Should You Schedule A Wheel Alignment After Winter?

Wheel alignments are a normal part of vehicle maintenance. Your vehicle's alignment determines the angle of the wheels relative to the vehicle's suspension and direction of travel. Your car's steering and suspension components maintain your alignment but wear and tear, along with road hazards, can cause your alignment to "drift" over time.

There are many different opinions on how often to align your tires, although it's common for service centers to recommend alignments with every other oil change or during tire rotations. However, one particular time of year can be especially hard on your suspension and steering: winter.

Why Is Winter Such a Harsh Season?

Few people enjoy driving in winter, but it's not the snowy and icy roads that your car hates. Instead, winter is often a traumatic time for your car because it's the pothole season. Potholes and broken asphalt can often appear during winter, leading to rougher roads and high-speed impacts that can damage wheels, tires, and other components.

Any sudden impact can cause your car's alignment to falter, although you may not always notice the effect immediately. Likewise, driving over rough and uneven road surfaces will cause additional wear on the softer parts of your suspension. If these components are already relatively old and worn, your wheel alignment can substantially drift due to daily travel over these harsh roads.

What Makes a Post-Winter Alignment Beneficial?

Incorrect wheel alignment may create numerous symptoms, some of which can be fairly severe or costly. Your tires can drag across the pavement even if you only have a relatively minor alignment issue. This issue causes excessive and uneven wear on your tire treads while increasing rolling resistance and decreasing fuel economy.

These effects can increase over time, costing you money in fuel costs and premature tire replacements. If you allow your alignment issues to progress far enough, your vehicle may become difficult to steer or control, leading to dangerous handling. Since winter roads can often put the most wear on your suspension, early spring is often a great time to address these issues before they progress too far.

Should You Schedule an Alignment After Winter?

Of course, whether a post-winter alignment is right for your situation will depend on your current maintenance schedule. If you had your wheels aligned right before winter and your car still feels solid and tracks straight, you may not need an alignment. On the other hand, late winter or early spring can be a great time to schedule this service if you're already due for an inspection and alignment.

Most importantly, never ignore the symptoms of alignment trouble. Noisy steering, drifting and pulling, or uneven tire wear indicate an alignment problem. If you spot any of these warning signs after a harsh winter (or at any other time!), you should consider scheduling a wheel alignment as soon as possible.

For more information, contact alignment services near you.