Do you need a wheel alignment check?
Have you ever been driving on the highway and your vehicle starts swerving off in one direction?
You turn in the opposite direction to correct it, but it happens multiple times.
This is a good sign that you may need a wheel alignment
A wheel alignment is dependent on three things:
- Toe: The front and rear wheels are never adjusted to track perfectly parallel paths. The result is you have to constantly adjust the steering wheel to keep a straight line.
- Camber: Represents the vertical angle of wheels, in most vehicles the top of each tire is slanted inward. It provides a more solid feeling to the steering.
- Caster: Relates to the position of each wheel within the wheel well, as in if its “crouched” forward or rearward.
How to find out if the vehicle isn’t properly aligned:
- The first sign of a poor wheel alignment is the pull in either the right or left direction. But keep in mind, that all roads are crowned in the center to provide water drainage, meaning the center line is slightly higher than the outer paved edge. An easy way to test if your vehicle really does have a steering pull (rather than a drift) is to drive on a smooth straight section of an empty parking lot. If the vehicle still pulls to one side, you should schedule an appointment to have it checked out
- The second symptom is uneven tire wear, it can easily be confirmed through a DIY inspection. Crank the steering wheel so that you can easily view the tread faces of the front wheels. If they are worn more on one side than the other, chances are good you have an alignment problem.
These two are the most common symptoms of a poor wheel alignment.
When these arise then the most logical step would be to go for a wheel alignment adjustment. You can easily set up an appointment with Paragon Motors to perform a wheel alignment inspection
