehicle. Caster will affect a vehicle’s stability and steering effort.

 Getting the right angles in place correctly should mean your car drives straight and correctly handles. 

How Wheel Alignment Affects Handling

Steering Responsiveness

 Perhaps that’s the easiest to notice is the effect on handling: if something is out of alignment, you’re going to notice a drop in your vehicle’s responsiveness to steering input. Badly out-of-whack wheels are the most likely to cause a car to ‘pull’ to the side without steering input. If your car pulls anyway, it’s that much harder to keep the car in the middle of the lane, and it will also make driving more tiring.

 Sym of whether or not you’re turning) then your alignment probably needs adjusting.

 Impact steering, such as swerving around a child who dashed out unexpectedly. 

Handling and Stability

 Wheels that are aligned correctly so that all the tyres touch the road in exactly the same way as the manufacturer intended enable you to make the most of grip and stability. Off-dered alignment (where one or several tyres touch slightly differently to the others) makes the tyres wear down unevenly, which can amount to unsafe lack of grip in situations such as wet or icy conditions. Uneven force on the wheels can cause the car to vibrate and become unstable, especially when travelling fast.

 Sign/symptom: If your car is wobbling at high speeds or you feel a vibration when going over bumps in the road, your wheels might be misaligned.

 Impact: Lack of appropriate grip and control could compromise the ability to drive safely, particularly in adverse weather conditions or on difficult road surfaces. 

Tire Wear

 Poor alignment caused by out-of-kilter wheels will cause your tyres to wear more rapidly, rather than evenly. Over time, this can devastate your tyres and contribute to poor handling. For instance, if your tyres are wearing more on their inside and outside treads instead of evenly on the bottom tread have less gripping surface, compromising handling and increasing stopping distances.

 Symptom: Uneven tyre wear patterns, eg excessive wear on one side of a tyre.

 So a very high mass amounts to greater forces at the periphery, which means that the wobble can’t start. Low rolling resistance, which is a very desirable trait for tyres from an automotive point of view, decreases the friction between the tyre and the steel wheel – to an extent where the tyre can lift off (delamination) or the tyre tread can separate (warping) from the carcass during tyre rotation. Delaminated tyres are at high risk of blowouts upon interaction with potholes and other hazards of the road. This is a high safety risk, especially at high speeds.

Fuel Efficiency

 Rolling resistance is, and this means that your engine needs to use more energy to move your vehicle; the effect is that your fuel consumption increases. The effects on fuel efficiency might be very slight, but over a period of time those extra fuel costs can really mount up.

 Symptom: if you have other symptoms, such as pulling or uneven tyre wear. 

 Ins financial cost to you; now your vehicle is burning more fuel and, therefore, operating less efficiently, which can lead to more unwanted emissions and an increased environmental footprint. 

How Wheel Alignment Affects Safety

Braking Performance

 Proper wheel alignmentres press on to the road, which affects braking performance. With misaligned wheels, your car can ‘pull’ to one side when you brake because the vehicle doesn’t stop in a straight line. When you press the brake pedal hard, like in emergency braking situations, that pull to one side can be the difference between stopping safely and finding your car upside down in a ditch.

Symptom: The vehicle pulls to one side when applying the brakes.

 Consequence: Decreased braking performance increases stopping distances. Likelihood of losing control during emergency stops is increased, increasing collision risk.

Tire Blowouts

 As in uneven or rapid tire wear. This canre which, if you are travelling at speed, can be fatal. You could lose control of your vehicle and endanger yourself and others on the road.

Symptom: Uneven or excessive tire wear, particularly along the edges of the tire tread.

 It could be the difference between another tire blowout or avoiding an accident that could have been fatal. Having your alignment checked is an easy, low-cost way to ensure that you don’t run into problems on the road. 

Driver Fatigue

 When one drives a it tends to pull towards either side, meaning the driver has to work to keep the car in the centre of the lanes. When I have driven machinery upon land, this constant correction for alignment and to keep at my chosen course can leave me exhausted. Similarly, with driving, if I journey for a long duration, the added exertion might make driving seem like a long, arduous chore and result in a greater likelihood of an error or lapse in attention. Both of those issues pose direct safety concerns.

 Feel fatigued short distances, and you have to readjust the wheel – maybe you’re too close or too far from it.

 Up here, tired drivers make more mistakes than the well-rested ones, so the policy is to keep them driving for as long as possible.Even the most ancient wisdom, it seems, casts its eye towards the future.

When Should Wheel Alignment Be Checked?

After Hitting a Curb or Pothole

 Even small amounts of damage, such as hitting a curb or driving over something in the road, can cause your wheels to be out of alignment. If you get into a strong jolt going down the road, get your alignment checked, even if there are no outward symptoms.

When You Notice Uneven Tire Wear

 Bulge, or one shoulder of the tyre is wearing much faster than the rest. These are all signs of your front wheels being misaligned.

If the Vehicle Pulls to One Side

 If you drive on a straight and level road and your car pulls to one side, your wheels are probably out of alignment. It’s inconvenient and dangerous for your car to pull to one side, especially at speed.

After Suspension or Steering Repairs

 Any time you have or steering system, you should have the wheel alignment checked. Since these systems are connected to wheel alignment, even a minor change to them can affect it. 

Regular Maintenance Checks

 Even if your car appears to track straight ahead smoothly, it is still a good idea to have your alignment checked every 6,000 or 10,000 miles if you are driving frequently, or every year if you only drive occasionally. Keeping your alignment checked regularly ensures that these subtle problems do not develop into major ones, and keeps your vehicle both safe and a joy to drive. 

Conclusion: The Importance of Proper Wheel Alignment

 Get your wheels aligned, and your car will handle better, you’ll be safer, and your tyres will last longer. If you can learn how misaligned wheels cause your car to behave in undesirable ways, and how regularly checking your wheels helps to avoid common problems, then you’ll also know when your car is ready for a safety rubber check-up. Learn how alignment helps you drive safer, enjoy your car more, and retain its value. Remember, every week we come across a tyre on its side because of a bent wheel from something as simple as hitting a curb too sharply. Additional and independent supporting information is available.