Make Sure Your Car Stays In Alignment
Posted on: 1 December 2018
When it comes to your car, the suspension is an important system. It does all kinds of things for your car, including making your ride more comfortable. But, it will only do that if the suspension is in alignment. That means that you are going to need to make sure that you have auto alignment repair and maintenance on a regular basis.
Aligning Your Car
When you buy your car, it should be in perfect alignment. That means that your car is squared to itself. The wheels should be in a perfect line with each other, both front to back and side to side. When your car drives, you should only be able to see two tracks. Your axles should be in two parallel lines to themselves. Aligning your car isn't necessarily an easy thing to do. The way that it's done is that the mechanic will put your car on a lift and then attach it to an alignment machine. The machine will then take a series of measurements that will tell the mechanic what they need to do in order to make sure that the car is aligned, including doing things like readjusting the wheels and adding tiny weights to the wheels. There are various ways that you can tell that your car needs to be aligned.
Steering Pulls
One way you can tell that it's time to get your car aligned is that your steering pulls to one side or the other. The reason for that is because the wheels are not quite straight. That causes one side to be more dominant, thus pulling your car.
Uneven Tire Wear
Another sign that you may need to have your car aligned is that your tires are wearing down unevenly. That can mean that the tires on one side get more wear than the tires on the other side. If you think that one side has more wear than the other, but you aren't exactly sure, there are different ways that you can check. One is that you can use something like a penny and put the coin in the tread to see where on the coin the tread ends. You could also get a small, thin ruler and measure that way.
Keeping your car in alignment will help you have the best driving experience, make sure you're comfortable while driving, and get the best gas mileage. Contact an auto repair shop for more information.
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