Front and Rear Alignments – Every 30,000 to 50,000 Miles
You can’t do an alignment yourself. It requires an alignment rack, which you’ll find in a tire shop or dealer. This is something you should have done every 30,000 to 50,000 miles, preferably with every tire change.
If you recall back to the tire inspection section, you might still be mulling over those tire pictures and the words “camber” and “toe.”
The edge-wear comes from excessive camber, which is when the top of the tire tilts inward toward the car body. A certain amount of camber is a good thing; think of how a skier or motorcyclist leans into a turn. A little tilt to the tire will help it to compensate for outward tilt while turning, and keep the tread shoved into the pavement the way it should be. But too much camber will not only degrade your braking and acceleration (because the tire isn’t flat to the ground while pointed straight), it’ll also cause extreme edge wear.Also, get your registration number plate done. it’s also important part as like Vehicle Maintenance
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Toe-in and Toe-out
“Toe” refers to the angle of the wheels relative to the direction of travel. “Toe-in” means that the fronts of the wheels are pointed slightly toward each other (which increases stability), and “toe-out” means they’re pointed away from each other (increasing agility). Your alignment specialist will set the car’s toe by turning that threaded collar on the steering linkage; shortening it pulls the wheels closer together and increases toe-in while lengthening it increases toe-out. But any amount of toe, or deviation from the straight-ahead, will cause the tires to scrub slightly sideways on the road. This creates three problems: it decreases fuel economy by increasing rolling resistance, it increases tire temperature through increased friction, and it decreases tire lifespan by constantly dragging the tire sideways. You can see that in part D.
Now, you’re surely thinking: “But those two pictures look exactly the same! Granted, one’s a little worse than the other, but where do you draw the line?” Right down the middle of the tire.
Take a close look at the above pic, and notice how the tire wear starts on the right and stops suddenly at a line drawn down the center of the tire – the tread on the left side of that line could almost be from a completely different tire. This happened because the tire was tilted on its center axis (camber), so the weight of the car pressed down nearly exclusively on one side.
Now, look at part D, and notice how the tread on the right side is almost completely gone, but the wear continues over the centerline of the tire. Granted, it’s not as severe on the left side, but there’s definitely a progression through the centerline and a further quarter of the way across the tire. This strongly indicates that most of the tire was on the ground, but that it was dragging sideways through the excess toe. Normal camber in the suspension, or the angle of the wheel, depending, subjected one edge of the tire to slightly less stress than the other. Thus, a slow feathering that crosses the centerline, instead of hard wear on only one side.
Bouncing off curbs, hitting potholes or driving on rough roads can cause alignment problems, and some cars are more prone to this than others.
As far as service goes, your best deal is just to pony up the $150 for lifetime alignments. Lifetime alignments are just that, so you can pop in and have your wheels aligned three times a day if it suits you, for as long as you own the car.
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Valve Lash Adjustment – Every 100,000 Miles
Valve lash is the tiny gap between the top of a valve and its rocker arm on a “pushrod” engine, or the cam follower on an overhead-camshaft engine.
You can think of valve lash as the built-in slop in your drivetrain, a kind of fudge factor used to account for heat-induced metal expansion and component wear. Hot-rodders know all about adjusting valve lash because periodic lash adjustments are a prerequisite on engines that use solid (as opposed to hydraulic) lifters. Lifters are small cylinders that sit between your valvetrain and camshaft, and most engines use lifters filled with pressurized oil that takes up all the slack in the valvetrain. Hydraulic lash adjusters are the overhead-camshaft engine’s equivalent to the hydraulic lifter.
While some old-schoolers will tell you that hydraulic lifters and lash adjusters eliminate the requirement for periodic lash adjustments, many times, hydraulic components just extend the lash adjustment interval from every 3,000 miles to every 100,000 miles or so. Put simply, lash adjustments just aren’t something a beginner should do himself; there are a lot of opportunities for serious mistakes, so it’s worth paying the $100 to have a qualified mechanic perform the procedure for you. Check with your manufacturer to find out if your engine requires periodic lash adjustment.
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