Alignment 101

Castor, Camber, and Toe.

Potholes and road debris are having their way with your daily driver and the repeated beatings are leaving a mark. Now your steering's off and your car pulls to the right. You need an alignment.

Let's get you prepped on the most common terms you'll hear at the shop:

Castor: When looking at your steering and suspension components from the side of your car, castor is the front to back angle of steering your wheels pivot on. If the upper ball joint is behind the vertical axis of the wheel's center your car correctly has a "positive" castor.

Camber: Looking at your car head on, camber is the tilt of the tire toward or away from the center of the car. Unequal camber of more than a degree can cause the vehicle to pull to the side with the most positive camber.

Toe: If you were looking down on your car from above, toe is how parallel your front ties are to one another. If the front of the tires is closer than the back of the tires, your car is considered to have "toe in."

Steering Axis Inclination, Included Angle, Scrub Radius... read on for easy to follow diagrams and more information.