Auto Repair: Alignments and Balancing

Keeping your vehicle's wheels aligned can impact the wear and tear of your tires. The mechanic will make sure that your wheels are adjusted so that they are straight. If your wheels are not aligned properly, your tires will wear out unevenly, and they will wear out faster. As you drive, you may notice that your car tends to shift over to one side of the road, and it may be more difficult to drive straight. You may not realize that there is an issue at first, simply thinking that you have to buy tires more often than usually. The problem may not necessary be in the quality of your tires. Keeping your wheels aligned, of course, can save you money.

You may also have an issue with balance. Your car may also tend to vibrate when you drive. Pay special attention to your steering wheel. It may tend to shake when you accelerate. You may feel the shaking issue in your floorboards or your seat may shake. If your vehicle tends to shake when you drive at faster speeds, check your balance. Some people ignore the vibrating, attributing it to a bumpy road, but you may very well have a balance problem that is causing your tires to tremble on the road. This problem may impact the wear on your tires, as well. When you take your car to an auto repair shop, the mechanic will most likely look for uneven wear on your tires. He or she may perform other diagnosis checks to determine if your issue is improper balancing, alignment, or both.
One benefit to getting your car balanced is the almost instant smooth ride. After the balancing you will likely notice a tremendous difference in your ride at high speeds, and you will wonder why it took you such a long time to balance your car before. Remember people tend to become accustomed to problems associated with their vehicle. They tend to ignore the issues until the problem simply cannot be ignored, because impacts their ability to drive. A passenger may also alert you to issues, especially if the passenger does not usually ride in your car.

In some cases, your car may lose its balance soon after a balancing job. If you notice that your vehicle begins to shake badly soon after you have had a balancing job, do not hesitate to return to the auto repair shop. The problem may have to do with the condition of your tires. Your tires may have a problem holding the balance. The balancing job may have been impacted when a metal weight used to balance the tires fell off. The shop should find a solution without an additional charge if you respond soon after the first balancing job.

In addition to being nuisances, poor alignment and lack of balancing can be at the root of tire blow outs or flats. When your tires wear unevenly or they wear out early, you run the risk of having a flat on the road. If you auto repair mechanic asks if you would like to have your vehicle balanced, and aligned think about taking him up on the offer.