Just want to check with anyone who knows better, I did a wheel alignment the other day and bought new tyres, then I realised they did wheel alighment while the old tyres were still there and then they replaced my tyres afterward. The guy said its the same because its the wheels that get aligned, old or new tyres don't make a difference. I do understand that the wheels are the same wheels, but wouldn't the tyres put on some additional weight to the wheels can potentially affect how they spin and the alignment could be off? Thanks
Wheel Alignment on Old Tyres?
justwii on 08/01/2024 - 21:09
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Still waiting…
*inhales* Well…
(Also, sorry I'm late. Early morning starts are killer)
Wouldn't expect it to make a difference. Alignment is done while wheels are static so no difference when tyres are changed.
Wheels are balanced when new tyres are installed anyways so theoretically they should spin similarly.
Why trust theory when you can just do the alignment on new tyres in practice? What's the gain for them to do it before?
I was saying the theoretically in regards to the balancing piece, not the alignment - the alignment would be the same regardless of the tyre.
I said theoretically because the wheels may have been out of balance for whatever reason prior to being balanced.
Tyre changes and wheel alignments require use of different machines so it's entirely possible that if one isn't free they would do one operation before the other because it doesn't make a difference.
The benefit for the shop is that if you have two people working, one doing tyre fitting and one doing wheel alignments, then it doesn't matter who is free first. The complete job, fit tyres and do wheel alingment, can be done in any order. And it doesn't make any difference as other have said it is axles that are aligned not the tyres.
Would make no difference to alignment but would to balance if they did the balance before mounting the new tyres but that'd be unlikely, or at least I hope so.
Now I might have some unbalanced wheels?
Very unlikely. They'd need to be a clueless shop to do the balance before fitting new tyres.
Modern wheel alignment equipment is pretty bloody good and it will make bugger all difference.
Wheel alignments are primarily performed to provide safe and predictable handling. It's just a secondary bonus that it also prolongs the life of your tyres. The original factory suspension design and specs took all of this into account.
It's fine. Wheel alignments are a bit of a scam to extract more money from you when buying new tyres. Unless the car drives weird or has uneven tire wear they are often unnecessary.
Agree 100%.
I considered the maths of whether I can recover the cost of an alignment by the tyres lasting 5% longer. If the tyres are wearing ok then there's absolutely no point.Except they don't get 5% more life, its typically far more as it helps mitigate edge wear (amongst other wear patterns), as well as it can have huge impacts on handling.
This is what I tell customers, if it ain't (fropanity), don't fix it.
Unless it is badly pulling one way or the other or the tyres are scrubbing out, don't touch it.
Same. The Skoda had 1 alignment in 205k km. I didn't even bother when I changed the springs.
It's a wheel alignment, not a tyre alignment :)
They are aligning the hubs and axles, not the tyres. You can do a wheel alignment with no wheels on the car, or with just the rims, so worn tyres don't really make any difference.
On most modern cars, you can only do toe adjustments and even to a more limited extent, some will allow a camber adjustment. Just about everything else on the steering is fixed.
Many thanks. That's my understanding too, thanks for confirming.
And then there's the question of how well minimum wage not mechanically qualified tyre fitters do wheel alignments.
Got new tyres. Front wheel alignment included. I wasn't happy with how the car felt. I took it back and asked them to do it again, right. They weren't happy. They did it, but this time I got it back with the steering wheel not centered. A while later I noted the ABS warning light was often, then always on. But the car had other problems and wasn't worth much being spent on it, and I expected fixing the ABS would probably be expensive. Then another mechanic gave it back to me with it fixed. All it took was doing the front end alignment right and centering the steering wheel. For some reason that's not obvious to me the ABS disabled itself if the steering wheel wasn't centred.
OP requests: Align my wheels.
Request 2: change tyres
Dealer obeys 100%
The wheels aren't carrying the weight of the tyres, they're carrying the weight of the vehicle.
So it's irrelevant what the weight of the tyres is.
The one you thinking of is balancing.
No, it's fine. I used to prefer seeing the old tyres so I could see the wear pattern.
What's this "extra weight" you speak of?
Tyres don't spin during an alignment.
If it steers straight and the steering wheel is straight then it's all good
I mean the alignment is done when the car is jacked up, so the weight difference between old and new tyres might affect the axis when hanging above ground?
A wheel alignment is not done with the car jacked up or on a 2 post hoist.
The readings are done on a 4 post hoist with the weight of the vehicle on the tyres and the suspension at normal ride height. If you've got a really good, modern machine they are smart enough to allow you to lift the vehicle so the suspension droops, access adjustment points and tell you how much change you are making.
In the "olden" days if you had to extend the suspension to access an adjustment point you had to guess how much adjustment to make then lower the vehicle, bounce / jounce it and start again.No actual angle (caster, camber, toe, thrust angle) changes when you swap out wheels and tyres.
Are you sure you got a wheel alignment and not just a dynamic balance?
I surly paid for it LOL and they told me it was done before new tyres were put on. Not seeing how they did it nor I could tell what procedure they were doing even if I did.
@justwii: I think you lack the knowledge to know what they did or how they did it. I had many customers like you when I was on the tools.
Rims….not wheels. Wheel Alignment …modern WH is on the Rims.
Don't even need types if enough ground clearance to fit on the Alignment Ramp.
Back in the old days, (and still in some theaters)…. a Tape measure or string is used but only Toe In/Out on Heavy Vehicles. Even a modern jalopy can have a basic Toe rest this way…. but the Machine on the Rims is the bees knees.
Assuming you have a good operator and the correct specs on a standard vehicle. Modified vehicles are different again.
Remember, in Automotive general terms, Rim + Tyre = Wheel. Also, only align if symptoms show, otherwise no.
Rims and wheels are used by most people interchangeably these days so it's not worth worrying about but if you want to get technical, the correct term is wheel. The rim is part of the wheel.
Well I was more thinking the circular disc that's exposed after taking off the rim is the "wheel". Must be so far off.
Pic would confirm but I think you're referring to the brake disc
the circular disc that's exposed after taking off the rim is the "wheel".
That's the brake rotor / disc
@pegaxs in 3….2….1