When Does My Car Need A Wheel Alignment Service?

A wheel alignment is the process of measuring and setting the key areas of adjustment within your vehicle’s suspension. Every vehicle comes with recommended parameters that the wheel alignment should fall into in order to meet the manufacturer’s recommended tolerances for the best balance of ride comfort, handling and tyre wear.

To meet these recommended parameters we adjust the vehicle’s camber, caster and toe angle. Through every day driving these settings can fall out of sync as your vehicle encounters pot holes, gravel roads, gutters and other obstacles that knock your wheels out of alignment.

A Wheel Alignment service will have your car feeling and handling as it should. 

At Pedders Suspension & Brakes we offer a standard two-wheel alignment and standard four-wheel alignment. There are additional services such as custom wheel alignment solutions for a specific uses such as towing, load-carrying or if the vehicle is fitted with modified suspension. Click here to Book a Wheel Alignment and receive a quote.

New cars can need a wheel alignment too. If you encounter a large pot hole, a gravel road or other obstacle that bumps your cars wheel alignment out of its parameters then your new vehicle will need a wheel alignment.

A new vehicle can also require a wheel alignment if you intend to use it for a specific use such as towing or carrying heavy loads. If you fit aftermarket suspension to your new vehicle that raises or lowers the ride height it will also require a wheel alignment after the modifications have been made. Pedders offers wheel alignment services tailored specifically to suit the vehicle its intended use.

A wheel alignment service is recommended every six months or 10,000kms. However if you typically travel on bumpy gravel roads or encounter large pot holes your vehicle may require a wheel alignment sooner.

It is also a good idea to have your wheel alignment checked before a long drive, such as a road trip, to ensure your vehicle is as safe as possible. A vehicle with a wheel alignment that is out of whack will experience abnormal tyre wear which could lead to a puncture – the last thing you need on a long drive! A perfect wheel alignment will also improve your fuel economy!

Checking your tyres is the best place to start – a vehicle with poor wheel alignment will suffer from uneven tyre wear meaning your tyre might have more wear on the inside or outside. Similarly one side of the car might have more tyre wear than the other.

Another tell-tale sign your vehicle needs a wheel alignment is if your vehicle pulls to one side of the road. A vehicle with a poor wheel alignment may also tend to follow the ruts in the road rather than track in a straight line.

Another obvious sign is if your steering wheel off centre and turned slightly left or right when driving in a straight line.

A Pedders wheel alignment service can take up to two hours. We meticulously test the vehicle’s existing wheel alignment with our state of the art wheel alignment equipment, then once we have a report on the wheel alignment condition we can begin to adjust the wheel camber, castor and toe angle to achieve the manufacturer’s recommended settings across all four wheels. Once adjustments have been made we test the wheel alignment again to ensure it is within tolerance.

Alternatively, if your vehicle is used for load carrying, towing, four-wheel driving or performance driving such as track days, we can provide a custom wheel alignment solution to improve your vehicle’s capability in this area while maintaining its everyday safety.

Some front-wheel drive cars do not have any alignment adjustment on the rear axle and do not require a four-wheel alignment, however others do require that all four wheels receive an alignment service. A Pedders technician will be able to tell you whether your front-wheel drive car requires a four-wheel or two-wheel alignment.

Typically front-wheel drive vehicles suffer from increased tyre wear on the front wheels so it is important to have the wheel alignment checked regularly to ensure the tyres wear out evenly.

All-wheel drive and four-wheel drive vehicles do usually require a four-wheel alignment. The alignment of a four-wheel drive vehicle can be significantly impacted by towing or carrying heavy loads, resulting in a reduced tyre footprint and un-even tyre wear. This is made worse if you’re constantly carrying a heavy toolbox or have a heavy service body fitted to your ute without a suspension upgrade to handle the additional weight. 

Note: it is common for light commercial vehicles like 4x4 utes to only have front wheel alignment adjustment. 

Sedans, hatchbacks and station wagons with all-wheel drive systems also require a four-wheel alignment as they are typically setup from the manufacturer with specific camber, toe angle and castor settings from the factory for both the front and rear axles.