When you are out on a sunny day, enjoying a leisurely drive,
you might notice that your car is jittering and juddering. You may feel like
you are trying to drive in a straight line, but your car keeps pulling to one
side or the other. When your car drifts like that, you may feel like you have
to fight with your car to keep it straight. Various things could cause this problem,
but the most likely is the alignment.
Alignment
When your car is in its proper alignment, the wheels are all
pointing the same way, and the front and rear tires are directly in line with
each other. Because of this, most people think that it's your car's tires that
get aligned. However, that's not true. Your car's alignment is all about the
suspension system. Because the tires are tied into the suspension system, when
it is out of alignment, your tires are out of alignment as well.
Suspension
Your car's suspension is made out of a lot of pieces and
parts. That includes the springs and shock absorbers. The suspension does two
jobs for your car; it helps to give you a smooth ride and also controls the way
that your car handles while it's on the road. The two jobs are contradictory,
so the mechanic is going to have to balance the alignment just right so that
you are getting the best of both worlds.
Alignment Process
Your car’s alignment is complicated, so achieving alignment
is a multi-step process. You can’t just pull into a mechanic’s shop and expect them
to finish it in a few minutes. The service tech has to do a lot of things in
order to make sure that the car is properly aligned. They have to look at all
of the angles and parts of the suspension to make sure everything is perfectly
aligned.
Measurement
The first part of the process is to get a measurement on the
car and its existing alignment. The tech will put your car up on a lift. While
it is on the lift, the tech will hook it up to a machine, generally by clamping
the machine's readers onto the tires. While the alignment machine is on the
car, getting its measurements, the tech will inspect your suspension system, to
make sure nothing is worn or broken.
Angle Adjustment
After the tech has finished measuring the car's current
alignment, they will be able to start making the adjustments to angles of the
suspension system. Each maker has their own specifications, and within those
specifications, each model may have its own as well. Your Toyota Prius may have
different alignment specs than your neighbor's Toyota Tiburon, even though they
are both made by Toyota.
Angles
Each suspension system actually has four different angles
that need to be adjusted. Those angles are the camber, toe, thrust, and caster.
Each of those angles influences the others, which is why the proper alignment
specs generally have a small range that the degree of the angle should fall
into. Each car is going to have its own characteristics, which means each car
needs its own individual measurements.
You want your leisurely drive in the country to be an
enjoyable one. You don't want to fight with your car to go straight. If you are
worried about your car's alignment, bring it into us at Euroclassics LTD. We'll
take a look at your car, check out your alignment, and make sure that
everything is as straight as it can possibly be, so you can enjoy being out on
the road.
