Alignment problems?

[Splinter]

I just had my tires rotated, and the outer rim of the left hand front tire was quite badly worn in comparison to the rest.

The mechanic said that they are probably misaligned but its not critical and I can get an alignment done when I do my suspension and new tires next summer.

However, there's a huge amount of vibration in the car at speeds exceeding 50mph, and in order to drive in a straight line, the steering wheel must be turned approximately 1 or 2 degrees to the left. I'm a little concerned that the misaligned wheels are causing the vibration, and possibly even my low gas mileage.

How much would an alignment run, and could it have anything to do with those problems?

[Richard]

Yeah, I'd say an alignment is needed. A failing strut can cause vibration and various worn suspension parts can contribute to the shift. But a proper alignment is critical to any further diagnosis of this problem. Wheel balance is crucial, but that goes without saying.

I had a 4 wheel alignment done on my '93 last year at the local Nissan/Kia dealer for $70.

Shop around for a good deal. As long as the shop is a reliable one you'd be fine. The process is the same, but labor can vary greatly. I was quoted at a couple places at $150 plus, so I basically got the same job done for half the price.

Afterthought - you might want to find a used tire that's not badly worn. A fubar tire is going to cause problems no matter where you put it on the car. Worn tires WILL affect gas mileage. IMHO - get a used tire and ride it out until you do the whole shebang next year.

[Splinter]

The badly worn tire is now on the rear, got rotated

[BAC5.2]

Not all alignments are created equal. There are a lot of ways to get the machine to read what they want it to read without much work.

Most of those $90 lifetime alignment places will do a "good enough" job, and as long as it's in the green, that's all they care about. Factory spec allows for a LOT of play. You can have .1 degrees camber in the rear on one side and .9 degrees camber on the other side, and still be in the green.

A GOOD and proper alignment will run you around $90 if you care about the end results. If you don't, go to one of those lifetime places.

[BAC5.2]

Oh, and it sounds like you have some wicked toe-out. I bet the car feels like it handles OK, but makes lots of tire noise around quick turns, huh?

[All_talk]

Hey Splinter

Remember those wheels and tires came off my '91 and were only on that car for a few thousand miles before you bought it. My '91 seems to be aligned well but does have bad front struts that could have started the poor wear, and once a tire starts to wear funny it tends to continue that way. The vibration in your car always seemed like a tire balance issue as it only seemed to present at higher speeds. With the tires rotated has the nature of the vibration changed at all? Did you end up getting them rebalanced?

That aside, an alignment is always a good idea. I’ve found that AWD cars are very sensitive to alignment and tire condition, even unbalanced tire pressure can cause pull and track issues.

Gary

[professor]

check the conndition of the ball joint and tie rods, if they are bad you will waste money with an alignment

also make sure your wheels are straight, almost every older car I've bought had one or more bent wheels on it