Wheel alignment

A wheel alignment is a mechanical adjustment of your suspension system (the parts that connect your wheels to your car) to ensure that your wheels are in the correct position. It can also be called tracking or tyre alignment. Wheel alignments are important because wheels that are out of alignment can cause issues such as making your tyres wear out quickly or unevenly, and lead to a less pleasant experience of driving or riding in your car.

One of the signs that your car may be out of alignment is if it is constantly pulling to one side or another on the straight. Your steering wheel can also give you clues that you have an alignment issue, for example, if it appears off-centre when you are driving straight or if it vibrates. However, these problems could be occurring for various reasons so read on for other tell-tale signs of alignment issues.

You can spot alignment problems by visually inspecting your tyre tread when your vehicle is stationary. Certain sections that are more “worn-down” than others or a difference in tread depth from the inside to the outside edge of the tyre are signs of different types of alignment problems.

You may even be able to hear an alignment issue because misaligned wheels can cause tyres to screech in situations where they normally would not.

Wheel alignments are not a do-it-yourself project; the process is more involved than just making sure that your wheels are parallel and pointing straight ahead. Alignment must be carried out on approved equipment by trained personnel to return the vehicle to OEM specification. There are three main factors at play in this process.

Camber is the term for how far the wheel tilts outward away from the vehicle, or how far it leans inward toward it. Getting the camber angle right is important for guaranteeing that your car will corner safely. A camber angle that is off can cause a ring of wear towards the inside or outside edge of your tyre, depending on which way the excess slant goes.

Toe angle is what most people first associate with alignments, and it has to do with whether the wheels are pointing straight ahead or not. Your wheels should neither excessively “Toe-in” nor “Toe-out”, if they do, they need to be set back to the original OEM specification. Toe alignment problems are the ones that can most quickly chew through your tyre’s tread so it is important to get them corrected.

The caster angle is how far forward or backward (toward or away from the driver) the steering axis is tilted. The steering axis is the line between the upper and lower ball joints on the wheel, and the ball joints are the pivot points where the wheel attaches. Most vehicles have positive caster, meaning that the steering axis is tilted toward the driver, resulting in increased steering effort to allow for better straight-line tracking. Even though a full alignment check will highlight whether the castle angle is out of specification there are very few vehicles where the caster is adjustable. Correction of the vehicle thrust line and camber/toe angles may actually bring the caster angle back to specification; otherwise, there will be a further underlying issue.

The cost of aligning your tyres can vary based on several factors: the scope of the job, your location, the company or mechanic doing the work and even the make and model of your car and the type of tyres that you are running. However, compared to many other repair or maintenance jobs, alignment is relatively inexpensive. A rough guide to cost’s are around £35 for a Front Toe alignment, and over three times that for a full alignment (front toe, rear toe and camber).

The three Cs of why you need to align your tyres are caution, cash and comfort:

Caution: since bad alignment can lead to accelerated or uneven tyre wear, it can compromise the tyre’s grip on the road, especially in slippery conditions. In severe cases, it can even lead to a blowout, so alignment is necessary as a safety precaution.

Cash: accelerated wear also means that you’ll have to spend more to replace your tyres more frequently, so alignment is necessary from a financial standpoint as well. Dragging a misaligned vehicle will create scrubbing, causing resistance to the road surface and thereby decreasing vehicle fuel efficiency.

Comfort: finally, misaligned tyres can make your car’s movements jerky or cause vibration. An alignment may help to improve this if there are no other issues behind the problem.

There is no set formula for how often you need to align your car’s wheels – it all depends on your normal driving conditions and habits. Many mechanics recommend an alignment check after every time your car has a service, although if you often drive on rough roads or cover over average miles on your car, you may consider getting an alignment much more frequently. From a mechanical perspective, there is no such thing as too many alignments.

Regardless of when you did your last alignment, you’ll want to realign after replacing tyres, replacing parts of the steering or suspension system, or after driving incidents like particularly hard blows to the wheel or accidents.

An alignment is not a time-consuming procedure and should typically take an hour or less. A four-wheel alignment (as opposed to a front-wheel one) will take a little longer and if the mechanic finds broken or worn-out parts in the suspension system, replacing them will take longer as well.

Again, there is no magic number for how long your alignment will last. It comes down to how and where you drive your car. Vehicles that have been driven hard over speed bumps or on rough roads will have more frequent misalignments, while the alignments on cars driven more conservatively should be less frequent, barring any incidents.

If you do adjust your alignment when it falls out of the manufacturer’s specification, your tyres can begin to wear down considerably faster and unevenly, so its best practice to get it checked. Uneven wear can affect safety and make your ride less smooth, since crooked wheels can cause jerking and chattering. An incorrect alignment also means that you will have to replace your tyres sooner than expected. If you do the maths, spending the £35 or so on getting your wheels aligned is well worth it when you compare it to the cost of having to prematurely buy and install a new set of tyres.

The wear on your tyres caused by alignment issues depends on the severity of the problem. Over time, even a minor issue can take thousands of miles off a tyre’s life but a major misalignment, especially in the toe angle, can chew through your tyre tread depth in just a few hundred miles if you don’t get it fixed. You might be able to detect a problem severe enough to cause this kind of damage just by looking at the wheels on your parked car to see if they look parallel or not.

The type of vehicle that you drive determines the kind of alignment you need. During a two-wheel (or front-end) alignment, the mechanic only recalibrates the front wheels. This is usually recommended for trucks or heavy-duty SUVs with a solid rear axle without independent suspension. Cars with independent suspension or all-wheel drive require a four-wheel alignment. Most passenger vehicles fall into this category. Your mechanic should be able to help you decide which service is needed.

Yes. When your wheels are out of alignment, they are often pulling against each other or being partly dragged along the road surface. This can have several consequences for the car’s handling and feel, including a steering wheel that vibrates or the whole car shaking as it goes down the motorway.

The problems caused by imbalanced tyres and out-of-alignment wheels can be similar: poor fuel economy, rapid or uneven wear, vibrations in the steering wheel, or other handling problems. However, the underlying issues and their remedies are quite different.

Tyre balancing: whenever you fit new tyres, the wheels must go through a balance procedure, this is required to counter act uneven masses within the tyre and rim assembly so that the wheel will run smoothly when driving. A technician will use a balance machine to detect the imbalance then apply weights to the wheel correct.

A wheel alignment, on the other hand, corrects the various angles of contact that a tyre has with the road surface, which is a completely different procedure requiring specialist equipment.