Malvern PA Auto Repair

When all of a vehicle's wheels are lined up exactly with each other, your wheels are in alignment. Hitting a road hazard or even just the normal bumps and bounces of everyday PA driving can cause your vehicle wheels to be out of alignment. This can lead to expensive premature tire and suspension wear. Here are some alignment basics from ASM Auto LLC: The first angle is called toe: Do the wheels point in towards each other or away from each other at the front of the tire? The next angle is called camber: Do the wheels tip in or out at the top? And finally, there is castor. Castor measures the angle where the front axles attach to the vehicle. The ideal alignment for your vehicle was designed by its engineers. ASM Auto LLC  ... read more

After many years and tens of thousands of miles vehicles' suspension system components do wear out, but how long that takes depends a lot on how you drive. As you can imagine, if most of your driving is on smooth highways, your shock absorbers will last a lot longer than if you do most of your driving on bumpy roads or hauling heavy loads. In addition to just wearing out, vehicle suspension components can be damaged in an accident or by a hard impact like a pothole, hitting a curb or a rock in a bumpy road. Because the life span of shocks can vary so widely, your vehicle's manufacturer recommends periodic inspections. During an inspection, your friendly and knowledgeable ASM Auto LLC service advisor will check for worn, broken or missing parts. Signs for residents that shocks or struts are wearing out: the vehicle tires may have a cupped wear pattern. This is from the shocks bouncing unevenly. Residents may notice a floating or drifting sen ... read more

There's nothing quite like the feeling of driving down the road and, suddenly, the back end of your vehicle collapses. A possible cause is that something in your suspension has broken. Suspension components gradually wear out – you may not even notice the ride and handling slowly getting worse. But a sudden failure is unnerving and will often leave you unable to drive your vehicle. A broken spring can cause your suspension to drop suddenly. There are different types of springs, including coil springs, leaf springs, and air springs. Most vehicles these days use coil springs, and they look just like you think they'd look: a coiled-up metal spring like what you'd find if you took apart a ballpoint pen. Coil springs fail from rust (thanks, brine and road salt), trauma (think potholes, speed bumps, curbs) and just plain metal fatigue. Leaf springs are often used in larger vehicles such as trucks and large SUVs. The design has been around since the early days of carriages ... read more

Let’s talk about your suspension – you know, the system that connects your wheels to your vehicle, controls your handling and delivers a good ride. Your suspension is critical for proper steering, stopping and stability. Hey, it’s a rough world out there – every time you hit a pothole, a bump or an object in the road, your suspension system absorbs the impact and maintains control. As you can imagine, your suspension has a lot of joints and pivot points that allow your wheels to move up and down over bumps and to turn as you steer. These parts include ball joints, tie rod ends, the pitman, idler arms and the control arm bushing. They simply wear out over time. When a joint or other part is worn, the suspension parts don’t fit together as tightly as they should. Handling and steering have a loose feel and you may hear strange noises. Your tires will wear unevenly because they’re bouncing down the road a little off kilter. A loose joint has the effe ... read more

Click on the link below to read the article:  Suspension Wear and You