How do I know if my Car needs an Alignment?

Question for today “How do I know if my car needs an alignment?” Welcome to Mercie J auto care. I’m Rick Smith, master certified technician. So there’s two typical things that alignment will effect on a car. The primary one is tire wear, so we’re going look at how the tires are wearing to know if we need an alignment. Our second question for our clients, is the car drifting or pulling one way or the other? Do you have to constantly continue to the direction. The most obvious reason your car would need an alignment is if your steering wheel is off-center. Now I want you to understand that if you have any sort of vibration, it’s not going be an alignment issue. There’s a number of other things that could be, but it’s not going to be an alignment. We don’t want you to spend the money on alignment to try to solve a vibration and still have a problem. Steering wheel off centered or your car drifting or pulling you into another lane of traffic are the two common complaints that we get. The other thing is a tire rotational drag issue. Here at Mercie J, the first thing our mechanics do is to take the front tires off and cross them from side to side. If the car was pulling one way and now it’s pulling the other, the alignment is not causing it. The problem with the alignment is that we can’t physically see it, we have to put it on some equipment that can tell us what the angles of everything is. So look at the tire wear, if we look at this car even though the tires are worn quite a bit, it’s relatively even at the two outside edges. If it’s significantly different, then you have an issue. Look at your feet and think of them as the tires on your car. If your toes are pointed inward, then the outsides are going to drag and get worn. If your toes are inward, same thing and your car needs an alignment so that you don’t prematurely wear out your tires. So I hope this helps you understand a little bit about what alignments are and when you need one. Until next time, safe travels and blessings to you.

[@forhisglory700]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge; it was helpful.

[@MercieJAutoCare]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you so much for commenting. We appreciate you.

[@Mindurz]

Thank you for this video.

[@MercieJAutoCare]

Glad it was helpful!

[@brandonwilliams6859]

Thanks brother

[@iamjadeenn]

Thank you, Sir. God Bless

[@MercieJAutoCare]

Thank you!

[@soldiersvejk2053]

Thanks!

[@MercieJAutoCare]

You bet!

[@jacobdominguez5219]

had a vibration, was the alignment.

[@miketed5628]

Thanks

[@MercieJAutoCare]

No problem

[@rayzina147]

I need alignment bad then. Mahalo

[@brandonboss6868]

My steering wheel is off slightly, but it doesn't pull left or right

[@cloudies3671]

My car has about 35000 miles on it haven’t gotten an alignment yet. The car drives pretty straight no left or right steering issues. Dealership is recommending every 12k miles get an alignment but I turn it down. Should I just get it done for preventive maintenance or just leave it since I don’t have any issues?

[@elgreatjubilee5521]

Yes please it will favor you better learning the hard way rn

[@dontsugarcoat2729]

I have an 2017audis3 s3 and and coilovers. Just raised the coilovers. But the car drives straight and the steering wheel dosen't pull.si do I need an alignment?

[@MercieJAutoCare]

Absolutely.

[@Noname-hu7zg]

My car starts shaking around 55-65 MPH, the tires are fairly new (less then 4k miles) would that most likely be a tire balance issue? My car doesn’t do any dragging or anything on the free way. Just the steering wheel shakes in my hands around those speeds i stated earlier.

[@alinam4577]

Did you find an answer? Mine does the same

[@helderl.5668]

You could have warped rotors if the wheels are properly balanced.

[@shadowman1992]

What if the only symptom I have is my steering wheel is off to the right by just a little or so. Does not pull at all and tire tread is even.

[@car_detailing0327]

Me to

[@rafidalbotany1109]

That probably means your tie rod toe angle is out of spec

[@shadowman1992]

@rafidalbotany1109 can you drive that ? It is barely off center but it is just by a little.

[@SNL4LIFE473]

I have a 2006 ford Taurus se and i keep having to get alignments because its always wearing the inside passenger tire, ive replaced the ball joints, tie rods, strut/shock assembly all around with brand new tires several times and it still wears that same tire the same way every single time, i dont drive crazy or ever on dirt roads, wtf do i do

[@MercieJAutoCare]

Without seeing the car in person, we cannot diagnose this issue.

[@spark2053]

My truck is moving a lot when driving fast and I can’t take my hands off the steering wheel or I’ll crash 😢
Brand new tires

[@melip8350]

I'm sorry, you should never take your hands off the steering wheel while driving specially fast.

[@spark2053]

@@melip8350 of course, I meant to say its just moving a lot it doesn’t stay really steady

[@Admodeus]

@@spark2053 Did you find out what was causing it?

[@heklik]

So it's not necessary for an alignment if you buy 4 new tires ?

[@MercieJAutoCare]

We recommend to help tires last longer.

[@mpasaa]

If there's no pulling, steering wheel is fine and tire wear doesn't show anything obvious but dealer says an alignment is needed on a brand new car barely a year old....are they trying to up sell me? I call B.S. on this also because he was trying to up sell some stupid duct cleaning with that foam crap.... can't trust most shops these days especially dealers but we're dealing with warranty coverage right now so we have to go to the dealership for now....

[@MercieJAutoCare]

Based on the information you've given, it sounds like the alignment is okay. We recently received a request to do a demo on the foam duct cleaning product. We will possibly have a couple of videos on that coming soon.

[@B_HarTz]

He doesn’t know all the answers lol so I suggest find a new video or seek a tire profesional 😂