first off, i have a few years of experience aligning cars.....everything from festivas to $200,000 porsches...my dad taught me a lot and was ranked #1 and #2 for 7 straight years by Goodyear, Inc for his alignment skills and went out as the #1 alignment tech in the USA when he opened his own business in 1993.......the same basic principles apply to all cars, the only differing factors are:
1) customer's preference
2) type of settings you can alter with or without aftermarket help
3) the amount of alteration
now, people seem to think that a shaking steering wheel means you have bad alignment settings, but that is VERY WRONG....shaking is usually related to tires or rotors.......theoretically, if you had every part of your front end in horrible shape, it could possibly let your wheel skip down the road in a near sideways position, but thing is, it would have broken something far before this could ever occur.....so no, your bad alignment isn't causing your car or steering wheel to shake.......it CAN cause your tires to wear incorrectly, and then force the belts inside to break/seperate and in turn your tire will cause the shaking.......sometimes your cv shafts can warp or wear funny, and you may get shaking ONLY during acceleration....if it's the cv joints, it will stop when you let off the gas
or if you only get shaking when you hit the brakes, then that is your rotors...they are warped......brakes get hot, they then will warp the rotors and make it a bit wavy, and that will cause the shaking during stopping
tires are USUALLY the reason your car is shaking and even pulling......some tires are simply made differently, even from the same batch......some are wound slightly tighter, have less rolling resistance and will cause your car to want to pull toward the other side.......if you have one foot on ice and the other on dry pavement, which is gonna slide further when you get a running go and stop? your "icy foot" will wanna keep going; less resistance but your "dry pavement" foot will wanna stop and you'll twist around....same principle here....one wants to roll faster and the result is the pull.....
a pull can also be caused by a tire that was worn incorrectly, seperated the belts and unnaturally shifted causing more/less friction.......this can be caused by bad alignment settings......wear forces the tire to change and you get the pull.....fixing the alignment will NOT fix the tire though.....the damage is done and you'll need new tires to totally fix it, or maybe some creative placement and air pressure tricks (they like to pop after they've seperated and worn some)
brakes can also cause a pull, if one caliper is sticking, then it will wanna pull to the side that is tighter......they can stick open or closed......the way to tell this is to simply drive about 15mph and note the pull you're getting, then apply the brakes like you would normally (not hard) and see if anything changes.....if it pulls harder to that side, then the caliper on the OTHER side is probably stuck OPEN and isn't doing anything...if it gets better, then you have a caliper sticking closed on the side it's pulling to......every once in a while, your brake line will be stopped up and you can just pull the line from the caliper and see if the friction it has on the wheel changes......if it does, then it's the line, if it doesn't, it's the caliper......usually the caliper though unless the car is old or in bad shape
TOE
toe is the distance from the imaginary point on the FRONT of your tire to the FRONT of the OTHER tire on the same axle (both front or both back, whatever you're measuring)..........negative toe means these points are closer together, pointed toward one another.....positive toe means they're pointing away from each other.......most fwd cars benefit from zero to + 1/8" of toe (sometimes measured in degress, our machine used inches).....a race car may want more positive or negative toe depending on camber, caster, tires, track style, etc.....just varies......if you have negative camber to help in cornering, then you'd probably want more positive toe to counter (as much as possible) the wear that the negative camber would force on your tires......you'd still get accelerated wear to an extent, but it would be more even.......it would also keep as much rubber on the ground as possible in the process...
now, toe will naturally be divided perfectly in half by the force of friction while going down the road......you can't have 1/4" on one side and 1/2" on the other when going down the road.....it will force the wheels to mirror each other....toe can't cause a pull.......it can cause your steering wheel to be off....if the alignment tech doesn't lock the steering wheel in the straight position, adjust one wheel straight then base the total off of that, then who knows.....most don't give a shit and barely know what the fuck they're doing, ESPECIALLY at larger stores....the best alignment techs are USUALLY at smaller stores where they're more personal and the reputation matters....since most know shit about alignments, they can get away with it......a crooked steering wheel means nothing other than your wheels aren't straight when your steering wheel is........
CAMBER
camber is the distance from the imaginary point on the TOP of your tire to the top of the other tire (same axle).......if they're closer together then it's negative camber (they lean IN at the top) and if they're further apart, it's positive (lean OUT at the top).......if you wanna hang a curve, then you want negative camber.......negative camber will also cause wear on the inner part of your tire after so much of it, but again, certain toe settings can HELP even it all out.....-2 degrees will cause wear and will still be very driveable, but will really help cornering......most fwd cars have around +.3-+.7 degrees of camber and around zero inches of toe.....just a safe setting for smaller, fwd cars with small tires meant to get from point a to point b and get optimal gas mileage......when you lower a car, you get negative camber that you will wanna fix if you go low enough.....our cars need camber kits to adjust camber on the front (minimal adjustment by shimming on the back)......this is wear most pulling comes from......if one side is around .8 degrees different than the other, then you can get a pull to the more negative side......when the average person sits in their car and no one else is in it, then they can add .2 degrees to the passenger side and make the driver's side .2 degrees more negative....a good tech will compensate for this.....
caster is just the relation of your wheel to your axle......if your wheel is forced more toward the front of the vehicle, then you have positive caster and more toward the rear, negative caster...usually, you'll notice a change in caster after a wreck or if one wheel hits a curb or something.....USUALLY means something is bent........it too can cause a pull toward the side that is further back.....
there are other small factors, but the above are the main ones and you'll rarely hear "you need to adjust your caster" because MOST cars simply offer no adjustment.....
it's recommended to check your alignment every 6 months....most cars are out.....there is a range for each car that is good.....no one set of numbers.....
maybe this will clear some things up
1) customer's preference
2) type of settings you can alter with or without aftermarket help
3) the amount of alteration
now, people seem to think that a shaking steering wheel means you have bad alignment settings, but that is VERY WRONG....shaking is usually related to tires or rotors.......theoretically, if you had every part of your front end in horrible shape, it could possibly let your wheel skip down the road in a near sideways position, but thing is, it would have broken something far before this could ever occur.....so no, your bad alignment isn't causing your car or steering wheel to shake.......it CAN cause your tires to wear incorrectly, and then force the belts inside to break/seperate and in turn your tire will cause the shaking.......sometimes your cv shafts can warp or wear funny, and you may get shaking ONLY during acceleration....if it's the cv joints, it will stop when you let off the gas
or if you only get shaking when you hit the brakes, then that is your rotors...they are warped......brakes get hot, they then will warp the rotors and make it a bit wavy, and that will cause the shaking during stopping
tires are USUALLY the reason your car is shaking and even pulling......some tires are simply made differently, even from the same batch......some are wound slightly tighter, have less rolling resistance and will cause your car to want to pull toward the other side.......if you have one foot on ice and the other on dry pavement, which is gonna slide further when you get a running go and stop? your "icy foot" will wanna keep going; less resistance but your "dry pavement" foot will wanna stop and you'll twist around....same principle here....one wants to roll faster and the result is the pull.....
a pull can also be caused by a tire that was worn incorrectly, seperated the belts and unnaturally shifted causing more/less friction.......this can be caused by bad alignment settings......wear forces the tire to change and you get the pull.....fixing the alignment will NOT fix the tire though.....the damage is done and you'll need new tires to totally fix it, or maybe some creative placement and air pressure tricks (they like to pop after they've seperated and worn some)
brakes can also cause a pull, if one caliper is sticking, then it will wanna pull to the side that is tighter......they can stick open or closed......the way to tell this is to simply drive about 15mph and note the pull you're getting, then apply the brakes like you would normally (not hard) and see if anything changes.....if it pulls harder to that side, then the caliper on the OTHER side is probably stuck OPEN and isn't doing anything...if it gets better, then you have a caliper sticking closed on the side it's pulling to......every once in a while, your brake line will be stopped up and you can just pull the line from the caliper and see if the friction it has on the wheel changes......if it does, then it's the line, if it doesn't, it's the caliper......usually the caliper though unless the car is old or in bad shape
TOE
toe is the distance from the imaginary point on the FRONT of your tire to the FRONT of the OTHER tire on the same axle (both front or both back, whatever you're measuring)..........negative toe means these points are closer together, pointed toward one another.....positive toe means they're pointing away from each other.......most fwd cars benefit from zero to + 1/8" of toe (sometimes measured in degress, our machine used inches).....a race car may want more positive or negative toe depending on camber, caster, tires, track style, etc.....just varies......if you have negative camber to help in cornering, then you'd probably want more positive toe to counter (as much as possible) the wear that the negative camber would force on your tires......you'd still get accelerated wear to an extent, but it would be more even.......it would also keep as much rubber on the ground as possible in the process...
now, toe will naturally be divided perfectly in half by the force of friction while going down the road......you can't have 1/4" on one side and 1/2" on the other when going down the road.....it will force the wheels to mirror each other....toe can't cause a pull.......it can cause your steering wheel to be off....if the alignment tech doesn't lock the steering wheel in the straight position, adjust one wheel straight then base the total off of that, then who knows.....most don't give a shit and barely know what the fuck they're doing, ESPECIALLY at larger stores....the best alignment techs are USUALLY at smaller stores where they're more personal and the reputation matters....since most know shit about alignments, they can get away with it......a crooked steering wheel means nothing other than your wheels aren't straight when your steering wheel is........
CAMBER
camber is the distance from the imaginary point on the TOP of your tire to the top of the other tire (same axle).......if they're closer together then it's negative camber (they lean IN at the top) and if they're further apart, it's positive (lean OUT at the top).......if you wanna hang a curve, then you want negative camber.......negative camber will also cause wear on the inner part of your tire after so much of it, but again, certain toe settings can HELP even it all out.....-2 degrees will cause wear and will still be very driveable, but will really help cornering......most fwd cars have around +.3-+.7 degrees of camber and around zero inches of toe.....just a safe setting for smaller, fwd cars with small tires meant to get from point a to point b and get optimal gas mileage......when you lower a car, you get negative camber that you will wanna fix if you go low enough.....our cars need camber kits to adjust camber on the front (minimal adjustment by shimming on the back)......this is wear most pulling comes from......if one side is around .8 degrees different than the other, then you can get a pull to the more negative side......when the average person sits in their car and no one else is in it, then they can add .2 degrees to the passenger side and make the driver's side .2 degrees more negative....a good tech will compensate for this.....
caster is just the relation of your wheel to your axle......if your wheel is forced more toward the front of the vehicle, then you have positive caster and more toward the rear, negative caster...usually, you'll notice a change in caster after a wreck or if one wheel hits a curb or something.....USUALLY means something is bent........it too can cause a pull toward the side that is further back.....
there are other small factors, but the above are the main ones and you'll rarely hear "you need to adjust your caster" because MOST cars simply offer no adjustment.....
it's recommended to check your alignment every 6 months....most cars are out.....there is a range for each car that is good.....no one set of numbers.....
maybe this will clear some things up
) I hope that came out alright lol Either way typically what you will notice mostly from a poorly adjusted or out of adjustment thrust angle is a thing called dog tracking, this is easily visual if you have ever seen a vehicle in front of you that was heading straight yet you could see some of the side of the vehicle. (I.E. the rear thrust angle is to the left (negative) or to the right (positive)
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