It’s that time of year again! You’re innocently cruising along when out of nowhere a pothole jumps in front of your car. Wham! “This is not good; an expensive alignment will destroy what’s left of the bank account. What bank account? It doesn’t exist; the holidays and days off from bad weather took care of that.”

Relax; you may not even need an alignment. Not every disastrous-feeling encounter with a pothole causes damage. However, it is imperative to have the suspension, wheels and tires checked ASAP! Fortunately more times than not your service will end there.

Most drivers don’t have a clue what indicators suggest an alignment is necessary. Many think pothole bashing automatically means an alignment is required. Others believe that pulling to one side is proof an alignment is necessary, still others rely on tire wear.

By themselves these myths have little value as indicators that an alignment is needed. Hitting potholes doesn’t guarantee you’ll need anything more than a checkup.  Taking your hands off the wheel to test for pulling to one side is truly worthless, dangerous, and reckless. First, never take your hands off the steering wheel while the car is moving and second, if the car pulls it doesn’t prove anything except --- the car pulls. It certainly doesn’t indicate that an alignment is necessary. Uneven tire pressure, a bad tire, binding brakes, worn front-end parts, a power steering problem or several other faults could cause the pull. Although an out of alignment condition can lead to pulling, it’s last on the list, not first.

Tire wear is another way to sell yourself into unnecessary repairs unless you know how to accurately interpret wear patterns. In addition to alignment abnormal tire wear can be caused by too little pressure, too much pressure, failure to rotate, bad shocks, and assorted other problems.

Bottom line, the only real way to know whether your car needs an alignment is to have the vehicle checked at a competent shop using modern equipment.

Even after it’s determined an alignment is needed, you’ll be faced with terms like two-wheel alignment, thrust-angle alignment and four-wheel alignment. First, disregard the term two-wheel alignment as it’s nearly obsolete. This leaves thrust-angle and four-wheel alignment. But how do you decide between thrust-angle and four-wheel alignment? Which one is better for your car? Actually, there is no decision to make; the equipment does it for you.

Today’s alignment machines measure all four wheels starting at the back to establish if the rear wheels are properly aligned. If they are the technician aligns the front wheels using the properly aligned rear wheels as a reference. This is thrust-angle alignment.

If the rear wheels are not properly aligned they must be corrected before they can be used as a reference for aligning the front wheels. In this instance all four wheels are being aligned, therefore the term four-wheel alignment.

The lessons here are, there’s no way to know if a car needs a four-wheel alignment until it has been checked on alignment equipment and; it’s not as easy as most drivers think to knock a car out of alignment.
 

© 02/04/04 Pat Goss all rights reserved