Single-file terraced streets and the London Road grind
Thornton Heath is densely built, and most of its side streets are narrow Victorian terraces parked on both sides with room for only one car to pass at a time. Threading through that every day means your nearside wheels spend a lot of their life within inches of a kerb, and pulling in tight to let someone through is how front tyres meet concrete. The impact goes through the wheel into the steering arm and track rod, and the result is often a tyre scrubbed bare on one shoulder months later.
The main roads give the suspension the rest of its work. London Road is a red route with frequent bus stops and regular queuing towards Thornton Heath Pond, the Pond roundabout and the Lombard roundabout are reliable peak-time bottlenecks, and Brigstock Road past the station and library narrows in places with parked cars and buses. Surfaces at bus stops and in heavily used nearside lanes take a battering, so a hard drop into a patched hole is more likely there than out on a quiet suburban road.
A lot of the cars we see from this area are everyday hatchbacks, estates and MPVs plus a good number of private-hire vehicles, and mileage matters. At high annual mileage a toe error that would take two years to show on a family car will strip a shoulder in a few months, so for drivers working out of CR7 we would rather check the angles with each tyre change. We measure all four wheels, record the thrust angle and set the front to it, then reset the steering angle sensor where the car needs it.
The drive over is Thornton Road to the Lombard roundabout, then Mitcham Road and Croydon Road west across Mitcham Common and south on Carshalton Road into Hackbridge, about 15 minutes. You get a written quote before anything is fitted and the before and after printout at handover, and collection and delivery can be arranged if the car is not pulling straight enough to be comfortable.