How often do you all get your alignment checked?

I bought my car in Sept. 2008, and when I installed my skip shift eliminator in Dec., I noticed the front left tire was wearing a lot on the inside, so I had it aligned. I have no idea if it was balding when I bought the car. I just installed new tires all the way around today and noticed that the inside of the right tire was balding this time. I am taking it to get aligned tomorrow since I have new tires.

I was just wanting some input so that I can keep a closer eye on the new tires.

 

I do a check of my tires usually once a week and if there is anything out of the ordinary into the alignment shop it goes. My car is a daily driver and we have a lot of rough roads here so I would never let it go more than a year between alignments.

 

At the very least each time new tires go on. You want to detect abnormal wear before you see it. Buy a tread gauge and learn how to use it. Back in 06 I was a front end mechanic. (Tech) IMHO the front suspension is a lot tougher than it looks. If the tires are wearing evenly and you like the way it handles there is no need to realign. Later! Frank

 

Once the tires are out of alignment and a wear pattern is established, it my be hard to tell if a new alignment fixed the problem.
Definitely get an alignment when you get new tires and check them every 4,000 or 5,000 miles for uneven wear.
I measure tread depth across the face and if there is significant wear in one area, I get the alignment checked.
Depending on the brand of tires, you might even want to rotate left to right just to even out wear that is already there.

 

You need to realize you have to pay attention when you take the car to a shop for an alignment. The C5 service alignment is targeted toward performance with some negative camber. This can cause the inside of front tires to wear faster than the outside. The tolerance specs actually allow quite a wide variation around the service preferred settings. A shop alignment mechanic puts the spec into the machine and enters the tolerance. When the machine readout turns green he can say he is done. That doesn't mean you have a good alignment.

For example:
RPO=========Operation========Service Preferred=======Tolerance
FE1 & FE3=== Front Individual Camber=== - 0.20 =========== +/- 0.5
FE4 (Z06)=== Front Individual Camber=== - 0.70 =========== +/- 0.5

The FE1 and FE3 settings are for cars with EMTs which can not take a lot of negative camber due to their stiffness.

The FE4 settings are for Z06s with Supercar tires and wider rims.

If you look at the tolerance allowed you can see that an FE1 car can be considered to be aligned (the machine indicates green) if it has a Z06 camber setting. With EMTs you would get severe inside wear while with non Z06 softer side wall tires the wear wouldn't be so bad.

To compensate for the increased inside wear with the more aggressive settings you could drive into the corners harder and use the settings to corner faster and equalize the tread wear across the tire by rolling the tires over some more than you have been doing. It also makes the car more enjoyable to drive.

Bill

 

Tires are checked routinely every few months and real good , annually at inspection time. Tire wear has always been even, and have never had an alignment. 2002 Coupe.

 

Alignments,, sure I do those.

I did one on my 64 Vet at 65,000 miles

I did one on my 87 Vet at 57,000 miles

I did one on my 99 Vet at 25,000 miles now it has 80,000 miles and tires are doing great.

IMO, The vet has a solid front end. If you hit something hard enough to knock it out of alignment you have broken something. Otherwise joint wear will cause very slight changes but almost impreceptable. Check the A frame bushings for damage visually. Otherwise once I get it set I leave it along. Many shops will only check toe - in and bill for the full job. I would rather not spend the $$ unless my normal inspections find a problem.

On my 64 vet when I pulled the front end I aligned it with rullers and a inclinometer. Never had an issue.

If you want to race then you may want to move it around more often for your driving. Otherwise I save the $$.

I realize your results may vary. But I doubt your roads are worse than south Louisiana and New Orleans.