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Suspension Alignment
QVR - Body work specialists in Daventry Northants
Suspension Alignment

 Hard Cornering Evo

 

To find suspension alignment for your car Click Here

What are the benefits of correct alignment?
A vehicle with the correct wheel alignment will grip far better and be more predictable at the limit. Lowering a car and maintaining the correct wheel alignment is an awesome combination; unfortunately, the latter is often 'forgotten' on lowered street cars.

Not to be confused with wheel balancing!
Wheel Alignment is often confused with Wheel Balancing.  The two really have nothing to do with each other. If a wheel is out of balance, it will cause a vibration at motorway speeds that can be felt in the steering wheel and/or the seat.  If the alignment is out, it can cause excessive tyre wear, steering and handling problems. 

 Camber diagram BW 

What Is Camber?

 

Camber is the angle of the wheel, measured in degrees, when viewed from the front of the vehicle. If the top of the wheel is leaning out from the centre of the car, then the camber is positive, if it's leaning in, then the camber is negative. If the camber is out of adjustment, it will cause tyre wear on one side of its tread.

If the camber is different from side to side it can cause a pulling problem. The vehicle will pull to the side with the more positive camber. On many front-wheel-drive vehicles, camber is not adjustable. If the camber is out on these cars, it indicates that something is worn or bent, possibly from an accident and must be repaired or replaced. Tyre Wear - bad camber

If the camber is different from side to side it can cause a pulling problem. The vehicle will pull to the side with the more positive camber. On many front-wheel-drive vehicles, camber is not adjustable. If the camber is out on these cars, it indicates that something is worn or bent, possibly from an accident and must be repaired or replaced.

What Is Castor?

Caster diagram 1 When you turn the steering wheel, the front wheels respond by turning on a pivot attached to the suspension system. Caster is the angle of this steering pivot, measured in degrees, when viewed from the side of the vehicle. If the top of the pivot is leaning toward the rear of the car, then the caster is positive, if it is leaning toward the front, it is negative. If the caster is out of adjustment, it can cause problems in straight line tracking.

If the caster is different from side to side, the vehicle will pull to the side with the less positive caster. If the caster is equal but too negative, the steering will be light and the vehicle will wander and be difficult to keep in a straight line. If the caster is equal but too positive, the steering will be heavy and the steering wheel may kick when you hit a bump. Caster has little affect on tyre wear.

The best way to visualise caster is to picture a shopping cart caster. The pivot of this type of caster, while not at an angle, intersects the ground ahead of the wheel contact patch. When the wheel is behind the pivot at the point where it contacts the ground, it is in positive caster. Picture yourself trying to push the cart and keep the wheel ahead of the pivot. The wheel will continually try to turn from straight ahead. That is what happens when a car has the caster set too far negative. Like camber, on many front-wheel-drive vehicles, caster is not adjustable. If the caster is out on these cars, it indicates that something is worn or bent, possibly from an accident, and must be repaired or replaced. caster diagram 2
 

What Is Toe?

The toe measurement is the difference in the distance between the front of the tyres and the back of the tires. It is usually set close to zero which means that the wheels are parallel with each other. Toe-in means that the fronts of the tires are closer to each other than the rears. Toe-out is the opposite. An incorrect toe-in will cause rapid tyre wear to both tyres equally.

 Toe diagram 1

Toa diagram 2 If the sharp edges of the tread sections are pointing to the centre of the car, then there is too much toe-in. If they are pointed to the outside of the car then there is too much toe-out. Toe is always adjustable on the front wheels and on some cars, is also adjustable for the rear wheels.
 
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