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There is more to proper wheel alignment than adjusting the angles of your car’s tyres, it also refers to the adjustment of a car’s suspension.
Driving on misaligned wheels is a safety hazard as it can cause your car to drift out of traffic lanes and cause a collision. It also leads to increased friction between your tyres and the road, resulting in the tyre treads rapidly thinning, causing poor road performance and even rapid loss of inflation pressure.
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) provide wheel alignment specifications when selling their vehicles. You can maximise your vehicle’s steering response and maintain its driving direction by checking your vehicle’s wheels regularly according to the manufacturer’s guidelines. If they have become misaligned you should re-align the suspension as well as the wheels by correcting the wheel alignment angles, namely:
Tyre Wear Caused by Misaligned Wheels
Wheel alignment problems can occur gradually as a result of poorly maintained roads and vehicle wear, or suddenly from impact.
The most common causes of slow wheel misalignment are:
More drastic causes of wheel misalignment include:
Wheel alignment problems can become apparent while driving or when your vehicle is stationary. Here are ways to identify poor wheel alignment:
Park your car with the wheels pointing forward and stand a few metres in front of it. Look at both sides of your car and inspect whether your wheels are standing straight up or are slanting inwards or outwards.
Poorly aligned tyres wear aggressively, which shortens their achievable kilometres and results in flat tyres, rapid loss of inflation pressure, and nasty accidents.
As wheel misalignment symptoms usually appear gradually, you may not notice the problem initially. However, by paying careful attention to symptoms you can easily save yourself time and money and keep yourself safe behind the wheel.
Visit a Supa Quick dealer around every 5,000km to check all your tyres, including the spare. Poor shock absorbers can also cause faster tyre deterioration from force impacting your wheels, so while you’re there have your struts and shocks checked at the same time.
Disclaimer: This information is for educational, or entertainment purposes only. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information.
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