Welcome back to the Ducharme Motors Weekly Blog where I write about all things related to our Ford Dealership at 5714 50 Ave in Bonnyville Alberta and everything to do with amazing Ford Trucks like the brand new, fully redesigned 2015 Ford F-150!
Today I’ll be writing about Tire Alignment and why it’s important.
The summer is here and we’ve all been driving our summer rides a lot during the nice weather, and that is most certainly putting wear and tear on our struts. Around here, it’s sad to say potholes become a problem! And that is one of the main causes of damage that leads to needing a tire re-alignment.
Some others are:
Hitting the curb
Bumping into concrete parking stalls
Fair wear and tear — as vehicles age, rubber components start cracking or lose their elasticity and ball and socket joints develop looseness. They start to give a little more, progressively getting slightly worse over time.
Not getting an alignment done can cause serious problems. It can affect your steering and suspension, but more importantly, it could affect your safety and the durability of your tires and all the parts controlling them. Balancing should be done every time you get a new set of tires. Each tire is unique in terms of weight and needs to be balanced properly. Balancing should also be done any time you get new wheels or rims. Even if the wheel and tire are balanced on their own, when you pair them together it can create an imbalance.
Here are some signs you might need a re-alignment:
- Uneven wear. If one of your front or back tires shows a much different wear pattern than its opposite, more likely than not, it’s time for a tire alignment.
- Pulling to the right or left. If a vehicle’s wheels are badly out of alignment, you’ll notice the vehicle will automatically try to turn to one side or another. If you have to wrestle with the wheel, it’s time for an alignment, so that the wheels all point in the right directions.
- Passive pulling. With a lesser alignment problem, the vehicle may not actively pull, but when you let the car go straight ahead, without a hand on the steering wheel, the vehicle may naturally drift off to one direction or another. This is also a sign of an alignment problem.
- Vibration. Bad alignment can also cause vibration as wheels pull against each other. If your car is shaking while running down the road, check your alignment.
- A crooked steering wheel. Another sign of a vehicle that is out of alignment is that the steering wheel may be crooked while the car or truck is going straight ahead. Keep an eye on this tell tale signal of an alignment problem.
We do this and many other services here at Ducharme Motors in our Service Department. And this is one of the many services that doesn’t require an appointment. Come on down from Monday-Thursday until 12am without having to schedule. Give us a call for more information at 780-826-3278!