Alignment Kits & Components

The suspension in your vehicle keeps the wheels in contact with the road for vehicle control and isolates you and your passengers from bumps and other road irregularities for an acceptable ride. The wheels move up and down in angles designed into the suspension system to make sure they maintain their proper relationship to each other and the road. This ensures safe, predictable handling and even tire wear. But driving over rough roads and potholes can disturb these angles, and cause steering pull and abnormal tire wear.

Performing a wheel alignment restores these angles to specification, so your car steers easily and handles properly for safe driving, and to ensure you get long life from your tires. A wheel alignment is also in order when certain suspension components are replaced, and whenever new tires are installed. Front wheel or thrust angle alignments are commonly performed on vehicles with solid rear axles, but a vehicle with four-wheel independent suspension or any adjustability in the rear suspension should get a four-wheel alignment.

There are 4 angles that are routinely checked during a wheel alignment: camber, caster, toe, and thrust angle. When viewed from the front, camber is the tilt of the tire from vertical - outward, camber is positive; inward it is negative. Caster is the tilt of the steering axis as seen from the side of the vehicle – an axis that tilts forward means negative caster; tilting backward means it is positive. Toe is the amount the wheel is turned toward or away from the center of the vehicle. Positive toe is when the wheel is toed in, negative toe is when the wheel is toed out. Thrust angle is an imaginary line that runs 90 degrees to the rear axle centerline. It is checked to ensure it is parallel with the vehicle centerline.

During an alignment, the measured angles are compared with specifications and the suspension adjusted accordingly. However, on many vehicles angles like camber and caster are not adjustable, and on others the range of adjustment is inadequate to bring the suspension within specifications. But that doesn’t mean you have to replace your car or put up with less than ideal handling or frequent tire changes. Our replacement suspension component manufacturers have analyzed the service needs and failure patterns of popular late model vehicles, and developed service solutions in the form of alignment kits to enable proper wheel alignment. These kits have been created to solve alignment problems on specific vehicles.

The makeup of kit components will vary according to vehicle and alignment problem. They can include cam bolts to enable camber adjustment; adjustable ball joints to allow caster/camber adjustment; camber adjustable control arms; rear wheel shims for camber and toe adjustment; adjustable bushings for caster/camber adjustment, or other solutions. With the addition of the kit, wheel alignment angles can be brought within specs, so the vehicle can steer and handle according to design, and deliver long tire service life. And because parts that fail prematurely can also cause incorrect alignment, we offer replacement components like ball joints and bushings that have been re-engineered to restore alignment and prevent future problems.