Steering, Suspension, and the Case for a Fall Alignment

A summer of expansion joints, monsoon washouts, and construction zones does measurable work on a vehicle’s steering and suspension. The changes happen a fraction of a degree at a time, which is exactly why drivers adapt to them without noticing. Fall is a sensible time to check, partly because tires are expensive and alignment is what protects them, and partly because winter is a poor season to discover that your steering has developed slop.

• Alignment angles drift gradually, and the first evidence usually shows up on your tires rather than in the steering wheel
• Worn steering and suspension components make a correct alignment impossible, which is why inspection comes before adjustment
• A set of tires costs several times what an alignment costs, and bad alignment can ruin one in a few thousand miles

How Alignment Actually Drifts

Alignment describes three angles at each wheel. Toe is whether the wheels point slightly toward or away from each other, camber is their tilt from vertical, and caster is the angle of the steering axis, which governs how the wheel returns to center. Toe is the angle most sensitive to disturbance and the one most responsible for tire wear. A toe error smaller than the width of a pencil across the tire can scrub a tire out in a season, because that tire is being dragged sideways a fraction of an inch for every foot the car travels.

Potholes and hard impacts move these angles, but so does ordinary component wear. Rubber bushings compress and take a set. Ball joints develop clearance. Springs sag a few millimeters over years and change ride height, and ride height changes camber. None of this announces itself. The vehicle simply drives a little differently each month, and the driver’s hands adjust without the driver ever making a conscious decision about it.

Read Your Tires First

Tires are the most honest diagnostic instrument on the vehicle, and they are free to read. Run your hand across the tread, first in one direction and then the other.

• Wear on both outer edges with good tread in the middle usually means chronic underinflation
• Wear down the center strip means overinflation
• Wear on one edge only points to a camber problem
• A feathered or sawtooth edge you can feel in one direction but not the other is the classic toe signature
• Cupping or scalloped patches around the tread suggests worn shocks or struts letting the tire bounce

That last one is worth dwelling on, because shocks and struts fail so slowly that almost nobody notices. Their job is to keep the tire in contact with the road, and a worn shock lets the tire skip during braking and cornering. Testing on a lift and checking for that cupping pattern gives a much better answer than the old bounce test on the bumper.

Inspection Comes Before Adjustment

There is an order to this work, and doing it out of order wastes your money. An alignment machine can set angles to specification on a vehicle with a loose tie rod end, and the vehicle will leave with a printout showing green numbers and will be out of alignment again within weeks, because the loose joint moves under load. A worn component has to be replaced first, then the alignment set to the corrected geometry.

The parts we check before touching the alignment rack include tie rod ends and the rack bellows, ball joints and their boots, control arm bushings, sway bar links and bushings, wheel bearings, and struts or shocks for leakage and wear. Torn boots deserve a specific mention. The rubber boot on a ball joint or a CV axle is holding grease in and dirt out, and a torn boot converts a component with years of life left into one that will fail within months. Catching a torn boot is one of the highest value findings in a routine inspection.

Symptoms worth a same week appointment include a steering wheel that is off center when driving straight, a pull to one side on level pavement, a clunk over bumps, a vague or wandering feel that requires constant small corrections, or a groan when turning at parking lot speeds.

What This Saves You

The arithmetic is straightforward. An alignment costs a small fraction of a set of four tires. A misaligned vehicle can consume a set in well under half its rated life, and it also works the steering and suspension components harder, because everything in that system is fighting a car that wants to go somewhere other than straight. There is a fuel economy component too, since a tire being dragged sideways is a tire creating drag.

Most vehicles benefit from an alignment check once a year, and always after new tires, after any suspension or steering repair, and after any impact hard enough to make you wince. If your vehicle has been through a monsoon season of washed out shoulders and patched pavement, it has earned a look.

Steering, suspension, and alignment work here is backed by our NAPA Gold 36 month, 36,000 mile nationwide warranty, honored at NAPA AutoCare Centers across the country.

Bring it in before the tires make the decision for you. Call us to schedule a steering and suspension inspection with an alignment check, and we will walk you through the before and after numbers.

Advantage Automotive
511 Paisano St. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87123
(505) 298-4996