Wheel balancing vs alignment: what does it all mean?

Your Charlotte Toyota vehicle uses important components like your exhaust system, engine, and electrical system to operate whenever you turn your key in the ignition. Some parts you probably don’t think of much, unless it goes flat, are your car tires. They’re the only part of your vehicle that makes contact with the road. They get you where you need to go and without them, you’d find yourself in a difficult spot. When your ride gets bumpy, car wheel issues are typically fixed with a either a balancing or an alignment. Many drivers think these terms are synonymous, but Toyota of N Charlotte is here to set the record straight!

Wheel alignment

Aligning your car wheels is no easy task and typically requires a specific piece of machinery to get the job done. Before we go into detail about what wheel alignment is, let’s brush up on some key terms:

Caster: The angle that your Charlotte Toyota steering pivot is facing. If your car wheel has a negative caster, your steering pivot is facing towards your headlights and a positive castor means it’s facing toward your windshield.

Toe: This term refers to the direction your Charlotte Toyota car wheels are pointing in relation to the road and to each other. Toe out means that your wheels are pointing away from each other and toe in means that your wheels are pointing toward each other.

Camber: Viewing from the front of the Charlotte Toyota vehicle, camber describes the top of the wheel pointing away or towards the center of the car. Positive camber occurs when your car wheels point outward and negative camber means they’re pointing inward.

The goal of a wheel alignment is to bring all wheels to a zero-degree angle or pointing straight. Typically, if your wheels are misaligned, you will likely feel a pull left or right, your steering wheel is crooked when driving straight, and your tires squeal more often.

Wheel balancing

Gradually, your car’s wheels and tires will wear down over time as you accumulate more mileage on your engine. Your tires can wear unevenly, chip, get punctured, or anything in between. To balance your tires a machine is used to measure the overall weight over a certain number of tire revolutions. Weights are then attached to the inside of the car wheel to counteract the weight. These weights are typically attached on the wheel itself with adhesives or hammered right onto the side of the outside of the wheel.

If your wheels are imbalanced, you will typically experience vibrations in the steering wheel or in the seats, uneven tire wear, and poor Charlotte Toyota vehicle handling.

Wheel balancing and aligning made easy at Toyota of N Charlotte

Auto maintenance issues like this are difficult to ignore and should be taken care of as soon as possible to avoid incurring further damage to your vehicle. Luckily, Toyota of N Charlotte is here! Our auto service experts can balance and align your wheels quickly and affordably, so you can get back on the road! Give us a call at (704) 659 – 2025 to set up an appointment today!