The Benefits of Wheel Alignment – February 8th, 2011

Every part your car which helps it to travel in a straight line forms part of its alignment.  A bump into the kerb, driving over a speed bump too fast, a crash or even a large pothole can affect the alignment of your car, so a thorough check and adjustments are important.  If these important adjustments are not carried out your vehicle may pull to the side and cause excessive wear to its tyres.

Wheel alignment, also known as tracking or geometry, measures whether your tyres are parallel to one another and perpendicular to the ground, ensuring that you car travels with equal load bearing on all areas of the tyre, and in a true straight line.

There are 4 key benefits to wheel alignment:

A) When wheels aren’t properly aligned, and point inwards towards each other this is called the ‘toe-in’ and can result in a narrow strip on the tyre’s inner side wearing down very quickly – running your hand across the tyre and noticing if the wear is different each way should show this.  Regular wheel alignment checks and adjustments will mean that tyres will wear evenly, for the longest life possible.

B) When wheels are properly aligned and inflated meaning that the weight of their load is carried evenly across all four wheels, their rolling resistance is decreased.  This can help with fuel economy, and a saving on fuel these days is well worth the price of an alignment check.

C) With correctly aligned wheels, the handling of the vehicle improves – the driver will have to fight the steering less to get the vehicle to travel in a straight line.  This reduces driver fatigue and is much safer when towing.

D) Generally, front wheels ‘steer’ and rear wheels ‘direct’ a vehicle in motion.  By aligning both sets of wheels to a common middle point, handling problems are solved.

Tyre Bay Direct wheel alignment checking products, British made equipment from Precision Point for the most accurate readings ensuring great handling and control on all vehicles.

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