Regular alignments of your vehicle’s suspension are a vital part of taking care of your car in Broomfield, CO. If your wheels aren’t properly aligned, your tires will experience increased forces, which will lead to excess wear and tear. While it is easy to see the importance of the act of alignment, we at Sill-TerHar Mazda want to help you dig a little deeper to understand exactly what happens when you bring your vehicle in to be aligned.
Due to the exacting specifications of modern wheel alignments, an automated machine is used for the process. While your vehicle is on the alignment rack, the machine adjusts the wheels and the nearby suspension components to ensure that they are aligned in precisely the same direction.
To do this, the machine can adjust up to four characteristics of each wheel: the toe, camber, caster, and thrust. These terms refer to different angles of the wheel. For example, camber refers to how far in or out the wheels tilt from side to side. Although all four characteristics will be checked, only the characteristics that are out of specification will be adjusted.
