By Jim Grey

On your car, though, out-of-whack wheels mean more than mere annoyance.
“It can wear your tires out quicker, create more resistance, reduce fuel economy and create control problems with the car at high speeds and in emergency situations,” said Steve Knooihuizen, AAA AutoMark.

To get the highest gas mileage, as well as the longest tire life and best ride and handling from your car, you need to recognize when you need a wheel alignment.
           
The best maintenance requires having the alignment checked whenever you rotate your tires or once a year.

Slamming into a pothole or butting a tire hard into the curb while trying to parallel park is usually all it takes to create a wheel wobble.

Although you can’t always avoid high impact goof-ups, you can look (and feel) for the following conditions:

1. Pulling right or left. Does your car tend to veer in one direction when you cruise a straight, smooth road? Do you need to keep a slight pressure on the steering wheel with your right or left hand to get the car to track straight?
   
   Try this experiment. On a smooth straight away with no other traffic around, take your hands off the steering wheel a bit. Keep them poised just above the rim, so that you can grab it instantly to regain control. Although most roads have a crown in the center for runoff, which may subtly affect the vehicle’s path, your car should continue its course fairly well without you. If it doesn’t then you may have an under inflated tire on one side or you may need a wheel alignment.


2. A cockeyed logo. The carmaker’s logo in the center of your steering wheel should look perfectly horizontal when you’re driving straight ahead. A cockeyed logo, in other words, a steering wheel that is a few degrees off the 12 o’clock position, may indicate a problem with steering components or (more likely) with the wheel alignment.


3. Tires worn on one edge. Uneven tire wear probably provides the surest sign of misaligned wheels. Increased wear on the inside edge compared with the outside edge (or vise versa) clearly indicates that you need to see a technician, pronto. According to Goodyear, wheels off by as little as one-eighth of an inch in “toe” (the angle at which the front of a tire points in or out, when viewed from above) or one degree in “camber” (the tilt of the top of tire toward or away from the car, when viewed from the front) can increase wear by 20 percent on one edge.   
   
   On the other hand, significant wear on both edges of a single tire but not in the center of the tread face usually indicates serious under inflation. The tire’s sidewalls support the vehicle’s weight and the center of the tread face cups upward, leading to the characteristic two-edge wear pattern.
   
   Unfortunately, by the time you notice such uneven wear patterns with your naked eye, it may be too late to save the tires. That’s why a good tread gauge becomes so important. Use it regularly to measure tread depth at three places straight along the tread face, near the outside edge, in the center and near the inside edge.


4. Ribs worn on one edge. Run your fingertips across the tread face as well, taking care to feel how the inside and outside edges of each rib compare. (“Ribs” are the islands of rubber sticking up among the “void areas,” or spaces formed by the tread.) Does it feel uniform across the entire tread face? Improper alignment can sometimes lead to “feathering” on only one edge of the ribs.


5. Poor recovery on turns. After you make a turn, the steering wheel should return to center promptly, without feeling loose or difficult to control. If it doesn’t, then you may have loose steering or suspension components. But in most cases you probably just need an alignment.


6. Sloppy steering feel. Hard steering or shimmying in the wheel can arise from a number of problems, including misalignment.


7. Crab walking. The next time a family member drops you off someplace, watch the rear of the car as it drives away. Does the body seem to move a bit sideways, even though the wheels are pointed straight? Answering “yes” may indicate structural damage in the aftermath of a collision or the need to adjust the alignment of all four wheels with respect to the car’s centerline.