Bad wheel alignment can be identified by a few signs, some of them are your car pulling to one side, uneven steering wheel, uneven tire wear and many others.
Proper wheel alignment helps you maintain control of your vehicle, especially when turning or driving on a curved road.
A bad wheel alignment can be caused by many factors, such as poor driving habits, or other environmental factors.
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You can identify the bad heel alignment by taking better attention to these signs, let’s get going!
Table of Contents
7 Signs of Bad Wheel Alignment
Knowing the signs of bad wheel alignment will help you identify what’s wrong with your vehicle.
Other than giving you a more comfortable riding experience, a proper wheel alignment also ensures that your car is in top shape and will improve your overall safety.
If you are experiencing these 7 signs, you should take an immediate action and fix it right away to save you money in the long run as well.
As we stated above, there are several factors that can cause wheel alignment. But here are more of them!
- Heavy Impact: Driving over potholes or curbs, or hitting any road hazard will cause heavy impact that in turn will alter your car’s wheel alignment.
- Worn Parts: Some of the parts of your car need to be replaced after a certain period of time. Factors like worn suspension and wheel bearings will cause your car’s tire to tilt and change the angle they sit on, thus messing your car’s alignment.
- Low Tire Pressure: Underinflated tires will also ruin your car’s alignment and tend to pull your car to one side or the other. Check your air pressure regularly!
- Overdue re-alignment: Wheel alignment is a regular maintenance that you should conduct. Most of the time, misalignment occurs because it’s already due for re-alignment. Re-aligned your car at least once a year is the general rule of thumb.
Enough with the chit-chat, let’s get going with our main topic, let’s dive into the common signs of bad wheel alignment!
1. Uneven Steering Wheel
The easiest way to check if your car needs alignment is to inspect your steering wheel while you drive on a straight even road.
Your steering wheel should remain straight or dead center while driving, check for the logo that is usually present on your steering wheel to make it easier for you to identify.
If your steering wheel leans slightly off-center in any direction, it means that your car needs to be realigned.
2. Car Pulls to One Side
Still linked to the previous point that we’ve mentioned, if your car needs to be realigned your car should pull to one side.
Simply take your hand off the steering wheel (but please, do it carefully), and inspect if your car is slowly pulling or drifting to one side even if you’re driving on a straight road.
And on top of that,.to determine the severity of your car’s misalignment, you can inspect how often it swerves to one side.
Go call your favorite mechanics to address this problem right away!
3. Sloppy or Loose Steering Wheel
Also known as “free play”, a loose or sloppy steering wheel is when your steering goes a little bit too far than you intended to.
This is also very dangerous as it can cause an unwanted and unnecessary turn, this can also be a sign that your car’s needs to be realigned soon!
4. Uneven Tire Wear
Go and check the tread of your car tire, if you identify that one of your tires is more worn-out than the others, it could be that your car has a bad wheel alignment.
You can use a tread depth meter to measure the tread depth of your car accurately, but if the day is a little bit rough, there is also an indicator on your car tires that can help you identify this.
5. Tire Squealing
If you notice a squealing sound from your tires as you turn or accelerate, it could be the signs that your wheels may be misaligned.
A squealing sound from your tire may be caused by several things, it may come from brake pads, but it can be a sign of misaligned wheels.
The point is, squealing is not normal, and it indicates that your car has some issues. A squealing sound from your tire can cause your tire to wear out unevenly, also.
6. Vibrating Steering Wheel
The next one is a vibrating steering wheel. Your steering wheel should not vibrate as you drive, so if it does it should mean some problems, either it’s a bad wheel alignment, or unbalanced tires.
But it could mean some other things such as an issue with the brake discs or worn out suspension components. Either way, it is best to go to your mechanics and have the problem solved right away.
7. Steering Hesitation as You Turn the Wheel
Most modern cars these days have power steering so you won’t break a sweat when turning your car.
However, a bad wheel alignment may cause steering hesitations that require you to squeeze more force as you turn.
So, if you’re having difficulty turning your car wheel, it may be that your car has a bad wheel alignment and needs to be realigned.
But keep in mind that it’s not always that your car needs to be realigned, it could also be trouble from the steering wheel system itself.
So there you have it, the 7 signs that your car has a bad wheel alignment!
