Tyre Alignment and Balancing

[sappy3937]

Off late I am seeing steering alignment issue in my Chevy Sail. The steering is slightly tilted towards right direction while the car is cruising in straight line. If the keep the steering in straight aligned position car tends drag to left slowly.

Can anyone help me what could be the route cause, is it because of wrong wheel alignment or the steering column needs be to adjusted?

 

[torq118]

Off late I am seeing steering alignment issue in my Chevy Sail. The steering is slightly tilted towards right direction while the car is cruising in straight line. If the keep the steering in straight aligned position car tends drag to left slowly.

Can anyone help me what could be the route cause, is it because of wrong wheel alignment or the steering column needs be to adjusted?

Your steering system has been decentralized, probable cause is the t guy from whom you got the wheel alignment done. Get the wheel alignment done at a nice place and tell him to correct the steering sytem,

 

[sappy3937]

Your steering system has been decentralized, probable cause is the t guy from whom you got the wheel alignment done. Get the wheel alignment done at a nice place and tell him to correct the steering sytem,

Thanks for the help. Will get it checked soon as I am not feeling comfortble with it while driving.

 

[dusky]

My first post is here. My XUV shoes are Bridgestone Dueler. The treads are so designed that these allows pebble/ stones to become trapped between treads. Removing all trapped stones from tyres is boring, time taking. Small gaps are not very easy to act upon. What is the consequence if the chips are left as such?

 

[rahul_s]

But, so far all the WA shops I enquired does only Toe Adjustments. They all say that Caster & Camber are fixed and cannot be adjusted.

I was told that the caster and camber are fixed for many cars. e.g: Etios, but it can be adjusted for an innova. How effective is a wheel alignment if only Toe can be adjusted? Should such cars be considered for a wheel alignment at longer intervals like 10000 or 20000 kms?

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

My car had a sideall damage in front tyre so i have kept it in the back ,as my spare is 14inch trim i can't use it as tyre during roatation.
My wheel alignment guy ,told that tyre can be interchanged within the back ,and the other tyres can be rotated based in the thread condition?

Is this okay?
As i normally did 4 tyre rotation in my wagon r.

 

[Suryaputhra]

Do tyre rotation once in three months or 2500km, do not do alignment at every 5000km, do it in between 10000 to 15000 follow the same procedure for balancing too. Your car will never lean to any particular side and no abnormal tread wear.

-suryaputhra

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

Can you elaborate Mr.Suryaputhra
Because i have sidewall damage on my rear passenger side tyre .(I had posted previously the same,and my wheel technician said that it can be rotated only sidewise ,by shifting to driver side rear,and all other tyres will be rotated based on thread wear).
I would always recommend to do alignment at 5k sir.
First time i am hearing it as 15k.

 

[Suryaputhra]

Can you elaborate Mr.Suryaputhra
Because i have sidewall damage on my rear passenger side tyre .(I had posted previously the same,and my wheel technician said that it can be rotated only sidewise ,by shifting to driver side rear,and all other tyres will be rotated based on thread wear).
I would always recommend to do alignment at 5k sir.
First time i am hearing it as 15k.

In factories manufacturers use profile based alignment and balancing. If you maintain correct tyre pressure and rotation, balancing lasts for at least 20k km and alignment holds good for 10k km to 15k km.

Most of the cars we use today do not have option of adjusting camber and caster, Only Toe can be adjusted. Outside alignment shops do a big picture like alignment is a very complicated procedure. Actually they adjust just Toe.

Manufacturer usually specifies Toe in mm, the maximum allowed difference between Toe in to Toe out is +/- 1 mm to 2mm for most of the cars. This should be checked using Toe bar.

Problem with outside alignment shops they measure Toe in degrees. When they correct Toe in degrees you don't get proper accurate result. Because you can not convert degrees to mm directly, it should be converter to inches and then to mm, so you lose accuracy. So often you do alignment your car out of Toe.

There are three types of tread wear

1. Camber wear, this results in trad wear halfway through either from inside or from outside. This is very rare unless you met with serious accident.

2. Toe wear, this results in tread wear which happens at outside quarter of the tyre tread. This is due to improper Toe adjustment by incompetent alignment shops. Over the time your car leans to the side where you have more tread wear.

Caster will also causes side leaning but it is very rare unless you met with serious accident. Caster tyre wear is extremely rare.

Most of the race cars and high performance cars they use Toe bar to adjust Toe in mm.

This is all about alignment there is nothing mystic in alignment.

-suryaputhra

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

Nice comment sir ,i am impressed with your knowledge in Automobiles.

Sir,please comment on what my Wheel technician told,again repeating,rotation based on tread wear is not an issue na.

 

[Suryaputhra]

Nice comment sir ,i am impressed with your knowledge in Automobiles.

Sir,please comment on what my Wheel technician told,again repeating,rotation based on tread wear is not an issue na.

Can you post pictures of the tyre, what is the odo reading. How my time you have done the rotation.

-suryaputha

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

I haven't done rotation yet ,my ride is at my cousin's place so i will post picture later ,the sidewall puncture occured at spot after the tyre profile label finishes,almost in same level.
Vehicle has completed 11500,i have alignment check at 12000 and i thought of doing balancing and rotation at the same time.

 

[Figoian]

Manufacturer usually specifies Toe in mm, the maximum allowed difference between Toe in to Toe out is +/- 1 mm to 2mm for most of the cars. This should be checked using Toe bar.

Thanks sir. That's an impressive piece of info. How about the alignment in ASS? Do they measure it by degree or mm?

 

[Suryaputhra]

I haven't done rotation yet ,my ride is at my cousin's place so i will post picture later ,the sidewall puncture occured at spot after the tyre profile label finishes,almost in same level.
Vehicle has completed 11500,i have alignment check at 12000 and i thought of doing balancing and rotation at the same time.

Ok, do alignment and balancing. Post me troublesome tyre picture.

-suryaputhra

Thanks sir. That's an impressive piece of info. How about the alignment in ASS? Do they measure it by degree or mm?

Some of the big dealer's have Toe bar and digital handheld Camber and Caster guage.

-suryaputhra

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Toe in MM is accurate one and all the testing dept in Automobile gives this value.
However an equivalent toe in degree min is also given by the same manufacturer to alignment machine manufacturer and also in user manual.

Toe in MM was in practice earlier as there was no instrument to measure the toe in degree min and we are accustomed to that.


The values in mm can be converted to degree minutes provided the rim dia is given as input. Along with other compensation values , today's alignment machines are so accurate.

Normally a car with FWD is designed toe in as in higher speed they tends for 0. for front wheels.
Similarly a car with RWD is designed toe out as in higher speed they tends to 0. For front wheels.


Overall designing of toe angles is a complex subject of the manufacturer and nothing to do with alignment manufacturer.!