Wheel alignment

[Rat407]

Just wondered who all gets their vehicles aligned and do you do it on a regular basis or when the tires show wear?

So far on our vehicles we have never had to have an alignment done on any of our vehicles that we have owned since 2008.

Our 2008 Acadia was fine with good tire wear up until we sold it with 80k miles.
2011 Acadia the same way.
2012 Cruze, no issues and has 53k
2014 Cruze, no issues and has 61k
2016 Suburban is pretty new yet with 29k and no issues.

The only vehicle I have had an alignment on and only once is my 2002 Silverado 4x4. The LTX MS2's on it have 55k miles on them and are wearing great since new with no alignments.

So I was just curious if vehicles are holding alignments better or I'm just lucky.

 

[old1]

I haven't had a vehicle aligned at a shop ever. On old cars, I can align them myself. On the new and newer cars I have had and have, I have never had to align.

 

[KrisZ]

I don't believe in doing alignments as some sort of maintenance item. I do them when is needed.
Had to do an alignment on my 06 Mazda 3 few years ago when I changed the struts.
My 15 Grand Caravan was also aligned recently because it was stolen and hit something.

 

[OneEyeJack]

Originally Posted By: old1
I haven't had a vehicle aligned at a shop ever. On old cars, I can align them myself. On the new and newer cars I have had and have, I have never had to align.


When you say align them myself do you mean you just set the toe-in?

 

[supton]

When it needs it? Usually in response to suspension work. Certainly not more often than every 100k.

 

[28oz]

I get mine checked yearly or after any suspension work. More often than not, something will need adjusting. We do have a lot of potholes, uneven roads, and never-ending road construction though....

 

[IndyIan]

Usually I only have them done when replacing some suspension component, but I also had the rear toe reduced on a couple vehicles so they would track straight in variable snow and ice. I may have to do it on the Outback as well as it was a bit nervous on the ice from the last storm, but I only had the all seasons on, so it maybe better with the Xice2's this winter.

 

[mclasser]

Only when the car pulls or if a suspension component has been replaced. I had to do one under warranty on the Pilot since it pulled left shortly after I brought it home from the dealer.

 

[meep]

^^^ generally this for me.

My dad had an '89 CRX however, that needed alignments regularly. Parking straight to a curb seemed to throw it off easily. Keep in mind this was a lightweight vehicle with wide tires and manual steering. It was very finicky.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I always seem to get a car with tracking issues from the factory.

I'm a lemon magnet.

Rogue was through 1 set of tires by 23K miles. and is 1./2 way though long life set of Firestone 205/70R 16 at 42K. 4 alignments We have highly crowned roads an infinitely deep potholes now its spring.

Sometime one catches me unaware and BANG!

How can a wimpy mac strut suspension with no brake reaction rod maintain toe and caster?

The wife's subarus over the years seem to do 1/2 decent.

 

[Kestas]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I always seem to get a car with tracking issues from the factory.

I wonder if a new car's suspension has a break-in period and settles into a position.

One of my cars has the proper camber as per specification, yet the front tires always wear on the inside. I'm guessing this is because I don't turn as much as the average driver, and I need to reduce the camber.

 

[old1]

Actually I have the gauges etc. needed to do toe camber and caster on older vehicles.

 

[Warstud]

I'll have to start getting it done more often because I've worn down my last 2 sets of perfectly good tires because the alignment was out.