Wheel alignment is a very important feature in your vehicle and it basically controls how your wheels are located. While the wheel alignment procedure is included in the standard maintenance in the dealership, we often forget about this type of maintenance once our vehicle is no longer repaired and maintained in the dealership. Usually, this happens when the car is no longer under the warranty.
So, in this article, I want to tell you everything I know about the factors that affect wheel alignment in your vehicle and can change it quickly or after some time.
In short, wheel alignment may be changed by physical impact such as hitting the curb on the road or driving into the pothole. Also, the wheel alignment will change naturally after some time. The majority of manufacturers recommend aligning your wheels at least once every two years.
What exactly is wheel alignment?
In order for your car to go perfectly on the road and to have wonderful handling and traction, the wheels need to be positioned correctly. The actual position of the wheels will also affect many other important factors of your driving such as your comfort, the possibility to steer your car, gripping onto the road, etc.
I will not dig into the technical information about what are toe and caster. The only thing you need to know for now is that these two words actually denote the two basic angles of the wheel alignment.
The wheel alignment actually controls whether the tire will touch the road with the entire working surface or not. In other words, it controls whether the wheel is positioned straight or its position is changed and the wheel is not doing its job effectively.
So, when the toe or caster is changed, one or several wheels will not touch the road effectively enough to ensure that your car is safe on the road and doesn’t want to turn to the roadside anytime you lose your attention.
Main symptoms of bad wheel alignment
- The vehicle is turning unintentionally. You may feel that your vehicle is turning left or right and it doesn’t want to go on a straight line. It just doesn’t hold the road and you need to steer it all the time.
- Vibration on high speed. If you’re driving really fast and the wheel alignment is not completely OK, you will feel that the vehicle is vibrating. This may start at about 40 mph and get worse once you drive even faster.
- The traction is affected. You may also feel that the traction of your vehicle got worse when the wheel alignment changed because now one of the wheels doesn’t touch the road surface as it should and the wheel may easily slip or just lose traction sometimes.
- Problems when braking. If you try to brake hard in your car when the wheel alignment is not proper, you will feel that the car is moving sideways rather than stopping in a straight line. The sharper you brake, the sharper it feels.
- The tire wears out very quickly. You may also notice that one of the tires dies really quickly just because it comes in contact with the road with just one side or one shoulder of it. Naturally, this leads to quick wear.
What are the reasons for bad wheel alignment?
A lot of drivers just don’t understand why dealerships tell them to pay for the wheel alignment every year or every two years. They think that this is just the way for dealerships to earn money and to insist on additional services and repairs during the regular maintenance of the vehicle.
But, to tell you the truth, some drivers will need to provide their cars with proper wheel alignment much more often than just once every two years.
Here are some of the most common factors that can affect your wheel alignment:
- Hitting the curbs. Drivers without much experience often hit curbs when they park their cars. This is the primary reason why your car may have a lot of suspension problems. And this is also the primary reason for wheel alignment change in your vehicle.
- Potholes and the roads. When you’re driving on some bad roads and your car often hits some pits and holes on the road, you should be ready that the wheel alignment will change quickly and will require maintenance.
- Off-roading. If you sometimes or often use your car for off-roading, you may be sure that the wheel alignment will not be the same for a long time. Actually, after each time you go off the road with your car, you should check the wheel alignment.
- Suspension problems. When your car experiences issues with the suspension, it’s very common that the wheel alignment also changes. After many types of suspension repair, you will also need to control and align the wheels.
- Steering issues. The steering system can also be the reason that your wheel alignment is not perfect. Again, after you repair the steering system, very often you will need to check the wheel alignment.
- Bad wheel alignment bolts. The alignment of the wheels is changed with the help of several adjustment bolts that are integrated into the suspension system. If these bolts are in bad condition, they will need replacement. Otherwise, after you have the wheels aligned, you will still have problems with the position of the wheels.
Now you know what affects the wheel alignment and can easily predict when your car actually needs this procedure. But what if you refuse to pay for it? Can you align your wheels on your own without any special equipment? Let’s see.
Can you check the wheel alignment by yourself?
Unfortunately, this is not one of the DIY repairs that you can easily do on your own without having any experience and without buying any tools. Professionals use special computerized systems that are mounted on your wheels and control the alignment of the wheels with high precision using laser measurements.
The internet can tell you a lot of different methods on how you can check and even align the wheels in your vehicle using just some simple tools in your garage. But the common problem of all these methods is that they are not precise. Even if you manage to align your wheels, you will still not be sure that the alignment is correct.
Yes, if you even visually can see that the wheel is not positioned correctly, you can just find the alignment bolt and try to adjust this wheel to make it better than it was. But after that, it’s recommended to go to the repair shop that offers wheel alignment and to have your vehicle checked with the help of professional equipment.
I don’t recommend aligning your wheels on your own because this will not give you a quality result.
What will happen if you never align the wheels in your car?
I know some car owners who never pay for wheel alignment. But I am quite sure that they spend much more money on new tires than you and me.
The first negative side of ignoring your wheel alignment problems is that your tires will wear quickly. While one shoulder of a certain tire may be completely okay, the other will be completely worn out. Driving a car with such tires is not safe and it’s generally a very bad idea.
Also, driving on highways with poorly aligned wheels is not a very pleasant experience. You will most likely feel that your car goes from one side to another rather than going in a straight line. You will also feel the vibrations at high speed and these vibrations will most certainly make the quality of your driving much lower.
The safety of the driving will also be affected. Because the car with poorly aligned wheels will have bad traction. It means that when you try to brake in front of some obstacle, you may find it difficult to control the direction of your car.
I’m sure that your suspension will also not be feeling good. The poorly aligned wheel reacts differently to any kind of road imperfections. And this may lead to problems with struts and shock absorbers. The outer joint will also be under pressure and will most likely die much earlier than you think.
I suppose I’ve listed enough disadvantages of driving with poor wheel alignment. But you shouldn’t think that this list is finished. There are plenty of other minor issues that toe and caster can provide you with.
Final thoughts
In this article, I tried to persuade you to regularly align your wheels. This is an important part of regular maintenance of your vehicle. And this is what helps you make sure that the wheels are positioned properly and that they will react to any road challenges in the proper way.
A correct wheel alignment will actually make your driving safer and will provide you with more control over your vehicle, especially in some complicated road conditions. Even though I know many of you think that this is just the way for dealerships to earn money, you should be aware that this is a really important maintenance procedure.
Better have your wheels aligned once you feel the symptoms that I listed in my article, or just make it a rule to align your wheels once every two years or at least once every 30,000 miles.