Symptoms of A Bad Alignment
1) Worn Tire Treads – The most visually obvious symptom of a bad wheel alignment is when the treads of your tires start to become worn. Instead of having all those grooves and patterns to them, your treads will look like completely flat rubber. Unless your tires are several years old, worn treads are an indication that you have a wheel alignment problem. Do not let this problem go unfixed for too long because it will impair your driving ability.
2) Pulling to the Left or Right – There is a simple test that you can perform to see if your wheels are misaligned. Just find a straight flat road to drive on with no one around. Center the steering wheel and then let go of it while the vehicle is in motion. The car should continue to drive straight if the wheels are aligned. But if the car swerves too much to the left or right, this means the wheels are not aligned properly.
3) Vibrating Steering Wheel – Wheel alignment is supposed to create a smooth driving experience. You should not feel any vibrations coming from the steering wheel if you have good wheel alignment. Therefore, if you do feel vibrations coming from the steering wheel, then it means you don’t have good wheel alignment. These vibrations might not seem like any big deal, but they are. Think of them as an early warning sign to get your wheels aligned before the symptoms progress into something much worse.
4) Tire Squealing – As your tire treads continue to get worn out from a bad wheel alignment, you will notice your tires squealing a lot more. You will hear them squeal as you step on the accelerator pedal and when you go to make turns. The worse your that treads get, the louder the squealing will be.
