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xoomax t1_jdnq6al wrote

I'm going to follow up with probably a very stupid question.

When I get service, can they simply check for bad alignment and just charge for that If the alignment is good? Or do you typically just pay for an alignment and they align it whether it's out of alignment or not?

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twelveparsnips t1_jdo1rpk wrote

If your car is driving straight and the tires are wearing evenly the alignment is good or good enough. To check the alignment takes almost as much work to do the alignment because most of the work is putting on the equipment. Some cars even make the technician put a weight in the front seat to simulate the driver, so you're going to pay a shop nearly the same amount of money to just do an alignment. If there are no symptoms of a bad alignment, there really isn't a need to check it. The symptoms to look out for are the car pulling to one side or the other on the highway without input from the driver. e.g. you let go of the steering wheel and it starts drifting to the left consistently, if it pulls in a different direction every time, it could be the crown in the road. Uneven tire wear on one of the edges. e.g. your front driver's side tire's inside is worn, but the outside isn't. If the same tire has both the inside and outside worn but the middle is OK, it's a sign that you need to inflate your tires, if just the middle is worn, then you're overinflated, but if only one edge is worn, it's likely an alignment issue

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warheadhs t1_jdnr520 wrote

You might notice your alignment is poor if the car is pulling a bit one way when your steering wheel is at rest, or if the tire wear is uneven. Otherwise it's probably not worth paying for the alignment service in my opinion.

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Burnsidhe t1_jdnz4a2 wrote

The difficulty with this is that most roads are curved or have a slight incline crosswise, to help shed rainwater. This also causes cars to never drive straight even when the wheels are properly aligned. A better indicator of misalignment is tire tread wear patterns.

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plaid_rabbit t1_jdnu9ok wrote

> I get service, can they simply check for bad alignment and just charge for that If the alignment

You can often tell by how the tires are wearing and how the car drives. In theory the "correct" alignment for your car should cause your tires to wear evenly, and when you drive down the road on a flat, level, smooth road, and you let go of the wheel, it goes straight, or maybe drifts a hair to the right. It should not drift to the left.

If the side towards the center of the car is wearing faster then the outside, or other way around, it means the tires aren't "flat" on the ground.

The point of having your alignment done is to make sure the tires wear evenly, the car drives straight easily.

A car gets out of alignment by parts getting slightly bent. Even thick steel parts will slowly bend over time. And alignment is measured in 0.1degree increments. So just a hair off will make your car drive less smoothly. They measure it in 2 directions, plus the difference between the right and left side.

I had an old truck that was off 4 or 5 degrees. It still drove, just... you just had to keep your hand on the wheel to prevent it from turning right. It wanted to turn right, and went through tires quickly.

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