It may seem fairly obvious that having your wheels facing the right way is pretty important for any vehicle, however, the small movements in a car’s wheel alignment can be quite subtle and invisible to the naked eye. These movements can occur from something as simple as clipping a curb while parking or from driving over a pothole in the road.
If the alignment of your vehicle’s wheels has been affected, you may notice the car dragging slightly to one side, or the effect could be so small that you just feel that something isn’t quite right. It is always worth ensuring that your wheels are configured exactly as the manufacturer intended.
Aside from the dangers of your car pulling in one direction, even smaller alignment issues will wear out your tyres and put pressure on the suspension system. It is far cheaper to address a minor problem early than it is to allow it to escalate. You might be wondering where lasers come into all this, or you might not, but we’ll tell you anyway!
Our wheel alignment system works by using Bluetooth technology and lasers that are shined at sensors we attach to your car’s wheels. These exact angles and measurements are then fed into a computer, which compares the data to the manufacturer’s original specifications. As mechanics, people think we only fix problems by getting our hands dirty under cars and inside bonnets, but those dirty hands are using computers too! How very modern of us.
We don’t want to bore you with too many details, but just so you know, our laser alignment technology will be assessing three main aspects of wheel alignment: The Camber, The Caster, and The Toe.
If you imagine your feet rocking onto their outside or inside edges; that’s the camber. Imagine raising onto either the heel or balls of your feet, and that’s the caster. Moving your big toes to point inward or outward, and that’s the toe.
If you’re interested in more details then one of our team will always be happy to explain, but otherwise, you can just be assured that every important area of the wheels’ alignment is being assessed by one of our experts…oh and of course by the lasers and that computer that we’ve already been showing off about.