All too often, folks will set aside a day or two on the weekend and knock out some much needed preventive maintenance. We all know when its time for an oil change or when those spark plugs are due to be swapped, but how much attention should be paid to ensuring your vehicle's alignment is where it needs to be? If you're holding your steering wheel straight and veering toward oncoming traffic, that could be an obvious sign, but at other times, the clues may not be so straight forward. When an alignment is done on your vehicle, there are three primary areas of concern. Camber, which is the leaning of the wheel and tire inboard (-) or outboard (+) when viewing vehicle head on. Negative camber may cause excessive wear on the inner edge of the tire where excessive positive camber will have the opposite result due to the majority of the load being placed over the outer edge. Caster is measured angle of your vehicles steering axis when viewed from the side. Positive caster indicates the steering pivot axis is leaning back toward the driver and negative caster is forward angle of the steering axis. The final variable,Toe, refers to angle of the tires and how parallel they are to one to another. This will be measured in degrees (+/-) out of parallel and may also be characterized by excessive tire wear when out of spec.

There is much more to it than what I have listed here, but i wanted to briefly illustrate what this entails. Worn suspension components, the quality of the roads, tire inflation, manufacturer recommendation, and vehicle use are all key factors to consider when thinking about an alignment. Here, at JCG Restoration and Customs, we have the necessary tools and experience to get you moving, whether your car is daily driven or raced.

-R
www.jcgrestorationandcustoms.com
805-794-6580

 

Glad that you posted this. I will be getting new wheels and tires later this month and will be sure to contact you for my alignment!

 

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