Wheel Alignment Repairs

Having a wheel alignment in the Boyertown and Gilbertsville Pa area for your car truck or SUV can be an intimidating process, especially when you don’t know what goes on behind the scenes at the auto repair shop. So we are going to tell you the top 3 things to look for when you want to save money on your car repairs and get the job done right the first time.

Our customers complaint most of the time is things like uneven tire wear, or their car truck tends to drift to one side of the road on its own. The customer may also have other symptoms like a noise, shaking, vibrating in the steering wheel, or maybe the steering wheel is crooked after hitting a pothole or making contact with a curb.

All of these things could be a sign that your vehicle needs a wheel alignment checked, and depending on what type of vehicle you are driving, a 2 or 4 wheel alignment just may get you fixed up and driving straight again; but the key word here is checked.

Every car alignment perform should always start out with a full inspection of the cars steering and suspension component to be sure there’s not a damaged or worn out part that is causing all this in the first place, or bad tires are causing the problem. Just like how a doctor would assess your overall health before performing any surgery, we need to be certain that your cars steering system and suspension will hold any adjustments firmly before we begin this detailed task.

Steering and suspension parts like tie rod ends, ball joints, idler and pitman arms, struts, ball joints and stabilizer bars and bushings all need to be in a good and safe condition, or all our hard work in performing your alignment on your car could be lost when you hit the first little bump or curb down the road.

There’s 3 main wheel alignment adjustments performed on most cars:

Toe: Is the direction your tires are pointing forward down the road. Look down at your own feet standing up straight and notice how your toes are either pointing straight, out to the side, or toed inward. This is much like your front or rear tires when we set the alignment to the factory specifications. Incorrect toe can cause a choppy, uneven tread wear, and even cause a pull or drift to one side
Camber : this is how the top of your tires are leaning, either outward or inward. And can affect your tire wear by causing the inside or outside of your treads to become worn and even show the steel cords below the rubber surface.
Caster: think of this like the front wheel of your bicycle or shopping cart at the grocery store. Caster is the measurement of how the weight of your vehicle is apportioned over the front wheels, and mostly affects the handling or steer ability of your car rather than tire wear. Just like a chopper has a long fork for the front wheel and is harder to steer, or a shopping cart has front casters that turn very quickly and become unstable at higher speeds. This is how caster can affect your drivability; causing a pull to one side or the other if not in adjustment, and even making your vehicle feel unstable at certain speeds.

Not all cars and trucks are able to have all of these adjustments done, whether it’s a front wheel or a four wheel alignment. But they still need to be measured to make sure that there is no structural damage from a previous accident or even a minor impact from a road hazard.

Having this information allows us to make the proper recommendations about how to correct the problem. Sometimes we may need to install an extra adjustment kit to correct these conditions, and other times a damaged or worn component may need to be replaced. We just can’t tell until the digital alignment machine makes all of its measurements and compares them to the original factory specifications when your vehicle was built.

So how can you make sure that your car is getting aligned properly?

The first thing to make sure of is that the repair shop that’s handling your repairs have ASE Certified Mechanics. This will give you that peace of mind they have gone through the proper training and testing to demonstrate their competence in all areas of your car repair. ASE Certifications are voluntary, so typically the better mechanics will take the time to undergo this process. Look for the certifications on the wall.

Another thing to make sure of is that the auto repair shop you’re visiting is using the latest digital wheel alignment equipment. Some of the older technology alignment machines using strings and lasers to level out the sensors is outdated and not able to give accurate measurements that modern cars today require. Yes using this newer technology can be expensive, but when we look at the cost of tires these days, we can’t afford to take a chance having the tires wear out well before their time.

One other thing to watch for in professional wheel alignment service is a full color printout of your before and after results. You deserve to see this information and receive a full explanation of everything that was wrong and how the adjustments were able to correct the problems.

Because we take your safety and well being very seriously, Dave's Auto Service of Boyertown and Gilbertsville, Pa. area always has multiple ASE certified mechanics on staff to not only perform these and other repairs on your car, but to explain them in as much detail as you would like to know.

Dave's Auto uses only the latest digital alignment equipment with optical sensors that allow pinpoint accuracy for your vehicles wheel alignment, and the most up to date specifications that are available today.

We will always provide you with a full color printout of your wheel alignment before and after, showing in easy to read and understand terms exactly how your car truck or SUV repair process went. Plus, we also store into our system the wheel alignment report in case we need to look back and reference it again down the road, because you never know what could happen to your car when you’re driving on the pothole riddled roads in the Boyertown Pa area.

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