What is wheel alignment?
Car maintenance should start with an understanding of why each service is needed and how it helps your vehicle stay in top shape. Wheel alignment ensures that your tires are perfectly vertical in relation to the body of your vehicle, maximizing fuel efficiency and improving handling.
It also helps prevent uneven tire wear, extending the life of your tires and mitigating the risk of a blowout. Uneven tire wear can also stress other components of your vehicle. If your car, like many newer vehicles, has performance tires, wheel alignment is an even smarter investment.
What components of the car are involved?
Wheel alignment involves the camber, caster, and toe of your wheels—the primary angles that define the relationship between the wheels and body of your vehicle.
Camber is the vertical alignment of your wheel. Positive camber occurs when the top of the wheel tilts away from your vehicle. Negative camber occurs when the top of wheel points inward, toward your vehicle.
Caster refers to a forward or rearward tilt of your vehicle’s steering knuckle. Adjusting the caster removes the tilt and restores perfect verticality. This adjustment, in turn, assists your car’s straight-line stability—a difference you can really feel when driving your vehicle.
Toe is used only for front-end alignments. It refers to the inward or outward angle of the front wheels on your Toyota or other vehicle.
How often do I need to get my tires aligned?
You should expect to have your tires realigned periodically throughout the life of your vehicle. For most cars, this means ensuring alignment when you get a new or used vehicle, when you install new tires, or once a year throughout your vehicle’s life. After all, it’s not hard to understand how a bumpy road or post-thaw pothole can strain your tire alignment.
These general guidelines should be supplemented by your personal driving habits and experience. Are you a true road warrior? You may need to get an alignment more often. Have you replaced aspects of your suspension? This might require a regular visit for tire alignment. Can you feel your car pull or notice that steering is increasingly difficult? It’s definitely time to come in.
And the sooner you do, the less likely you are to cause wear and tear on your tires or the rest of your vehicle.
Is tire alignment expensive?
Preventive maintenance is always a better investment compared to an urgent fix. This is absolutely true with tire alignment.
With Cranbrook Toyota, you’ll get more than a great deal on your wheel alignment. You’ll also get the peace of mind that comes with certified technicians working on your vehicle. These experienced experts will get you back on the road quicker with the most accurate wheel alignments available, thanks in part to the state-of-the-art technology we use to align wheels.
You may also be able to take advantage of one of our seasonal specials to save even more. Wondering what maintenance specials we’re running right now? Just give us a call. Know you’re ready or even overdue for a wheel alignment?