Four wheel alignment

Driving over potholes, speed bumps or kerbs can knock your wheel alignment out, which can lead to uneven wear on your tyres.  Sometimes it feels like your car is ‘pulling’ to one side which then can lead to an increase in fuel consumption and premature wear on your tyres.

Correct wheel alignment ensures that the tyres are perpendicular to the ground and parallel to each other and that on a straight, level road your car will travel in a true straight line.

Wheel alignment or tracking is one of the key tyre maintenance factors to ensure optimum performance, even tyre wear and a maximised tyre life. In addition, accurate alignment provides safer vehicle control and road holding, plus a smoother and more comfortable ride.

TWG can provide you with wheel alignment services.  We have the latest computerised checking equipment which will adjust the alignment to the manufacturer’s original spec.  You can have a printout of the finished job that demonstrates your vehicle’s wheel position both before and after the alignment procedure.

Types of Alignment

Toe Alignment: if this is not correct you will feel your vehicle ‘pulling’ to one side.  Toe is a measurement of how much the wheels are turned in or out from the straight ahead position, and can apply to front, or the front and rear wheels.

Camber Alignment: if this is out the tyre tread wears more on one edge, which makes the car pull to one side.  Camber is the vertical tilt of the wheel (NB it may not be adjustable on all cars).

Caster Alignment: this has little effect on tyre wear, but it does affect steering stability.  If the caster is out of adjustment, it can cause problems in straight line tracking: if it is equal but too negative, the steering will be light and the vehicle will wander; if the caster is equal but too positive, the steering will be heavy and the steering wheel may kick when you hit a bump.  Caster Alignment is the angle of the steering pivot when viewed from the side of the vehicle

What is the difference between Tracking and Four Wheel Alignment?

Tracking is a term used in the past, when cars had very little or no adjustment. Any measurement and adjustment that was done tended to be on the front wheels, for the Toe angle only. Tracking on the fronts does not take in account the direction in which the rear wheels are pointing, so if they are adjusted and set straight but the rears are out of alignment, the car may pull and tyres could still wear.

In its original sense, Tracking uses gauges where the operator views through a ‘scope’ or looks at a light/laser beam on a scale. This system does not take account of any errors in the wheel rim (wheel rim run out) so the reading can only really be approximate.

Four Wheel Alignment measures a minimum of 12 angles and compares them to the alignment data specified by the vehicle manufacturer. Wheel rim run-out compensation is taken into account, which gives accurate and repeatable readings. With such accurate readings, Four Wheel Alignment allows toe adjustments of individual wheels which ensure the steering wheel is set straight. Further adjustments of camber, caster and other angles, where necessary, can ensure optimum performance and savings.

On modern cars, tracking alone is unlikely to deliver complete alignment or complete customer satisfaction.

The price for us to carry out a four wheel alignment is £99.00 including VAT, call today to get your vehicle booked in.