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.

Make “Black Box” Data Recorders Mandatory on All Vehicles

Regular readers of this column and blog may be shocked to read about my advocating government intervention regarding equipment on new cars. I’ve come out against silly proposed government suggestions like installing a “noise maker” in hybrid vehicles so that they can be heard when running on batteries. I’m also against a device that will prevent your car from starting if your cell phone is turned on. I don’t even like the check engine light which is mandated by law to be sure your car isn’t leaking too many pollutants.

However, I’m totally in favor of requiring all auto manufacturers to install EDR’s (electronic data recorders) in all vehicles. Interestingly enough, many manufacturers have been doing this for a lot of years, but they kept it a “secret”. I can remember customers calling me to ask if there was an EDR in their Toyota. At first, I said no because Toyota had never told their dealers anything about this. When word finally leaked out, I learned that this EDR was for internal use only and in fact Toyota and the other manufacturers encrypted the data so that, if somebody found the black box, they couldn’t translate the information.

Why would manufacturers keep an EDR secret from their customers, the government, and everybody else? The answer is fear of litigation. Plaintiffs’ lawyers could use this information against the manufacturer in product liability claims and lawyers could also sue manufacturers for violation of their privacy rights.

I have no sympathy for a manufacturer who is afraid of the truth. If the EDR proves that there was a defect that caused the accident, so be it. The manufacturer is guilty and should pay damages. The unacceptable alternative is to not learn or hide the truth. What’s even worse is that the known cause of the accident may not be corrected so that future cars won’t have the same problem.

I also have no sympathy for privacy advocates who say “It’s my car and the black box belongs to me. I can determine who looks at the black box.” It might be your car, but the government can tell you how fast you can drive without imperiling the lives of others. They should also be able to find out to a certainty whether speeding or driver error caused you to injure or kill another person(s).

A fringe benefit of EDR’s would be a huge savings in the costs of litigation and insurance. A black box is like DNA in that the evidence is indisputable. I wonder if one of the reasons the black box is being stonewalled is the resistance of lawyers.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA) issued regulations in 2006 regarding an EDR but without making it mandatory. In other words, the manufacturers can take it or leave it. This is nonsensical. What good is rule if you don’t enforce it? What could be more important than a device that will scientifically determine the cause of an accident…whether the accident was caused by driver error, vehicle defects, or highway design flaws? Who can possibly be against this? They estimate that the cost to the manufacturer would be only about 50 cents!

The EDR, black box, has been mandatory in airplanes for many years. Thousands of lives have been saved as a result of being able to determine the causes of airline accidents and instituting remedies in the form of design changes and improved training and safety regulations for flight crews. If we had had black boxes in cars as long as airplanes, the number of deaths and injuries prevented would be many times greater than that in airplanes simply because of the larger number of people who drive than fly and the greater number of accidents.

Ironically, the highly publicized recalls of millions of Toyotas worldwide, may have awakened the car manufacturers and the government to the necessity of EDR’s. One of the things that proved the innocence of Toyota against the charges of vehicle defects causing “sudden acceleration” was Electronic Data Recorders that were furnished to NHTSA and deciphered by Toyota. All of the EDR evidence proved that the accidents caused from the alleged sudden acceleration were driver error. Drivers either accidentally stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake or had the wrong floor mats placed incorrectly (sometimes two sets stacked on top of each other) in their vehicles.

Hopefully all manufacturers and our government will get the idea. That idea is the one our mothers taught us when we were children…honesty is the best policy” and as Dr. Martin Luther King often quoted, “The truth shall set you free”.