Steering and Suspension Repair Services in Surprise & Goodyear AZ

A lot of times, tires wear unevenly because people don’t rotate their tires as they should. A great rule of thumb is to have your tires rotated and balanced every other oil change. This will help you get the full life out of your tires instead of having to replace them prematurely. Typically the front tires are performing 3 major functions: steering, breaking, and propel your vehicle. Tires are constantly moving so if you have the rear tires moved to the front and the front put on the rear it will help even out the tire wear especially on front wheel drive vehicles.

Cupping can be caused by a couple of things, worn shocks, out of balanced tires, or sometimes it’s just the design of the tires which affects how they wear. For instance, mud terrain tires are aggressive tires and you have to rotate them more often to keep them from cupping.

Usually in this type of scenario a person will feel a shake at a certain speed. This shake can be caused by an out of balanced tire, out around tire, separated tire, bent or out of round rim. Something that’s rotating isn’t balanced or isn’t round which will cause a vibration. An alignment alone will typically not fix a shake there’s usually an underlying problem that’s causing your vehicle to shake.

In this scenario a drift and a pull are actually two different things.

Drifting is described as driving your vehicle down the road and if you let the steering wheel go it should stay going straight for a little while but then eventually drift to the left or right. Your vehicle does not make an immediate change in direction. If as soon as you let the wheel go the vehicle begins to go left or right that is defined as pulling. In this case the vehicle usually “pulls” the same direction. If you believe you have drifting or pulling issues sometimes it can be attributed to the road conditions or the wind outside.

Pulling can be attributed to a problem with the tires, brakes, an alignment issue or it could be the particular street you’re driving on. Streets that are crowned tend to cause vehicles to pull one direction just because the way the street is paved. We do recommend bringing your vehicle into Champs Family Automotive to have your vehicle evaluated to verify that there is not a problem with the tires, brakes, or any other suspension or steering component problems.

It’s good to rotate your tires at a minimum of every other oil change to make sure they are wearing evenly and prevent premature replacement of your tires. Tires can get pretty expensive and we want you to get as much life out of your tires as possible.

An Alignment consists of our trained Technicians connecting your vehicle to our alignment machine and using sensor heads to get a reading of the caster, camber and tow. When we perform an alignment, we do a measurement for caster to see different angels on the pivot points like ball joints to see if they have the correct amount of caster. Then we check camber to see if tires are within manufacturer specifications for the top of the tire being too far in or too far out and finally we check tow. Tow is the measurement of the front leading edge of your tires pointing in or out.

An Alignment should be done to make sure your tires wear correctly, and to help you maintain good drivability, and safety. Keep in mind all the bumps, and curbs you might hit or run over can shift suspensions and steering components over time which can cause your alignment to be off. When you do come in for an alignment always remember to let the Service Advisor at Champs Family Automotive know why you believe you need an alignment. In most cases an Alignment will not fix all suspension nor steering problems, it’s best for us to understand what your problem is so we can work together to find the best solution to fix and address your problem.

An Alignment is not a part it is a service. Since so many things can affect a service like an alignment, we do not warranty alignments. Again, potholes, curbs, minor fender benders, rough roads, worn parts and so many other things can affect your alignment. We do however guarantee if your vehicle is alignable we will absolutely align it within factory specifications and to your satisfaction.

Every time we do an alignment we do put the sensor heads on all 4 wheels to get a thrust angle reading to check and verify the rear axle is pointed straight. A lot of times the rear axle does not have adjustments which means the factory didn’t offer a way to adjust camber and tow. Also, rear tires will not have caster. For instance on a pick-up truck if the rear axle is crooked or not on the vehicle straight than that means you may have a bent leaf spring or other part, at this point something has to be actually taken apart and repaired. Most 4 wheel alignments come into play when you have rear independent suspension on your vehicle i.e. control arms, struts etc… In this case there are normally adjustment bolts that have to be adjusted to perform an alignment. This is an example of a vehicle that would need a 4 wheel alignment if the readings are out of manufacturer specifications.

Usually when an alignment is more expensive than a standard 2 or 4 wheel alignment it’s because we can’t just attach the sensor heads to your vehicle easily and adjust caster, camber and tow. For instance if you have non-adjustable components that have to be removed or shims have to be added or removed to adjust the alignment, this can be very labor intensive. There may also be a difference in standard alignment prices if you have over sized tires, lift, lowered etc… Most of the time when we charge more for an alignment it’s because the vehicle requires addition labor to adjust caster and camber.