Proper wheel alignment ensures that your tire tread touches the road perfectly. Wheels that are misaligned will wear down the tire tread unevenly and reduce the lifespan you get out of your tires. Examples of misaligned wheels include tires that are leaning inward or outward from the front, which makes them pigeon-toed or duck-footed, respectively or tires that are leaning inward or outward from above. Auto Service Kingston can realign your wheels if you knock them out of alignment. Here are the primary things that affect your wheel alignment.
Impacts
Wheel impact can include an automobile accident, hitting a bump or speed bump, hitting a curb as you go around it, or flying through a pothole. It can also include slamming into a cement marker at the front of a parking space. These impacts cause your wheels to suddenly move in a different direction, and this motion can knock the wheels out of alignment, especially if you are going too fast when you make contact with the road hazard. Speeding up too quickly and slamming on the brakes constantly is also a form of impact that can cause wheel alignment problems because it causes suspension damage.
Suspension Damage
You can also damage your suspension by doing any of the things we listed above. Another way to damage your suspension is to ignore the importance of suspension maintenance. If your suspension has not been serviced and you have bad shocks, struts, or another bad suspension part, this will affect your wheel alignment directly because wheel alignment is part of the suspension. Your suspension is designed to have your wheels straight unless you turn the steering wheel. Any suspension damage can knock the wheels off-centre or cause them to become pigeon-toed or duck-footed as discussed above.
Modifications
We get it. Modifying your vehicle’s suspension is really cool. You may want to lift it or lower it, but this can actually affect your wheel alignment, especially if you don’t have a professional modify the vehicle. To be honest, even though upgrading an automobile and tricking it out is a lot of fun, your suspension is not designed to work with excessive lowering or raising of the body. When you do this, you throw off the original suspension specifications, and this can make it difficult to keep your wheels aligned properly. Don’t trick out your vehicle beyond the suspension specifications to avoid this problem.
Auto Service Kingston in Kingston, ON, would be happy to check your wheel alignment and realign the wheels if they need it. Give us a call today to schedule an appointment.