That Brand New Car May Need a Wheel Alignment

I wrote another article on wheel alignments a short time ago. If you’re not conversant with wheel alignments, this is a good article to read and you can find it here. Also, this is a great video on YouTube, http://www.tirekiller.com/.

Most everyone thinks of a wheel alignment as a maintenance item which is the owner’s responsibility that you don’t need to worry about when you first buy the car…at least not until you drive into a pothole, notice a pull to the left or right, or uneven tire wear. Unfortunately most car manufacturers and dealers also look at alignments the same way.

A few months ago, I invested in a new state-of-the-art wheel alignment machine. Older wheel alignment machines require a lot of time and labor to measure the wheels for proper alignment. In fact, it actually takes almost as long to determine if your car’s wheels are out of alignment as it does to also actually correct the alignment. Because of this, most service departments (independents and dealers) will charge you the same just to “check” your alignment as to actually correct it. The cost of 4-wheel alignments averages between $70 and $100. Beware of very low priced alignments. These may be just for the front end of your car and/or by older or obsolete alignment machines. I invested in my new state-of-the-art alignment machine because it allows me to check an alignment in less than 10 minutes which permits me to check a customer’s alignment at no charge.

Now, I check the wheel alignments on every car that comes into my service drive. I also check all of my company cars including my parts delivery trucks my service courtesy vans, my new car demonstrators and my used cars. I do this for the same reason that you should check the wheel alignment on your car, even if it’s brand new. As I explained in my earlier article, a car’s wheel out of alignment is like high blood pressure…often times there are no symptoms. And, just like high blood pressure can be fatal to you, misaligned wheels can be fatal to your tires.

The reason that I’m writing this article so closely on the heels of my last wheel alignment article is because of the astounding data I’ve been able to collect since I began checking every car coming through my service drive (about a hundred each day) for alignment. About one car out of every four that I checked is out of alignment which didn’t surprise me that much. Industry data supports this. But what did surprise me is the fact that about one out of four new cars is also out of alignment! I’m defining a new car as one under one year old or 20,000 miles. My thoughts on this are that some cars may actually be misaligned before they leave the manufacturer and some may have their wheels knocked out of alignment loading and unloading them on ships, trains, and trucks between the manufacturer and the dealer. Of course new cars are also driven by the dealer on road tests, demonstration rides and traded back and forth between dealers. As you can see there are lots of reasons a “new car” can need a wheel alignment.

Because a new car has so few miles on it, it’s impossible for you to notice the misalignment from uneven tire wear. As I explained in my earlier article, the only other tangible symptom for misalignment is pulling to the left or right. But all it takes is two adjustments on two different wheels to be out in opposite directions to cancel each other out in which case there is no revealing pull to left or right.

Now here’s the shocking facts I discovered when I began checking the wheel alignment on all new cars that come through my service drive. Before I purchased my new state-of-the-art Hunter alignment machine, I checked and aligned a new car only when the customer complained of a pull or uneven tire wear. The average number of alignments I checked and fixed each month was only “seven”. Now that I’m checking the measurements on all new cars, I’m aligning an average of forty-six, an increase of 650%! This means that for every wheel alignment I corrected, there were six more that were not detected and fixed. Many of my customers ended up paying for an alignment that should have been covered by their warranty and many may have had to replace their tires sooner than they should have.

It pains me to admit that I haven’t been checking my customers’ new car for alignments before a few months ago, but I really had no choice for two reasons. I couldn’t afford to pay a technician the lengthy labor time required with my old alignment machine and the manufacturer would not pay for an alignment check or alignment on a new car unless the customer complained of a pull or uneven tire wear. This is common practice with most, if not all, manufacturers and I believe it’s a huge mistake. You would think that the manufacturer of the car would understand the technical fact that a car’s wheels can be out of alignment without showing tire wear or pulling. Selling a customer a new car with wheels that are misaligned and not allowing that car to be aligned under warranty is simply not right. The consequences of this can not only be very expensive for the customer, but a potential safety issue as well.

My advice to you is to demand that the dealer and manufacturer who sold you your car prove to you that your wheels are aligned properly as soon as possible after you buy the car. Make this a written condition of the purchase. Ideally all new cars should have their alignments checked just before they are delivered to the customer. Many dealers might encounter a problem with reimbursement by the manufacturer for doing this and that’s why it’s not already being done.

Out-of-Align Wheels: The Silent Killer

Estimates on the number of cars on the road right now that need an alignment range from as low as 25% to as high as 75%! Even if you have the best tires and vehicle that money can buy, all it takes is a little pothole or curb to cost you a new set of tires. This can cost you anywhere from $300 to over $1,000. If you live in an area with unpaved roads or lots of roads in need of repair and being repaired (Like South Florida) you’re especially vulnerable to potholes and other road obstacles that can knock your front and rear wheels out of alignment. One of my “favorite” ways to misalign my wheels is curbs…I can’t seem to avoid them when I’m parking, especially backing into a parallel parking place.

Most people know that if their car is pulling to the left or right, they need an alignment. Most also know that if they see wear on the edges of their tires, they may have an alignment problem (It could also be under inflated tires). But what most people don’t know is that your wheels can be badly out of alignment with no symptoms whatsoever. It’s like high blood pressure and that’s why I used the phrase “silent killer” in the title of this article. Some people can tell their blood pressure is high from headaches or dizziness, but most feel no difference. Most people learn that they have hypertension only when their doctor measures their blood pressure. Unfortunately many never find out until it’s too late.

Last year I had to replace a nearly new set of tires which had only about 5,000 miles on them (it cost me over $1,000) because all four of my wheels were out of alignment. There were no symptoms whatsoever. My car didn’t pull, my steering wheel was perfectly straight, and I saw no abnormal tire wear. I brought my car in for its routine 5,000 mile service and when my technician put it up on the lift to rotate and balance my wheels and tires, he found that the inside of all four of my tires was severely worn. When you have offsetting misalignment on opposing wheels, there is no pull and when the wear is only on the inside of the tire, it’s invisible until the car is up on a lift. I had my car aligned only a few months ago but I knocked it out of alignment again without even realizing it.

Aligning the four wheels of your car, like everything else, is a lot more complicated than it used to be. Cars shocks’ and suspensions are more complex today. When most cars had rear wheel drive, aligning was simple. Now we have mostly front wheel drive and even some all-wheel drive cars on the road. We no longer do just “front end” alignments we have to align all four wheels. In the “old days” service departments routinely checked the alignment for all cars that drove in. There was a simple machine built into the service drive that registered the measurements when you drove over the track. Some service department still use these dinosaurs but they are not naccurate on today’s cars. Nowadays, many alignment machines are so complex that it takes almost as long to measure your alignment as to adjust it. For this reason many service departments will charge you the same to measure your alignment as they do to actually align it even if the measurements find it is perfectly in adjustment. There are newer, very expensive machines that will quickly measure alignments but most service departments don’t have these.

There are three basic measurements that must be exactly right for your tires to be in align, castor, camber, and toe-in. This website links to a video that gives a very clear, easy to understand explanation of these measurements, www.TireKiller.com. The video was produced by the manufacturer, Hunter, who is the largest and best manufacturer of alignment machines in the world.

When you buy a new or used car, you should insist that the dealer check the alignment. A new car can be knocked out of alignment in many ways. Transporting the car to the dealer from the manufacturer and driving it on or off a ship, truck, or train can do it. A technician can do it during a pre-delivery road test or a car salesman or prospective customer might during a test drive. Remember that a demonstration drive in a new or used car won’t necessarily reveal any symptoms like a pull or abnormal tire wear. Many manufacturers will allow one alignment under warranty for a short time and mileage period (like 1 year or 20,000 miles), but some will only permit the dealer do check your alignment if you complain about a pull or abnormal tire wear. Manufacturers consider alignment a maintenance item that is your responsibility. This is why it’s important to be sure your new car is aligned when your car is still within the alignment warranty time and mileage.

When the service department measures your alignment, be sure that they use the latest equipment. A modern alignment machine is computerized, measures all four wheels, requires that your car be elevated on the lift, and the technician must be fully trained. And they are very expensive, about $60,000 for a state-of-the-art machine. Many independent service departments and some dealers can’t afford these. You should ask for a copy of the computer printout showing the specific measurements before and after your alignment. You should have your alignment checked every time you bring your car in for service, approximately every 6 months or 5,000 miles. If you hit a curb, pothole or other obstacle in the road or notice abnormal wear on the edge of your tires, bring it in for an alignment check immediately.