This thread is dedicated to solving tire related problems, it will cover all issues feel free to post problems here, Tire Technicians your posts are welcome and highly appreciated.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WHEEL ALIGNMENT

Tire alignment, also known as wheel alignment, can help your tires perform properly and help them last longer. It can also improve handling and keep your vehicle from pulling in one direction or vibrating strangely on the road.

WHAT IS TIRE ALIGNMENT?
Alignment refers to an adjustment of a vehicle’s suspension – the system that connects a vehicle to its wheels. It is not an adjustment of the tires or wheels themselves. The key to proper alignment is adjusting the angles of the tires which affects how they make contact with the road.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I NEED A TIRE ALIGNMENT?
There are a couple ways to tell if your car needs a tire alignment. If you've noticed one or more of these indicators, you should have your alignment checked by a licensed Tire technician immediately.

Uneven tread wear
Vehicle pulling to the left or right
Your steering wheel is off center when driving straight
Steering wheel vibration

CAMBER, TOE, & CASTER
When a technician checks your tire alignment, he or she is mainly concerned with three things:

1. CAMBER
This is the inward or outward angle of the tire when viewed from the front of the vehicle. Too much inward or outward tilt, also known as negative and positive camber, respectively, indicates improper alignment and will need to be adjusted. Worn bearings, ball joints, and other wheel-suspension parts may contribute to camber misalignment.



2. TOE
Distinct from camber alignment, toe alignment is the extent to which your tires turn inward or outward when viewed from above. If that’s confusing, just stand up and look down at your feet. Angle them inward toward the center of your body. When the tires on your car are angled the same way (remember, we’re thinking in terms of birds-eye-view), we call this toe-in alignment. Angle your feet outward and you have toe-out alignment. Both require adjustment.



3. CASTER
Your caster angle helps balance steering, stability, and cornering. Specifically, it’s the angle of your steering axis when viewed from the side of your vehicle. If you have positive caster, the steering axis will tilt toward the driver. Negative caster, on the other hand, means the steering axis tilts toward the front of your vehicle.


WHY TIRE ALIGNMENT MATTERS
Improper wheel or tire alignment can cause your tires to wear unevenly and prematurely. Here are some specific types of undue tread wear attributable to misalignment:

FEATHERING
Tires are “feathered” when the tread is smooth on one side and sharp on another. This is usually a sign of poor toe alignment.

CAMBER WEAR
This strain of tread wear means the inside or outside of the tread is significantly more worn than the center of the tread. As its name implies, positive or negative camber causes this type of wear.

HEEL/TOE WEAR
This happens when one side of your tread blocks wears down more quickly than the other in a circumferential direction. When you run your hand over the tread, it will look and feel like saw teeth when viewed from the side. Heel/toe wear could be a sign of under inflation and/or lack of rotation.

If you’re experiencing any of these unusual wear patterns, you should have a technician check your alignment. While tire wear prevention is a good reason to keep your wheel alignment in check, the consequences of misalignment can also play out in overall vehicle performance. A car that pulls to one side or steers erratically, for example, probably has an alignment problem.

WHY DO CARS NEED ALIGNMENT?

The Benefits of Wheel Alignment
Proper wheel alignment is extremely important to protect tire investment and tire life, maximize fuel economy and stop safely in wet weather conditions. Proper wheel alignment helps vehicles hold the road better and feel more stable.

Fuel Economy Benefits of Wheel Alignment
Proper wheel alignment also maximizes fuel economy. Vehicles with wheel alignment conditions can suffer a decrease in fuel efficiency by up to 7%. For a vehicle owner who drives 15,000 miles per year and gets an average of 25 miles per gallon at $3.50 per gallon, proper wheel alignment adds up to $150 annual fuel cost savings.

Proper Alignment Protects a Vehicle Owner’s Investment
Every inch a vehicle is out of alignment is equivalent to dragging the tire sideways at 100 feet per mile! Not only does this create dangerous driving conditions, but it also places unnecessary wear on tires that can be avoided by proper wheel alignment.

Other Wheel Alignment Benefits for Safety
One of the benefits of wheel alignment is maintaining tread life and reducing unnecessary tread wear over time. Remaining tire tread has a direct impact on stopping distance on wet surfaces, which can cause serious problems when traveling over 60 mph.

How Often Should You Get an Alignment?
Most manufacturers don’t outline a maintenance schedule for wheel alignment, however, most mechanics recommend this service be completed twice every year.

If your vehicle has an off-center steering wheel, pulls to one side while driving on a straight and level road, has uneven tire wear or doesn’t hold the road well and any time repair is done on any suspension part of the vehicle, chances are you may be due for wheel alignment service.

Benefits of a Wheel Alignment System with Steering System Reset
As vehicle manufacturers equip more vehicles with on-board driver-assist systems, such as electronic stability control, parking assist, traction control and more, an increasing number of manufacturers now require a steering system reset during alignment service. It is important to have an alignment system that can reset all alignment-related sensors during alignment service.

WHY YOUR CAR NEED ALIGNMENT DONE BY AN EXPERT ? CONT'D.

Why Do I Need to Balance Car Tires?


car tires balance



Tire balancing is an important component of your routine automotive maintenance schedule. Like changing the oil, balancing the tires is something that vehicle owners are encouraged to do several times throughout the course of the year. This is also something you’ll want to make sure to have done by automotive service professionals.

There are two main reasons to get your tires balanced regularly. One is that it provides a smoother ride, allowing you to drive your car without too many bumps or vibrations. Also, balancing the tires helps prevent premature wear, meaning you’ll get more out of your tires than you would otherwise.



What the Balancing Process Entails


Here’s the balancing process in a nutshell. When a tire is first mounted onto the wheel, it’s pretty much impossible for this assemblage to have perfectly even weight distribution. Even a half ounce of unevenness in the weight distribution can cause some discernible vibrations as you drive the car.

There are a couple of different forms of vibration that can be felt here, including horizontal/side-to-side and vertical vibrations. In most assemblages, both types of vibration are present. This is where the balancing process comes into play. In the balancing process, tire technicians will actually apply counter-weights to achieve something close to perfect weight distribution. This allows you to enjoy a perfectly smooth, vibration-free ride!



Balancing is Not a One-Time Thing

Unfortunately, your tires won’t be in virtually perfect balance forever. As you operate the vehicle over time, you’ll undoubtedly need to make sharp turns, drive over rocks, hit potholes, etc. In short, you’ll do plenty to knock your tires out of alignment by creating uneven wear and tear on your tire tread.

Over time, these effects will lead to vibrations that you will feel disrupting your smooth, seamless drive. Even if you cannot feel strong vibrations yet, even slight balancing issues can diminish the life expectancy and general performance of your tires. As such, it’s smart to get your tires balanced periodically. If you wait until the vibrations are very perceptible, you’re likely doing serious damage to your tires and even to your wheels.



What Else Causes Vibrations?


It is important to note that even if your tires are perfectly balanced, you may still experience some vibrations. Some possible reasons include:

Bent wheels
Tires out of the round
Wheel-to-axle mounting errors
Brake wear or failure
Suspension wear or failure
Wheels not aligned
Wheel bearing wear or failure

Still, getting your tires balanced regularly is a smart way to prevent vibrations and ultimately to get your money’s worth out of your tires. Make tire balancing part of your regular auto maintenance, having it done whenever you go in for an oil change. Your tires will thank you for it.

The Importance of Wheel Alignment and Tyre Balancing

The Importance of Wheel Alignment and Tyre BalancingWheel alignment and tyre balancing are one of the most common auto repair services offered by technicians. One of the reasons for this is that it is a vital part of maintaining your vehicle and the importance of wheel alignment and tyre balancing in relation to the life of the tyres on your vehicle cannot be underestimated. Whether your wheels have been aligned correctly and your tyres are correctly, directly impacts on how often you will have to change the tyres on your vehicle.

As all motorists are aware, purchasing a quality set of tyres can be of a relatively high cost so it is beneficial to take every measure possible to ensure that a set of tyres last as long as possible. This means it is important that when you purchase a new set of tyres and fit them to your vehicle, you ask a mechanic to perform a wheel alignment to ensure that excessive tyre wear does not occur. This will ensure that your tyres will not wear out quickly and will save you having to change your tyres regularly.

Some motorists do not understand the importance of wheel alignment and tyre balancing and how this can affect tyre life, as well as possibly having an effect on other mechanical factors. So FMP Motors have provided you with the information on why regularly carrying out wheel alignment and tyre balancing can save motorists spending money on new tyres regularly.

The Importance of Wheel Alignment

It is very important that motorists get their wheels aligned to maximise the lives of their tyres as much as possible. Tyres that have not been aligned properly are more prone to excessive tyre wear and will result in you having to change your tyres a lot more regularly, resulting in you having to pay out costs that are unnecessary. Motorists will be able to tell if their wheels have not been aligned correctly when the vehicle will not move straight when the steering wheel is not being held. If this occurs, you should find a tire technician that can align your wheels as it could lead to some problems with your vehicle such as problems with your suspension and vibrations when you are driving.

When your tyres are not aligned, it can also put your safety at risk. Improper alignment of the vehicle’s wheels will also result in poor cornering and handing of your vehicle and this will make it less safe for the driver and its passengers, especially in icy and wet conditions. Also, drivers will have to make more of an effort driving the vehicle when the tyres are not aligned as the vehicle will tend to steer to one side which will mean that the driver will have to constantly correct it when driving. This means it requires an increase in concentration and effort at all times in order to drive safely and especially with long journeys, can result in the driver becoming tired quicker and become unsafe for everyone.

The Importance of Tyre Balancing

You will need tyre balancing as soon as you purchase new tyres for your vehicle. This process is performed in order to ensure that all of the tyres are balanced with the wheel weights to ensure the smooth running of each of the tyres. When there is an imbalance in your tyres, the steering wheel will rock back and forth as you drive, especially when you drive at a certain speed. When you notice this happening, you should contact a tire technician to fix the problem straight away as it can be very dangerous to drive with imbalanced tyres.

You will be able to tell that your tyres are not balanced when certain tyres are wearing at a faster rate than others. This means that your tyres are imbalanced and you will need to correct this as soon as possible. It is importance that all of your tyres are balanced as when they are not, you will start to feel vibrations when travelling at certain speeds and this is very dangerous for the driver and its passengers. These vibrations also result in stress being created in the lower ball joints, axles and other essential parts of the vehicle. This increased stress on these parts will lead to them wearing at a faster rate and will mean you will have to replace these parts a lot sooner than you would have had to with balanced tyres.

Unbalanced tyres will also result in an increase in the tyre wear. This is because to compensate for the added stress on the tyres that the imbalance has created, the tyres start to wear from the edges, whereas with balanced tyres, they will wear from the middle. When this occurs, it will mean that you will have to change your tyres as they will no longer provide you with the necessary grip to drive safely.

So when you notice that either your wheels are not aligned correctly or an imbalance with your tyres, ensure that you find a mechanic that you can trust to address the issue as it will result in an increase in excessive tyre wear and more importantly but yours and others safety at risk.

At TireExpertNG we work with a wide network of garages and car dealers as well as individual car owners to provide the best quality car parts such as high quality tyres for used cars as well as training and advice on the importance of wheel alignment and tyre balancing

Wheel Balancing & Alignment Technician at Weststar Vehicle Care Limited
Posted on: 27 July, 2018 Deadline: 31 August, 2018
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Weststar Vehicle Care Limited - We are a registered Nigeria Auto Service Company that provides all your auto repair needs.

Wheel Balancing & Alignment Technician

Job TypeFull Time
Qualification
Experience 5 years
LocationLagos
Job FieldEngineering / Technical

Requirements

Candidates must be certified with at least five years experience in the tyre services business.
Must Have a Valid Driver's License.
Must be using an up to date computerised Alignment Machine.
Method of Application
Applicants should send their Applications and Curriculum Vitae to: info@weststarvehiclecare.com

YOU CAN STILL APPLY