Wheel Alignment & Balance Service
Make your car safer & your tyres last longer with our alignment service
Having a correct wheel alignment is one of the best ways for you to maximize the life of your tyres. Tyres can be a significant investment, so we want to help you get the most out of them. As well as helping tyres last longer, well aligned tyres are safer, save on fuel, and provide better handling on the road.
Visit your local Bridgestone, and let one of our qualified mechanics assist you with specific recommendations for your vehicle.
Wheel alignment
An alignment service will adjust your tyres to how they should be, based on your cars manufacturer specifications with the purpose of reducing tyre wear and increasing the safety of your vehicle.
Your tyres can move out of alignment over time, or they can be jerked out of alignment by incidents such as hitting a curb or pothole. If your tyres are out of alignment, you may feel as though your car is pulling off to one side of the road.
Misaligned tyres will not only compromise your safety on the road, but also greatly increase the wear on your tyres. This means you will need to pay the cost of replacing your tyres well before their normal wear life.
Put yourself in safe hands
If you are looking to correct your alignment, book in for a tyre service at your local Bridgestone Select Tyre & Auto store. Our qualified auto service mechanics use the latest alignment technology to make sure your tyres steer true, and undergo the least amount of wear. We will tell you about all our work and costs upfront so you can get your tyres in perfect order without blowing your budget.
What is the cost of a wheel alignment?
The cost of a wheel alignment can vary depending on the make and model of your car and the type of tyres you have.
Your local Bridgestone has expert tyre technicians who will be able to assist with your all your alignment and tyre requirements.
To get a price on an alignment for your vehicle, be sure to contact your nearest Bridgestone store.
When do you need a wheel alignment?
You may need an alignment service if:
- Your steering doesn’t feel right, or is pulling to one side
- You are rotating your tyres
- Your tyres display notable wear
- You customise your vehicle, and raise or lower the chassis
- An incident occurs on the road, such as a bump or pothole, that makes you think your wheels may be misaligned
You may also want to check your alignment if it has been a while since your last service.
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Road hazards
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Minor bingles and accidents
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Tyre wear and tear
What is a wheel alignment?
When we align your tyres, we measure, analyse, and adjust your vehicle’s steering and suspension angles to make
sure your wheels are perpendicular to the ground and parallel to each other. Our tyre technicians use state
of the art aligning equipment to give you the most precise alignment possible.
There are five factors involved in determining the correct alignment:
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Caster
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Camber
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Toe
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Thrust
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Ride height
When viewing your vehicle from the side, caster is an imaginary line drawn between the centers of the upper and lower ball joints of your tyres, which form an angle with true vertical. Caster is important to steering feel and high-speed stability.
When viewing your vehicle from the front, camber describes the inward or outward tilt of your tyres. Camber adjustment maximises the tyre-to-road contact, and takes into account the changes of force when a vehicle is turning.
When viewing your vehicle from the front, toe describes the alignment of the front and back of your tyres. If the fronts of your tyres are closer together than the rear this is called toe-in, while if the fronts are further apart, this is called toe-out. Toe is set so that tyres roll in parallel when your vehicle is in motion.
If your vehicle has a solid rear axle, your mechanic will use a thrust angle alignment to make sure all four of your wheels are square with each other.
Ride height is the distance between your vehicle’s chassis and the road, and is the reference point for all alignment measurements. If you raise or lower your vehicle’s chassis, you will need to realign your tyres.
Tyre & wheel balance
What is a wheel balance?
One of the easiest ways to tell when something is not right with your tyres is from behind the wheel. Most of us would have encountered steering wheel wobble or vibration when we are driving at high speeds, and this can mean that a wheel is out of balance.
Your car contains tiny, but important, weights to counterbalance the heaviest part of the tyre and wheel assembly. If these weights become loose, the wheel will wobble — and the faster you are travelling, the more the wobbling intensifies. This wobbling increases steering component and tyre wear, and is potentially unsafe.
Your Bridgestone Select tyre technician can easily fix the problem. The system allows your mechanic to attach the wheel to a balancer which replicates the exact position the wheel would be in when attached to your vehicle. This way the imbalance can easily be identified and corrected.
Tyre rotation
One of the best ways you can look after your tyres is by rotating them regularly. Swapping your rear and front tyres will ensure that your tyres wear evenly, and last significantly longer. As a guide, tyres should be rotated every 5,000 to 8,000 km or at least every 6 months, even if there is no sign of uneven wear.
Different vehicles will wear their tyres at different rates. For example, a front-wheel drive vehicle will wear its tyres very differently from a rear-wheel drive. Station wagons and utes also wear their tyres differently due to the lack of weight over the rear wheels. If you’re not sure when to rotate your tyres, ask one of our friendly qualified mechanics.
How much is a wheel balance?
The cost of a wheel balance is included when purchasing tyres from Bridgestone.
If you would like a balance outside of the purchase of new tyres, it can vary depending on the make and model of your car and the type of tyres you have.
Your local Bridgestone has expert tyre technicians who will be able to assist with your all your wheel balance requirements.
To get a price on a wheel balance for your vehicle, be sure to contact your nearest Bridgestone store.