How Serious Is Wheel Alignment?

When it comes to your vehicle, you might wonder which maintenance measures are most important. The simple answer is that they’re all important, but wheel alignment affects several factors. How serious is wheel alignment? Wheel alignment helps with your tires’ longevity and increases fuel efficiency. Steering is also easier, as proper alignment enables you to keep your car in your lane. If you are looking for a Jeep alignment near Pueblo, CO, trust in the team at Faricy Chrysler Jeep to handle it.

How Does Wheel Alignment Increase the Longevity of Your Tires?

What is wheel alignment? Wheel alignment, also referred to as tire alignment, refers to how straight and even your tires are positioned on your car. Ideally, tires will be straight up and down and pointed straight forward and back when the wheel is centered, but as wheels also take the most abuse on the road, they can shift in their positions, tilting or shifting and causing a range of effects.

When your wheel alignment is off, there is persistent pressure on smaller areas of the tire, such as the sides. This causes premature or uneven wearing, resulting in a need to replace them more often or even decreased safety and stopping power. Worn tires might be harder to drive in certain weather conditions or terrains, and they increase the risk of a dangerous blowout.

Having a wheel alignment done regularly increases the longevity of your tires by ensuring the wear is even and consistent. Our qualified service team can inspect your tires, providing a professional and transparent assessment. We can also rotate and replace your tires as needed. We offer flexible scheduling, early bird drop-off, a comfortable waiting area, and more.

How Does an Alignment Affect Fuel Efficiency?

When you think about alignment and fuel efficiency, think about a game of tug of war. Your team has to work together in order to win the game. When alignment is off on your vehicle, your four tires work against each other rather than working together. When the effort is dispersed in four different directions instead of combined into one, your engine has to work harder. When this happens, more fuel is used. Proper alignment ensures that all four tires continue on the same path toward a collective goal. This concentrated effort helps the engine work less and increases your fuel efficiency.

What Happens During Wheel Alignment?

When you bring your Jeep to our dealership, our qualified technicians will assess what is needed overall. The wheels are rotated and adjusted according to the manufacturer’s recommendation during the alignment. The alignment looks at various parts of the wheel, including the camber, caster, and toe. All three of these can be adjusted to ensure proper alignment.

The camber controls how much the tire can tilt inward or outward. Tires are also aligned for the tilt forward and backward. This is known as the caster. Finally, the toe gives a bird’s eye view of the inward and outward tilt. Once our team has completed the alignment, we will check everything over and give you additional information you might need about your vehicle. Additionally, the steering angle sensor for your vehicle will be reset.

What Is a Steering Angle Sensor?

The steering angle sensor looks at the angle and rotational speed of the steering wheel. This is what allows you to be able to control your vehicle and ensure that the movements of the steering wheel you make match what your tires are doing. While these sensors are designed with a lot of redundancies to prevent failure, there can be issues if it is not reset after a wheel alignment.

The sensor should be in good condition to help ensure you have proper vehicle control. If the sensor is not reset or it encounters an issue outside of the alignment, you will be alerted through your vehicle’s communication system. If you notice an alert on your dash, make an appointment with our team as soon as possible.

Signs Your Car Needs an Alignment

If you’re curious whether your car needs an alignment, there are a few sure-fire ways to know.

Premature or Uneven Wear on Tires

As mentioned above, this is one of the simplest indicators that your car might need an alignment. In fact, uneven wear patterns provide you with a wealth of information about your car. If you notice your tires are worn down the center, it might indicate hard braking patterns or overinflation. On the flip side, wear on the tire’s outer edges might mean your tires need inflating. This type of wear, like poor alignment, can decrease fuel efficiency. Finally, excessive wear of the entire tire base points toward a problem with alignment.

If you need clarification on your tires’ wear, have a technician check during your next appointment. Our professional team can walk you through the results so you can be mindful of patterns between visits. In addition to uneven premature or uneven wear on your tires, pay attention to the noises your tires make while you’re driving. A screeching sound or squealing might mean increased pressure on the wheels, resulting in the need for an alignment.

Issues With Steering

How your car steers is another significant indicator that you need a wheel alignment; however, it is important to note that terrain can affect steering. When assessing steering issues, notice if the problems are constant or only in certain situations. If your steering problems are caused by an issue with your alignment, you might notice:

• Vibration: If you notice your steering wheel is vibrating or shaking while driving, this may result from wheels that are not properly aligned. You might notice the vibration after driving on a particularly rough patch of road or after impact with potholes, which can easily knock your wheels out of alignment.
• Pulling To One Side: If you are driving your vehicle and notice that it pulls to one side or the other, this may be an indication that the wheels on your car are not aligned correctly. To check and see if your vehicle is pulling, center your wheel on a straight stretch of road, then lightly let go of the steering wheel. If your car is aligned, it should stay on course, but if it is not, it will immediately start to drift.
• Off-Center Steering Wheel: Pay attention to your steering wheel when driving in a straight line. Is the logo not straight even though your wheels are? If so, you are out of alignment and should bring your car to our team as soon as you can.

Brake Pad Wear and Tear

Another sign that you might need an alignment is when your brake pads are wearing unevenly. Not only is this a sign of poor alignment, but issues with brake pads can also lead to decreased braking performance. This can have dangerous consequences if left unchecked, so you need to address this issue sooner rather than later.

Come to Faricy Chrysler Jeep to Get a Proper Alignment

If you’re unsure of the last time your wheels were aligned, make an appointment today to have our service team inspect your vehicle properly. It’s a good idea to align your wheels whenever you bring your vehicle in for a tire rotation, as making it part of your routine maintenance is easy for you and can save you from having issues later. Wheel alignment should be part of the preventative maintenance plan for any vehicle in order to reap the benefits of better fuel efficiency and longer tire life, and our team here at Faricy Chrysler Jeep is always happy to do a quick alignment when your vehicle is in for a rotation, oil change, or another service.