Correct understanding of wheel alignment

Is it necessary to do four-wheel alignment when the car is running out of direction?

When most car owners find that the car is running sideways, their first reaction is that there is something wrong with the tires and suspension system, so they rush to do the four-wheel alignment. In fact, there are many reasons for car deviation, such as different tread pattern wear, suspension system design problems, or suspension injuries, deformation, displacement, etc. The following summarizes the reasons for car deviation:

1. Unequal tire pressure is an important cause of vehicle deviation. The position of the tire should be changed every 20000 km, because the wear of the driving wheel is always greater than that of other wheels, and different friction forces will directly cause deviation.

2. Under normal circumstances, the probability of deviation of new vehicles due to suspension system failure is very low, because the vehicles before leaving the factory have been strictly inspected and adjusted by the manufacturer. However, it is not ruled out that there are problems with the original design. For example, the interference between the steering linkage and the steering rod of the suspension will affect the vehicle deviation. The former is caused by errors in manufacturing and adjustment, while the latter is caused by original design, and the latter often causes deviation to the right.

3. The quality of the steering system will also affect the straight-line driving of the car. The connection parts become loose due to excessive wear clearance or wear of bearings, kingpins and bushings, which will cause the car to swing its head during driving and cannot maintain normal motion track. If the steering knuckle arm and steering knuckle are bent and deformed, it will generally lead to one-way deviation of the car. The most serious problem is that the ball joint of the horizontal tie rod is seriously worn and loosened, which will cause steering failure, and then the car will completely lose control.

4. Then there are some other things that make you think that the car is running sideways. In a high-speed car, the lateral wind will cause the car to run sideways; Driving on the side of the road will cause deviation; Low tire pressure on one side will cause deviation, etc.

 When does the vehicle need wheel alignment?

1. Replace with a new tire or repair after a collision accident.

2. One side eccentric wear of front and rear tires.

3. The steering wheel is too heavy or floating when driving.

4. When driving straight, the car pulls to the left or right.

5. Routine vehicle maintenance: After driving the new vehicle for 3 months, the wheel alignment shall be done every six months or 10000 km.

What will happen to the vehicle after normal wheel alignment?

1. Increase driving safety.

2. Reduce abnormal tire wear.

3. Keep the steering wheel straight when driving straight, and keep driving straight.

4. The steering wheel will automatically align after steering.

5. Increased handling.

6. Reduce abnormal fuel consumption.

7. Reduce the wear of suspension components.

What are the consequences of inaccurate wheel alignment?

1. Excessive tire wear: inaccurate wheel alignment parameters can cause tire eccentric wear, leading to the risk of tire blowout.

2. The car doesn't run smoothly: The shaking of the steering wheel and the deviation will make you feel more tired when driving, and increase the probability of traffic accidents.

3. Increased fuel consumption: If the fuel consumption increases without special circumstances, the wheel alignment parameters of the vehicle may be inaccurate.

Here are five ways to avoid being cheated:

1. When using the instrument for four-wheel positioning, pay attention to confirm whether the positioning instrument of the repair shop is advanced and qualified.

2. Confirm whether the data of your car used by the maintenance personnel is accurate. The cars are being updated day by day, and the data is also being updated. However, the upgrading of positioning instruments is often not up to date. Some new cars can only be positioned by making a selection based on some old cars. You'd better bring your car manual with you when locating, because there are accurate data of your car.

3. Check the printed data after positioning the car. Whether the camber of the front wheels is within the standard range should not be too much different, and the left and right angles should not be too much different, because this will cause your car to pull to one side. Then there is the caster angle. Only some very high-end cars have a positive caster angle of about 8 degrees, because they have a good power steering system. The toe in value of the rear wheels of modern high-end cars can also be adjusted. If there is too much difference from the standard value, it will make your car deviate.

4. The car is not a standard chassis car, such as some SUVs, pickup trucks, minibuses, etc. They are all equipped with torsion bar springs, which will cause inconsistency between the left and right car heights after a long time of driving. At this time, it is necessary to adjust the torsion bar to reach the standard value.

5. Be careful not to make the high profile of the car inconsistent with the factory standard value, or the car will deviate when it is low; If you run too low, you will lose the shock absorption effect. If you run too high, your car will feel floating. The most important thing is to be careful not to run high in the front and low in the back.

Correct the wrong idea of wheel alignment:

1. It is considered that wheel alignment is to adjust the toe in of the front wheels. Wheel alignment, as the name implies, requires taking into account the positioning status of all four wheels of the car. Toe in is an angle concept, which is technically called toe in. In fact, the front wheels have not only toe angle, but also camber angle, kingpin caster angle and kingpin inclination angle. The rear wheels also have toe angles, as well as camber and propulsion angles. When doing four-wheel alignment, the rear wheel alignment angle is more important.

2. Choose a cheap shop to do wheel alignment, the problem cannot be resolved. At present, many manufacturers of wheel aligners at home and abroad compete to occupy the market. Various types of aligners with different quality are dazzling, and the manufacturers of aligners without intellectual property rights and technical content compete to lower prices. In fact, the reason behind the low price is that the technical content and measurement accuracy of the equipment are not high. As a result, the vehicle positioning problem cannot be fundamentally solved.

3. The car owner does not understand the common sense of wheel alignment operation and is easy to be fooled. Most users know very little about wheel alignment. They don't care about the operation when doing wheel alignment for their cars, and they rarely give their own opinions. Some maintenance personnel avoid the driver to do the four-wheel alignment. Others do not check before positioning, and even fail to inform the driver of the cracks in the half axle rubber sleeve and the lower arm hinge joint rubber sleeve in a timely manner, resulting in greater losses for future users. Repeated positioning and repeated charges.

Conclusion: Don't underestimate the wheel alignment, which is related to our driving safety. The accurate four-wheel positioning data of a car can help us use the car better, reduce the cost of car maintenance and improve safe driving.