Computerized Wheel Alignment

If you notice that your car or truck is pulling or drifting to one site while you’re driving on a straight highway, it’s time to have your wheel alignment checked. This service is sometimes referred to as a front-end alignment or tire alignment. American Tire and Service in Rio Rancho serves drivers in the greater Albuquerque, Corrales and Bernalillo area for vehicle alignments, including those for 4-wheel drive vehicles.

Driving a vehicle that is not properly aligned is not only expensive, it can be dangerous. A vehicle that’s out of alignment has decreased gas mileage and tire life; additional stress to other vehicle components can lead to other damage.

At American Tire, we work to properly align your vehicle’s wheels to be perpendicular to the ground and parallel to each other. Adjusting the angles of the wheels so that they meet these criteria is how our ASE-trained service technicians ensure your vehicle is properly aligned.

When you visit our auto repair shop and have a tire alignment completed to align the wheel, you should experience easier steering, better gas mileage, a smoother and more secure ride, and improved tire life. A vehicle’s tire alignment can be impacted by factors including a major or minor collision that causes physical damage to your vehicle’s frame, or by something as small as hitting a deep pothole, or driving over the edge of a curb.

These following components are what our expert auto service professionals will adjust and correct for proper tire alignment:

Caster:

Caster describes the angle of a steering pivot, as viewed from the side of the vehicle and measured in degrees. Caster alignment provides a significant role in evaluating the “feel” of steering and the stability during higher speeds. Typically, three to five degrees of positive caster is used for most vehicles, while heavier trucks may have lower angles set in order to create comfortable steering. A faulty caster angle is often the cause of loose or difficult steering.

Camber:

Camber refers to the angle of the wheel in relation to a vertical direction (seen from the front or rear of the car). A negative camber measurement happens when the wheel leans inward toward the vehicle’s chassis; a positive measurement is when the wheel points outward from the car. An ideal camber angle allows optimal tire efficiency, proper steering control, and a precautionary “anti-roll” directive that engineers have created into the design of the automobile. If the camber angle is incorrect, it will create pulling and tire wear.

Toe:

Like camber and caster, toe is measured in degrees and is another basic aspect of suspension tuning. When a pair of wheels are positioned with their front edges pointed toward each other, the pair is defined as “toe-ins.” Likewise, when the front tire edges point outward from each other, the pair is defined as “toe-outs.” Essentially, a toe changes the distance between the front and back of the rear tires, and a faulty toe angle will wear down your tires.