My car shakes at “x” number of miles per hour. Do I need an alignment? Shakes , shimmy rarely has anything to do with alignment. But my car is pulling to the right as I go down the road! Does this indicate I need an alignment?No! well then what does determine whether I need an alignment?
Tire wear that affects the edge of one or both of the tires on one end of the car. That suggests that you need an alignment. However, if you rotate your tires properly, every 6,000 to 7,500 miles your probably not going to notice this wear on any tires.
When you rotate the tires you should be using what is called a modified “x” pattern. Meaning two of the tires are going to be crossed to the opposite side of the car. For a front-wheel-drive car, it works like this: The tire on the right rear would go to the left front, and the left rear tire to the right front. The two front ones come straight back. For rear-wheel drive, just reverse the pattern.
By doing all this if the alignment is slightly off your not going to notice it and more importantly and some cars take to a certain wear pattern, which just might be natural. Remember abnormal tire wear can be caused by too little tire pressure, too much tire pressure, failure to rotate tires.
One exception to the modified “x” pattern is if your car has directional tires or directional wheels. These tires should remain on the same side of the vehicle and be rotated straight forward and straight back. The other consideration is if the tires on the front and the rear are of different size.
