DIY Methods to Perform a Front-End Alignment
Ensuring your wheels are correctly aligned makes your ride smooth and safe. Contrary to popular notion, you don’t need to wait on the service of a professional to get started. Since no one else drives your car as often, you’re likely first to suspect irregularities with your tires.
Signs like crooked wheels, uneven tread wear, and poor balancing of a vehicle are common. Depending on your observation, you can perform some alignment checks from home.
Here are some steps.
#1: Consult Your Vehicle’s Manual
Cars vary in specifications, so you should check your manufacturer’s directive for a head start. This reveals to you the toe, caster, and chamber measurements. The toe-in and toe-out determine how much your front wheels are directed inwards and outward from an aerial view. The caster is the forward and backward inclination of the steering axis from a side view. While the chamber is the angle of your wheels when viewed from the front or rear.
Here, you’re only concerned about the estimated toe-in and toe-out.
#2: Collect Your Tools
Some of the materials you’ll need include two tape measures, 24-inch pieces of angle iron, a jack, and two bricks. Although for this procedure, you don’t necessarily need to jack up your vehicle.
#3: Undo the Nuts on Tie Rod
The tie rod lets you control your front wheels, linking your steering arm and rack. Usually, it’s between your front tires. Loosen its nuts to commence realignment.
#4: Initiate a driving suspension
While your car is in neutral, push it a few feet back and forth to put it in a driving suspension. If your vehicle is raised, ensure it’s now on the ground before proceeding with this step.
#5: Straighten Up Your Steering Wheel
Turn your steering wheel to a well-straightened position. This is how you know your tires are unbent. Another way to do this is by measuring the bilateral rods protruding from the sides of your tie rod. If you have equal figures, then your wheel is straight.
#6: Ready Your Tape Measures and Examine Wheels
Place each brick on the ground, at the center of both wheels. Position your angle iron on each brick and ensure the flat surface rests on the tires. Now, support the wheels with both tape measures by hooking the steel end into an angle iron, and extending to the other.
The outcome of this setup should be two tape measures stretched across your vehicle’s ends, resting against both front tires. This shows the state of the toe-in and toe-out.
#7: Adjust Tie Rod and Recheck Measurements
The clockwise and anticlockwise rotation of your wheels direct your tires outward and inward, respectively. A slight turning can make a huge difference here, so don’t overdo it. Again, check the measurements and compare them with your car’s specs. Repeat this until the measurements are right.
#8: Fix the Tie Rod and Test Drive
Tighten your tie rod nuts once you’re done. Then, ignite your car and drive a few yards away. If done properly, your wheels shouldn’t tilt left or right anymore when directed centrally.
Front-end wheel alignment is one of a vehicle’s maintenance services that corrects the unevenness you feel from your steering. It doesn’t hurt to give the DIY technique a try. However, if it’s proving to tough to handle, you can reach out to a professional. It costs up to 75 bucks to fix when you contact a tyre installations Fairfield workshop.
