Wheel Alignment
Pulling to one side, a steering wheel that sits crooked when you're driving straight, tires wearing faster on one edge than the other. Those are the three signs that bring most people in. An alignment costs a lot less than a set of tires, and a tire worn unevenly for a few thousand miles is a tire you'll be replacing early.
The job itself is straightforward on a car where nothing underneath is worn out. We put the car on the alignment rack, measure the angles the wheels sit at, and adjust them back to spec. Toe, camber, and caster, depending on what the car allows for adjustment. Some cars only give you toe adjustment up front, which is normal and not a shortcut on our part.
Where it gets more involved is when the alignment won't hold, or the numbers are off by more than a curb-tap would explain. That usually means something in the steering or suspension is worn: a tie rod end, a wheel bearing, a hub assembly. If a tie rod end is loose, we replace it and set the toe at the same time, since there's no point aligning a car around a part that's about to move again. Same logic with a bad wheel bearing or hub. You'll usually notice that as a grinding or humming noise that changes with speed, sometimes worse in a turn, rather than a pull. We check for play in the hub and bearing when we've got the wheel off, because a bearing that's starting to go will throw the alignment off again within a few weeks even after we've done it right.
On an older car, this is where we tell you the truth rather than just doing the work. If a truck has worn bushings, a sagging spring, and a bad tie rod all at once, an alignment on top of that is money spent on a car that's going to pull again in a month. We'd rather say that up front than have you back in here in three weeks annoyed that "the alignment didn't take." Sometimes the right answer is to fix the worn part first, or in a few cases, to say the truck's suspension is tired enough that chasing the alignment isn't worth it anymore.
We're at 28801 Meridian E in Graham, open Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. Call (253) 375-7057 and we can usually get you a rough idea over the phone of whether it sounds like a simple alignment or something more.