Alignment before or after getting new tires?

[moribundman]

My alignment is off, thanks to our foot-deep potholes. I see some abnormal tire wear. Should I get the alignment done with the abnormally worn tires, or should I wait until I have new tires? I need new tires anyway. I'll have to drive about 40 miles with the new tires before I can get the alignment done. What I mean is, does it make any difference in terms of accuracy whether the alignment is performed with the old or new tires? My car requires a Hunter machine (optical/laser system).

 

[dkryan]

I've always had the alignment done after the new set of tires are mounted. Equally important are new valve stems and the proper balancing of each tire. If that's done, it's irrelevant that you'll have 40 miles on the new set of tires before the alignment.

 

[JohnBrowning]

It does not matter much. Your tires would have to have so much unusal wear as to make the car almost un bearable to drive to cause aliment issues when aligning the vechiles susp.!!

When I was a Tech I used to keep weights on hand though. If someone came in witha sports car I would align the car with their body weight added or with them sitting in it. I did this with my vechiles all the time! It might sound silly but I think it makes a huge difference if you drive at the limit often!

I am sure someone thinks I am smokeing a crack pipe though!

 

[fastbear]

Old family alignment shop used to ask if I wanted the vehicle set up for interstate or state 2 lane driving. The curvature of the road affects a given alignments pull. Always opted for the interstate neutral setup and contented with a little wheel pull on radiused state highways. Any thoughts on this JohnBrowning?

 

[moribundman]

Yeah, forgot to mention, I always have put a weight on the driver seat and the tank is 3/4 full when I have an alignment done, or when I adjust the headlights.

I guess I'll put the new tires on before the alignment, just because I'm anal about, and I doubt driving 40 miles will do any harm.


As for guessing the amount of offset in an effort to compensate for the crowning, good luck. I go for a neutral setup. My car doesn't pull anyway, it didn't even pull with a blown-out rear tire going 70 mph. Hadn't it been for the noise, I wouldn't have known. Come to think of it, I should probably change my argument against tire pressure monitors in another thread just for that reason!

 

[White 03]

I would opt to having it done with the old tires on. My thinking is the alignment guy could see what is happening on the old tires and make corrections. But if they align it to spects it probably doen't matter much.

 

[moribundman]

quote:

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I would opt to having it done with the old tires on. My thinking is the alignment guy could see what is happening on the old tires and make corrections. But if they align it to spects it probably doen't matter much.

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Generally a good point, but not applicable in my case. My tires were already pretty worn, so I rotated them to get a bit more life out of them.

As for the alignment specs, I know where I want them: within specs with as little toe in as allowed.

 

[steveh]

I would have it done after the alignment.I think even with the same size tires different brands might have a different hight. that might affect the alignment.

 

[moribundman]

I always go for 205/55/16 Conti Sport Contacts. As I said, I'll most likely get the new tires first anyway.

 

[97f150]

An old tire man once told me that the condition of the tires that are on the car at the time of alignment will affect the accuracy of the alignment. I brought my car to him with the worn out tires on it and he did the alignment on it and told me to come back after I had my new tires mounted and he would do it again for free, and guarenteed my money back if I didnt feel the diffrence. By God, he was right, I dont know if it is the amount of tread or what, but I drove around a week after getting the new ones the same day he did the first alignment and I did notice a big diffrence. I doubt the 40 miles will do anything to new tires if it is drivin to the shop directly from the tire place.

 

[Tosh]

It seems intuitve to me that you would want to align the wheels with new tires, as, if nothing else, the car is now sitting about a half-inch higher off the ground.
But I decide on having an alignment based on how the car feels and the tires' wear pattern, so I haven't had a car aligned since 1994, when I ran over a post...