Why Align your wheels?
Wheel Alignment in Brisbane, what’s all the fuss about? This and a lot of commonly asked questions about wheel alignment are answered below, just remember if you’re looking for new wheels and tyres, especially if you’re buying Toyota Rims from us, make sure you get your wheels aligned in Brisbane at the same time.
Wheel alignment, is not complicated on the face of it, essentially you need both your wheels pointing in the same direction, or have them perfectly ‘aligned’. If your steering wheel is pointing straight ahead, along with one wheel, but the other is pointing out to the left, your wheels are out of alignment. This could mean, premature tyre wear along with poor handling characteristics. There are other things to consider too, such as toe angle, Caster, and camber. All of these things impact how your vehicle handles, and depending on what you’re doing with your car, will depend on what set up and alignment is needed.
Take a look at the below graphic, which comes courtesy of Pintrest, That illustrates wheel alignments importance. It’s a bit like running with your left leg wanting to go left, and your right to the right. It’s all going to go a bit wrong.
How often should you align your wheels?
The honest answer with this one is, ‘it depends’ Sound like a cop-out right? Well, the reason why it depends is because you could go over a pot hole with 20 inch rims and low profile tyres driving a performance car. This could be enough to knock your wheels out of alignment even if it had been done the day before. But, if you have a high profile tyre (one with a bigger sidewall), that same pothole, might not damage your alignment in the same way it did the low profile wheel. (or you might get lucky).
We’d usually suggest making a wheel alignment a part of your regular service schedule, or there are some common indicators such as:
- Steering wheel is not centered when travelling in a straight line.
- Car pulling to either the right or left when driving.
- Uneven tyre wear.
What methods are available to align your wheels?
Straight edge and string
Yeah, you read that right. You can align your wheels by using a straight edge and some string. It’s a little more complex than what the simplicity of the tools suggest, although it is possible to do. And the guys over at Mighty Car Mods & Lotus did it recently to show it can be done.
Laser wheel alignment
From the stone age to the future, laser wheel alignment is the gold standard now. It should be what you look for when looking for a shop to align your wheels in Brisbane. It’s (arguably) the most accurate way to align your wheels, and allows a graphic to be shown to the technician. This enables far more options to customise your car. Lets say you need more camber for the track, the PC software can show you where you are now. This allows incremental adjustments, allowing you to shave seconds off your lap time or correct a steering issue.
Where in Brisbane can you align your wheels?
There are a number of shops for wheel alignment in Brisbane, of course we would recommend the Wheel & Tyre Shop Brisbane. But we tend to only offer this service to customers when they purchase new wheels. Get in touch, and we’ll see if we can fit you in. The Wheel & Tyre Shop in Brisbane also works with a number of other wheel alignment shops. We are happy to recommend one if we can’t fit you in.
How much does it cost to align your wheels?
A lot of customers want to know wheel alignment cost Brisbane. We charge $150 for a standard wheel align, but if you buy rims or tyres from The Wheel and Tyre Shop, this price is reduced, ask us more about this here. We look forward to hearing from you soon about all your cheap wheel alignment Brisbane needs, and we look forward to servicing customers search for cheap wheel alignment near me.
Conclusion
We hope this article illustrates the importance of wheel alignment, and if you require anymore info on how, where or when to get you cars wheels aligned, or anything we’ve missed from this article. Drop us a line and we’ll see if we can help.
