New wheels and rubber = alignment needed..??

[2K2AcuraTL]

This spring, when the time comes to swap the snow tires/rimes, I will be installing a new set of aluminium rims and new tires. The minivan JUST turned 100,000 km, no preveous alignment has been done. At the momment the vehicule shows no obvious signs wheel alignment problems...eg: steering pull or major uneven tread wear.
Is an alignment strongly recommendd at this point or a waste of money?
Thanks
jean

 

[Bob Woods]

A good shop will check your allignment and if its within specs will not charge you. But the money you spend on a good allignment is nothing compared to the price of a set of good tires.

 

[labman]

Alignment is a tricky thing. I would almost vote for leaving well enough alone with no obvious problems. Apparently your driving habits and conditions are such that you aren't having much of a problem. New tires only put more at risk.

 

[Quattro Pete]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I would only redo alignment if suspension work was being done. No need if just replacing rims/tires.

 

[rpn453]

I wouldn't touch it if you haven't seen any abnormal tire wear or any steering problems. I've heard of people getting bad wheel alignments, so why spend the money and take the chance if you have no signs of problems.

 

[outrun]

I work as a part time service advisor.

Please heed my advice.

A)As mentioned above any self respecting shop will check your alignment for free

They will only charge you if an adjustment had to be made to correct your specs back to O; ie camber, caster, toe, thrust angle etc.

B) I disagree with the above post on "if it aint broke dont fix it."

The bottom line is that any thing driven for X amount of mileage will eventually have alignment geometries of specification.

Alignment is like an oil change, it is necessitated as routine maintenance to anyone who gives a care about there pricey tires, safety, and fuel economy.

Yes! Your car can feel like it has perfect steering while in fact your toe and camber is out causing uneven wear to your tires.

Trust, me I know and hate having to argue that point to all the CHEAPO customers out there.

Case in point, getting your alignment checked and or corrected with your new wheel/tire is set is simply common sense.

I respectfully reject the above opinion of not doing it by the other poster.

Just go to respectable and experianced shop, you dont want some monkey toying with your suspension thats all

 

[outrun]

One more thing,

I would even bet money (assuming the shop is honest) that in fact your car is out of alignment and they will have to make adjustments.

Please save the alignment angles read-out and update the board.

At least with my customers, i would say out of every 52 alignments i recommend, ONLY 1 was perfect.

The odds are with me.

 

[rpn453]

quote:

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Originally posted by outrun:
Yes! Your car can feel like it has perfect steering while in fact your toe and camber is out causing uneven wear to your tires.

Trust, me I know and hate having to argue that point to all the CHEAPO customers out there.

Case in point, getting your alignment checked and or corrected with your new wheel/tire is set is simply common sense.

I respectfully reject the above opinion of not doing it by the other poster.

Just go to respectable and experianced shop, you dont want some monkey toying with your suspension thats all

---

You do have a point. Things do wear. I'd check my alignment frequently if I could do it myself, but I trust noone with my car (or anything else, for that matter). When I get tires put on, I loosen the nuts off and re-torque them when I get home because I know a lot of places just throw the impact on them and call it good. Enough with the paranoia though . . .

My main problem is that I can't prove to myself it's necessary if steering and tire wear are normal. If they are abnormal, I notice that right away. It's not because I'm cheap (though I am!), it's because I need justification. It's one of those things that I'm not far from the border on though, so I certainly wouldn't say someone is wrong for getting a wheel alignment with their new tires. In most cases I've actually recommended it since, amazingly enough, many people don't seem to notice abnormal tire wear or steering problems.

[ February 12, 2004, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: rpn453 ]

 

[labman]

If your old tires were wearing normally, the new tires will wear normally. Leave well enough alone.

 

[2K2AcuraTL]

Thank you to all for your insignt..
I would not have thought to have an alingment inspection. I do not have an independant shop that I know/trust, I have been going back to the GM dealer where I purchased the van mostly.
I will inquire on how much an alignment inspection is?... but would any business driven mechanic automaticly try to persuade me to have the complete alignment done($86.00)..??
Jean

 

[theguru]

If you were putting the same tires (tyres) on and the alignment was ok, then you might get away with not doing an alignment. However, different tires & pattern do make a difference and usually the patterns change even within the same brand in the time between changes. I personally would get the alignment done, but a professional alignment shop, not the dealer.

However, all that being said, you did say you were changing the rims as well. In that case, absolutely get an alignment!

If your alignment is out at all, by the time you notice the unusual wear, an alignment will not fix it. They will continue to wear unevenly.

A really good alignment will not only save your tires but your car will drive better as well.

 

[Quattro Pete]

quote:

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Originally posted by theguru:
However, all that being said, you did say you were changing the rims as well. In that case, absolutely get an alignment!

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I change my rims+tires twice a year (225/45/17x8 for summer; 205/55/16x7 for winter). Does that mean I should be doing an alignment twice a year? I think I'd go broke if I did. I've been using this setup for 3 years now, and all my tires wear evenly and the car handles as well as it did on the day I bought it.

Just wanted to throw in an opposing point of view.

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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I change my rims+tires twice a year (225/45/17x8 for summer; 205/55/16x7 for winter). Does that mean I should be doing an alignment twice a year? I think I'd go broke if I did. I've been using this setup for 3 years now, and all my tires wear evenly and the car handles as well as it did on the day I bought it.

Just wanted to throw in an opposing point of view.

---

Just to throw a little spice into the sauce....

You're running different profiles on the two wheel/tire sets. Do the rims have different offsets and backspacing? If so ..you're changing the scrub radius ..the dynamic thrust applied to the static toe settings etc ..the angles and amplitude of the increments of steering input to wheel movement....


These are the issues that many of the off road crowd run into when they go to wider/taller tires. I'm sure it also happens to the "fast and furious" crowd as well. For these people alignment is an "art" or a craft.

Just stirring up the bees nest of debate.

 

[Quattro Pete]

quote:

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Originally posted by Gary Allan:
Do the rims have different offsets and backspacing?

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The 17s have ET37 offset. The 16s have ET35 offset. Not sure what backspacing is.

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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quote:Originally posted by Gary Allan:
Do the rims have different offsets and backspacing?

The 17s have ET37 offset. The 16s have ET35 offset. Not sure what backspacing is.

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You obviously don't have major issues with it...but some others might. The thing about either the offroad crowd or the fast and furious crowd is that they tend to wear out tires so fast anyway that they don't really have any idea of how long they are supposed to last to begin with.

I went from 30" BFG (28.7 actually) to 33" BFG ..on the same factory alloys. The width was identical 9.50 section width 8.xx tread width. Then I put a Warn lock out hub kit on ..and it moved my tires out about 1". Now I don't know what the "new" toe settings would be. The contact patch is now sitting outboard of where it was ... biasing and elevating the spreading force of forward motion of the vehicle on the wheels.

Do I need more toe? Yes? NO? who knows?

These are the issues that you run into ...and I only have ONE alignment setting to play with .just toe. You can adjust caster to a limited amount but pinion angle of the front differential takes first priority on that.

I couldn't imagine having all three alignment settings to cope with when putting on some radical tire/wheel changes from what the OEM set up the front end geometry for.

 

[harper]

With new tires I would at least have the shop check it. Most decent shops will just charge for the amount of work performed, if fine a small charge if way off then the full charge. You can ruin new tires fast with a poor alignment and its not typically recoverable.

Ask around, I fortunately found a great alignment shop that happens to be cheaper than others.

 

[2K2AcuraTL]

Thanks
The cheapest I have found so far was $69.00.
None of the shops seem to want to do an alignment check...

.. " its the same set up work wether we do a check or the full job..." to quote one of my conversations.

I am still having an internal debate after considering all the replies so far..

Part of me says - dont be so cheap-...
Jean

 

[2K2AcuraTL]

Update:
Well I have been driving on the new rubber for ~2 weeks or about 700km, and all seems to be quite stable. No pulling or vibrations. I was flipping through the owners book, and they mention wheel aligments arent required, unless its obviousy necessary.
I'll update again if I decide otherwise.
Jean