Spring is in the air-- carrying on its breeze the promise of new beginnings, blooming flowers, and hot summer days. Of course, it isn’t all leafy shrubs and fuzzy ducklings, especially if you nail a killer pothole with your car and blow its alignment to kingdom come.
Frost heaves, cracked wheel rims and high-speed pothole dodging are all real concerns for Canadian motorists this time of year, and countless thousands are forced to navigate road-craters at a crawling pace, slowing up traffic.
Potholes chew up and knock around your vehicle’s suspension-- resulting in damage and alignment issues. Hit one good enough, and you could destroy a tire and wheel, too.
Your vehicle leaves the factory with its steering and suspension components precisely ‘aligned’ to keep the wheels oriented in a very specific manner to the road-- and to one another. This setup lays the foundation for vehicle handling and response in a variety of situations like cruising, steering, accelerating and braking. Nail a gorge in the roads surface, and that alignment could be thrown off considerably.
Does your car’s steering argue with you? Have you noticed abnormal or accelerated tire wear? Swear your vehicle has been acting funny since you whacked that teeth-rattling, coffee-spilling chasm?
If you’ve answered yes to any of the above, chances are your alignment is out to lunch and will need some attention. Don’t worry, though-- an alignment is a relatively inexpensive, quick and painless procedure.
You may be able to check your vehicle for alignment issues in a matter of minutes on your own with no tools. If your ride is properly aligned, its tires should be worn evenly across. Any sign of uneven wear across the tread of a tire usually indicates an alignment problem that needs to be corrected.
Turn the steering wheel so that you can get a good look at the tread of the front tires. Is there more wear visible on the inside or outside of the tread? You may be able to tell straight away if the wear is severe-- though a tread-depth gauge can help if you’re not sure.
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| Photo: Jupiter Images |
Frost heaves, cracked wheel rims and high-speed pothole dodging are all real concerns for Canadian motorists this time of year, and countless thousands are forced to navigate road-craters at a crawling pace, slowing up traffic.
Potholes chew up and knock around your vehicle’s suspension-- resulting in damage and alignment issues. Hit one good enough, and you could destroy a tire and wheel, too.
Your vehicle leaves the factory with its steering and suspension components precisely ‘aligned’ to keep the wheels oriented in a very specific manner to the road-- and to one another. This setup lays the foundation for vehicle handling and response in a variety of situations like cruising, steering, accelerating and braking. Nail a gorge in the roads surface, and that alignment could be thrown off considerably.
Does your car’s steering argue with you? Have you noticed abnormal or accelerated tire wear? Swear your vehicle has been acting funny since you whacked that teeth-rattling, coffee-spilling chasm?
If you’ve answered yes to any of the above, chances are your alignment is out to lunch and will need some attention. Don’t worry, though-- an alignment is a relatively inexpensive, quick and painless procedure.
You may be able to check your vehicle for alignment issues in a matter of minutes on your own with no tools. If your ride is properly aligned, its tires should be worn evenly across. Any sign of uneven wear across the tread of a tire usually indicates an alignment problem that needs to be corrected.
Turn the steering wheel so that you can get a good look at the tread of the front tires. Is there more wear visible on the inside or outside of the tread? You may be able to tell straight away if the wear is severe-- though a tread-depth gauge can help if you’re not sure.
 |
| Photo: Jupiter Images |