Loading page
About this tool
Plan wheel alignment and balancing intervals from road quality and kilometres, and tell the two symptom sets apart.
The Wheel Alignment Planner schedules two jobs that are constantly confused: alignment, which sets camber, caster and toe so the wheels point where the steering says, and balancing, which distributes mass around each wheel so it does not shake at speed. It works from the standard intervals — roughly every 10,000 km or 6 months for alignment and every 5,000 km for balancing — shortened for poor roads, and it separates the symptoms so a pull to one side is not treated as an imbalance. Events like a kerb strike, new tyres or replaced suspension parts make one of the jobs due immediately, whatever the odometer reads.
Open Wheel Alignment Planner on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Add your input to the workspace.
Adjust the options until the result looks right.
Copy or download the output and put it to work.
Separate intervals, symptom scores and status for alignment and balancing.
Distinguishes an off-centre steering wheel from a speed-band vibration, and flags brake judder as neither.
Kerb strikes, new tyres, punctures and suspension work force the relevant job immediately.
About every 10,000 km or every 6 months as a routine check, and immediately after hitting a kerb or deep pothole, fitting new tyres, replacing any steering or suspension component, or changing ride height. On badly broken roads, halving that distance is realistic.
Alignment adjusts the angles at which the wheels sit relative to the car and the road; balancing adds small weights to the rim so the wheel's mass is evenly distributed as it spins. Misalignment shows as pulling, an off-centre steering wheel and wear on one edge of the tread. Imbalance shows as vibration in a narrow speed band, usually 80 to 110 km/h, with nothing wrong at low speed.
That pattern — smooth at low speed, shaking in a band around 80 to 110 km/h, steady again above it — is classic wheel imbalance, most often the front wheels. If the shake instead appears only while braking, it is brake disc run-out rather than balance, and the discs need measuring.
Balancing is mandatory on fitting; alignment is strongly advisable. New tread on a car with an existing alignment fault wears unevenly from the very first kilometres, and it is far cheaper to correct the geometry than to replace the tyres again early. Set tyre pressures to the door-jamb figures before the alignment is measured, not afterwards.