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Tyre Care/Maintenance

Wheel Alignment:

Wheel alignment is done for proper returnability, less tyre wear, reduce load on suspension and better handling. The three main parameters of alignment are camber, caster and toe.
Returnability is the ability of the steering the wheels back in a straight line once they are steered.

Camber is the inclination of the tyres when viewed from front. If the top of the wheel is leaning inwards then the camber is negative and if it is leaning outwards then the camber is positive. Tyres used to have positive camber for the highly cambered roads to drain water during rains. The positive camber is present on the front tyres for them to stay in a straight line when driving on a straight road. Rear tyres have zero camber.

 

Caster is the inclination of the steering pivot in the front or behind direction, to adjust steerability. If the angle is in front then the caster is positive and if it is behind then its negative caster. Rear wheel drive cars have positive caster and front wheel drive cars have negative caster. Caster is there only for front wheels as only the front wheels steer.

 

Toe-in, Toe-out:

Toe measurement is the difference of the lateral distance between the front end of the front tyres and the rear end of the front tyres. Toe-in means front end of the tyre is closer and in toe-out it is the opposite.

 

Tyre Rotation:

Tyre Rotation is a must for longer tread life and even tread wear. With the front tyres having some positive camber angle, the inner edge of the tyre wears faster, hence swapping a front tyre with the diagonally opposite rear tyre will increase the life of the tyre; the tyre which is now at the rear will wear from the centre as the rear end has no camber. The tyres should be rotated every 5,000km if there is no mention of it in the manual.

Proper Inflation:

Tyre pressure is an important aspect in the deterioration of the tyre. If the tyre pressure is less than recommended, then more energy is required to turn the wheels. Also, the centre of the contact patch doesn't touch the ground reducing the contact patch and tyre wear increases. When the tyre is overinflated, the contact patch is less, the efficiency increases a bit but the handling deteriorates.

 

Wheel Balancing:

For the tyre assembly to rotate smoothly and not to give any kind of vibrations, the entire assembly has to be well balanced. If a wheel isn't balanced, then one segment of the tyre will become lighter and the diametrically opposite end will become heavier causing the vibrations.

Static Balancing: In static balancing, the wheel and tyre assembly is mounted on a hub and is rotated by hand. The tyre rotates and eventually slows down. While slowing down, the tyre begins to oscillate with reducing amplitude. Once the tyre comes to a halt, the lowest point is marked with a chalk and then again rotated after moving the mark end to 90 degrees from the lowest point. If the marked point again comes to a halt at the lowest point then this indicates that it's the heaviest point on the assembly and weight is added to the opposite side. This is continued till the wheel is balanced.

Dynamic Balancing: In this form of balancing, the wheel assembly is attached to the machine, which spins the whole assembly and calculates the amount of weight required at different locations to balance the wheel and tyre.