Hi all:
On a road trip under poor visibility from near white-out snow conditions, we hit something resulting in a front tire going completely flat by the time we were able to safely exit the freeway. The impact seemed moderate and the puncture was in the sidewall of my new all-weather tire. Later, at Discount Tire, it was discovered the alloy wheel had a slight bend on the inside edge either from the impact or perhaps from driving on a nearly flat tire. I was able to find a reputable shop for that repair.
The car seems to track just fine and the steering wheel is straight. I've always judged needing an alignment by whether or not the car tracks straight down a straight stretch of the freeway but after reading all the parameters involved in alignment, I now wonder if this the penultimate guide. Some sites say to watch for uneven tire wear, of course, leading me to all the more believe misalignment is not always evident in the "it drives straight down the freeway check". After a moderate impact along with rim damage potentially associated with the impact as I've described, is it worthwhile having the car aligned? With the new tires, I would hate for this to induce uneven tire wear but don't want to spend money unnecessarily either.
TIA for any input.
On a road trip under poor visibility from near white-out snow conditions, we hit something resulting in a front tire going completely flat by the time we were able to safely exit the freeway. The impact seemed moderate and the puncture was in the sidewall of my new all-weather tire. Later, at Discount Tire, it was discovered the alloy wheel had a slight bend on the inside edge either from the impact or perhaps from driving on a nearly flat tire. I was able to find a reputable shop for that repair.
The car seems to track just fine and the steering wheel is straight. I've always judged needing an alignment by whether or not the car tracks straight down a straight stretch of the freeway but after reading all the parameters involved in alignment, I now wonder if this the penultimate guide. Some sites say to watch for uneven tire wear, of course, leading me to all the more believe misalignment is not always evident in the "it drives straight down the freeway check". After a moderate impact along with rim damage potentially associated with the impact as I've described, is it worthwhile having the car aligned? With the new tires, I would hate for this to induce uneven tire wear but don't want to spend money unnecessarily either.
TIA for any input.