If you’ve had your tires changed out recently, or even just gone in for a simple oil change, there’s a good chance that your chosen car care establishment has pushed you to get an alignment on your vehicle. If you’re anything like us, the prices of this service can often make you scoff at the prospect of spending more cash on your ride than you intended and most people simply put it off for another time. Another time, which typically never comes around. Beware though! Ignoring this valuable service can not only cut into your vehicle’s performance but into your wallet as well.
Now, we’re definitely not here to tell you what to do but well, we’re going to do it anyway because, at Xtreme Xperience, we happen to know a thing or two about correctly setting up vehicles for maximum performance.
We’re going to cover why an alignment is one of the absolute best things you can do for your car (regardless of what type of car your drive):
- What is an alignment?
- How is an alignment performed?
- When do you need an alignment?
- What are the benefits of regular alignments?
Ready to get yourself straightened out and talk all about alignments? Let’s get into it!
What is an alignment?
We can talk about the nuts and bolts of this fairly complicated process all we want but we really need to get down to the basics and build a firm understanding of what an alignment is first. Alignment is the process of bringing certain measurements on your wheels back to Orignal Equipment (OE) specifications. This process is done with a precisely calibrated piece of equipment known as a wheel aligner that can measure wheel position down to a fraction of an inch.
There are 3 different types of alignments:
- Front End – Good for trucks with a solid rear axle, only adjusts the front
- Thrust Alignment – For solid axle vehicles, only adjusts the rear in order to line up with the fronts
- 4 wheel alignment – for vehicles with independent or semi-independent suspensions (most vehicles besides trucks and large SUV’s)
There are three things a technician will be using the wheel aligner to measure for when performing an alignment:
Camber
You know those highly customized vehicles that look like the tires are tilted in a preposterous manner? That adjustment is known as camber and it’s basically a measurement of how much your tire tilts inwards or outwards. Increasing camber has a positive effect on handling (take a look at any supercar and you can see a few degrees of positive camber) but it does take a toll on tire wear. At Xtreme, we dial in a touch more camber to give you maximum grip on the track.
Caster
Caster is measured from the side of the wheel, directly up and down on a virtual axis. Most modern vehicles have varying degrees of positive toe angle since this has an overall positive effect on the driveability of the car. The exception to this rule would be a vehicle without the benefit of power steering since an increase in toe means extra steering effort is needed. The caster angle can start to slump as your vehicle ages and the suspension components start to wear.
Toe
Toe is the location of your wheels on a horizontal axis. If your tires are pointing towards each other, this is known as toe-in. If they’re pointing away from each other, this is known as toe-out. The main reason for this adjustment is due to how a vehicle gets the power to the wheels. Rear-wheel drive vehicles and front-wheel drive have different toe settings due to how their power delivery affects the overall geometry of the suspension at speed and under acceleration. Increasing the toe-out angle can reduce understeer and make a car feel more “alive” while increasing toe-in angle can increase understeer but increase stability at speed. This is a fine dance.
How is an alignment performed?
In order to properly align the wheels on a vehicle, a high-tech wheel aligner is needed and Xtreme Xperience just happens to have one of these bad boys in house!
These machines work by attaching targets to your vehicle’s wheels, while they are read by a series of cameras and/or lasers hooked to a computer rig. A technician moves from wheel to wheel, adjusting various parts of the vehicle’s suspension in order to bring the wheel into its factory alignment settings. This can be a tedious process but modern wheel aligners make the process quick, easy, and accurate.
Quality wheel aligners connect with a live database of OEM information in order to bring all wheels on a vehicle back to what they were when they rolled out of the factory. Racing teams or other enthusiasts often make adjustments to the factory settings in order to achieve better handling out of a car at the expense of tire wear or straight-line stability.
When do you need an alignment?
There are several scenarios where getting an alignment is necessary in order to avoid a loss in driveability or increased tire wear and suspension wear:
- After a new set of tires
- If you’ve been in an accident
- When you hit a large pothole or other road debris
- When replacing suspension or steering parts
- If you feel your vehicle pulling to one side when driving straight
- If your steering feels unstable or you feel a vibration in the wheel
- If your steering feels too loose or does not come back to center easily
- If your tires are wearing unevenly or squealing in parking lots
What are the benefits of regular alignments?
Since an alignment service can easily cost $150.00, it’s often a tough pill to swallow and you may not think you need it. The reality is that saving a few bucks now can cost you way more than a few bucks down the road. Here’s why:
- A proper alignment will minimize accelerated tire wear, which can save you some serious money on a set of rubber in the future. Bad alignments can smoke tires in 15k – 20k miles and a set of tires can easily run $500.00 or more.
- Suspension components take a beating when not properly aligned.
- Your vehicle will drive as close to the day you bought it as possible.
- Straightline stability and tracking will be maintained – no more wandering on the highway.
- Performance handling characteristics on sports cars or supercars are maintained with proper alignment.
Come Drive A Properly Set-Up Supercar With Us
We hope we made it clear that maintaining alignment on your personal vehicle can have some serious benefits.
At Xtreme Xperience, we’re all about putting you in the driver’s seat of some of the world’s finest automobiles, and that’s exactly why we’re so neurotic about keeping our fleet of vehicles in prime condition. This includes an in-house alignment machine that allows our technicians to set up every vehicle with the proper, track-focused, alignment that will maximize track performance. We’re not worried about tire wear (although YOU should be) so come push our cars to the limit and see what a properly dialed supercar can really do.
If you think you can handle it, we’re here to put you to the test. Come join us at an event near you!