One of the best ways to take good care of a car, aside from bringing it to a carwash regularly, is to always check its parts. This way, you will know if each of your car or vehicle parts is still working well to keep you safe while driving on the road. One of the most important things that you need to check is the alignment of your car’s tire.
Tire alignment is also known as wheel alignment, and it can help your tires perform properly and last longer. Besides that, ensuring that your tires are aligned can improve handling and keep your car from pulling in one direction or vibrating strangely while on the road. Some might think that tire alignment is adjusting the tires or wheels themselves, but that is wrong. Tire alignment is the adjustment of a car’s suspension, which is the system that connects the car to its wheels. When it is adjusted, it affects how they make contact with the road.
If you own a car and its tires often need to be aligned, have you ever wondered why that happens? Why do you think car tires get out of alignment? If you want to know the answer, you’re in the right place. Today, we will to give you the reasons why car tires get out of alignment.
How to Know if Your Car Tires Need Alignment?
Before we give you the reasons, you first need to know the signs that will tell you if your car needs a tire alignment. Here are some of them:
- When your vehicle is pulling to the left or right.
- When your steering wheel vibrates.
- When there’s uneven tread wear.
- When your steering wheel is off-center when you’re driving straight.
- If you’ve noticed that your car has one or more of these indicators, then you need to have your alignment checked by a service technician immediately.
Reasons Why Car Tires Get out of Alignment
Now that you know the signs, here are the reasons why car tires get out of alignment:
Due to Impact
The impact is one of the most common reasons why a car’s tire gets out of alignment. Some examples of impacts that your car might experience before you notice alignment problems include driving over a large pothole, hitting the curb, driving fast over speed bumps, bumping a concrete block, or getting into an accident.
Most road bumps that people usually encounter are not huge, but these can still throw off your alignment. The stronger the impact, the more likely the alignment would be out of place. Some accidents cannot be avoided, but it is still important to drive carefully to avoid these incidents.
Due to Worn Parts
A car’s tire might also get out of alignment even without any sudden impact. How? Due to worn parts. As time pass, the parts of your car will get worn down as you use them. For example, the alignment between the steering wheel and the wheels is because of your car’s suspension. Therefore, if the suspension springs of your car wear down, it will affect the alignment of the steering wheel and the wheels.
To avoid lots of alignment issues, one of the keys is to get your car checked or serviced regularly. This way, all deteriorated parts will be replaced immediately.
Height Modification
This one is a rare reason and only applies to those who change their car’s height. Therefore, if ever you change your vehicle’s height recently, you need to make sure the alignment is still intact. It’s because a car suspension is designed to work for a specific height. If you modified the height of your car without changing the suspension, its alignment might not be correct. If you are planning to modify the height of your car soon, make sure that you also talk about the suspension of your car to your mechanic.
What Happens When You Drive with an Incorrect Tire Alignment?
There are many negative things that can happen to your car when you drive with incorrect tire alignment. Here are some of them:
Worn-Down Tires
Car tires wear out eventually. However, when your tires are not aligned, they can wear down faster because they need to put extra power as you drive. Aside from that, they will exhaust unevenly, which also contributes to having to replace them sooner than you would otherwise. But when you correct the wheel alignment issue immediately, you can save more money in the long run as you don’t need to replace your tires often.
Reduced Performance
When your car’s tires are not aligned properly, they will not work at their best. It will give you a difficult time driving straight and will require you to use more power to keep moving forward. You’ll notice your car’s performance gets worse, especially when braking or going around a corner. Aside from that, your car may also consume more gas, since it needs to use more power to keep going.
Problems in Steering
As mentioned earlier, one of the signs of incorrect tire alignment is noticing your car to be pulling to one side consistently. Even if you get used to it, it is still better to get the problem fixed so that you no longer need to worry about it every time you drive. It will also make driving safer.
These are the reasons why car tires get out of alignment and why it’s important to keep them aligned at all times. We hope the information we shared here helped you in further understanding what tire alignment is and its importance.