Preamble

Having hopefully learned the basics of a Car’s Steering Systems and the problems that can arise therein, I guess one should now be ready to appreciate the finer nuances of the present subject…….

As any mechanical engineer worth his salt would know, 'vibration' is the biggest killer in any machine. Such an inherent imbalance only gets worse with the inevitable and un-even tyre wear.

Consequently, such imbalance induced vibrations gain significance with the wheel diameters getting smaller for the mini's and micro-mini cars and yet having higher cruising speed capabilities. If left 'un-treated', they induce annoying steering wobble up front at various speeds - including damage to the suspension members/bearings all around.

Such ‘wobbly’ wheels up front even affect free-rolling capabilities of a Car and thus eat into its F/E ! It’s a common fallacy that wheel balancing is required only for the front wheels coz it shows-up as steering wobble. Unbalanced Rear Wheels not only create avoidable vibrations into the car but also kill their wheel bearings prematurely.

The same goes for the Spare Wheel – coz it can be called upon to go into service anytime – either up front or rear. So the moral of the story is that one should keep all the 5-wheels in good balance at all times – so much so that a flat tyre upon puncture repair should be got rebalanced as once dismounted, it can never be brought back at the same position which determined its earlier balance.
This is seldom done by a vast majority of car owners.

Although not a foolproof method, the initial balance can be maintained by chalk-marking air intake valve AND positions of existing balancing weights on the tyre before dismounting it and then getting it back to the marked position after repairs.

The realisation of all such happenings led to development of ‘Dynamic' Wheel Balancing techniques way back in the '50s in the West and like all others, are ‘computerised’ nowadays. Take your wheels to any 'tyre-shoppe' and see them being balanced and you'll know the rest.

2) Wheel Alignment

Wheel Alignment on the other hand is quite a different ball game. In the Amby/Fiat era - with miles of slack in the steering linkages anyway, one got away with the crude method of an ‘Ustaad’ using a String with a 'Chhotoo' but not any more.

For starters, present day Cars have their front 'Track' appreciably wider than the rear to give them the desired high speed cornering ability. To make it worse for the 'string-wallahs', we now have Cars with independent rear suspension too calling for the rear wheels' alignment as well !

All this has led to the development of the present 'state of art' Wheel Alignment m/c's using infra-red sensors to read/correct the basic parameters of a Car's f/r suspension systems.

Like for wheel balancing, take your wheels to any 'tyre-shoppe' and see them being 'aligned' and you'll know the rest. They produce a ‘print-out’ at the end of the ‘procedure’ that gives – i) the OEM prescribed ‘limits’ of its Steering Geometry, ii) their values ‘as measured’ before resetting them and iii) values after resetting them within the prescribed limits.

It should, therefore, be not to difficult for any car owner to realise that any one trying to tell you that he can do the wheel alignment of your even M800 - not to mention Esteem/likes – using the good old ‘string’ way is to be shunned like plague !

3) Whether Alloy Wheels

With money literally oozing out of the present day motorists deep pockets – more so their young and brash offspring’s – ‘Alloy Wheels’ appeal to most as some sort of a must have status symbol.

Alloy Wheels derive their nomenclature as they're made out of Aluminium Alloys of which Magnesium is a principal ingredient, to give it the desired strength - hence the name 'Mag/Alloy-Wheels' as well.

Their manufacturing process basically comprises - a) Pressure die-casting, b) followed by precision machining and c) Finishing by way of powder coating etc. Thus the end product is considerably lighter than their 'pressed-steel' counterparts and a lot more 'true' in the X-Y-Z axes.

This makes them inherently well-balanced and thus requiring minimal weights for the purpose but the weights required to do so are special types and hence more expensive.

While they do make a noticeable difference for the better in handling/ride quality, if you ask for my personal opinion, Alloy Wheels are not for our Pot-Hole ridden Roads and the wayside 'Hammer and Tongs' Puncture Repair facilities. More so if one is into off-roading.

If subjected to either, they are vulnerable to permanent damage. FWI, more than half of Europe rides on Pressed-Steel Wheels - inspite of the above two limitations not being there and Alloys being available as an OE option against practically every 1000 cc+ Model, ofcourse at a higher cost of course !

4) Whether Tubeless Tyres :

While a vast majority in the motoring world rides on Tubeless Tyres coz of the various advantages they offer over Tube types, the disadvantages of TLTs in the present Indian scene are that they require :
i) Special puncture repair techniques.
ii) Mechanised tyre mounting/dismounting facilities, to save their special rim/beading from permanent damage.
iii) High pressure compressed air, to suddenly inflate them, so as to be able to quickly and effectively 'seal with the rim'.
iv) Wheel Rims to remain ‘true’ at all times – something impossible on our pot-holed roads.
v) It's inadvisable to put in tubes inside once punctured TLTs - for high speed applications - as they wld run hotter than their tube type eqvts coz of greater friction between the TLT's inner surface. This can thus spell disaster in waiting for the present day high speed express way cruises.
As we all know, most of above prerequisites are not yet available in every nook and corner of the Country and I reckon it'll be atleast 5+ years before that happens.