If you’ve ever taken your car to the mechanic for its regular maintenance, then you may have been offered to get your tyres re-aligned as well. While you may save some money opting out of this service, getting your tyres aligned regularly is legitimately beneficial to your car. It can even help improve certain aspects in its operation that you may find invaluable in your day-to-day experience.
Not convinced? Then here are the five benefits to regular tyre alignment that will have you running to Google to input the terms “car service near me.” Before we go into these exact details, though, let’s talk about what exactly tyre alignment is.
What is tyre alignment?
Tyre alignment is a vehicular maintenance process that ensures that all the tyres of a car are precisely aligned in the same position. Many things can cause your tyres to get jolted out of alignment, such as bumpy road conditions or a minor collision. This misalignment can result in possible safety issues and driving inefficiencies.
Once a car’s tyres get misaligned, it’s best to get them realigned by certified service technicians, who can use advanced computerised equipment and tools to get the job done. It’s a good practice to have your car’s tyres realigned every six months or so.
Now with that out of the way, let’s get into the benefits of regular tyre alignment.
It helps increase your car’s fuel efficiency
When your car’s tyres are properly aligned, it means that all four of them are working in perfect sync with each other. This allows them to propel your car efficiently and with zero wasted energy. As a result, you get a lot more out with every litre of fuel in your tank.
On the other hand, misaligned tyres will result in each of them working against each other. This causes your engine to work harder and burn more fuel to compensate.
So if you want to save on fuel, then definitely look into getting your tyres aligned.
It helps make your driving safer and more enjoyable
One of the more serious effects of having misaligned tyres is that it can cause your car to drift slightly to the right or left, even if you have the steering wheel dead centre. Not only is it tiring and stressful having to constantly adjust your steering to compensate for this drift, but it could also result in an accident if you accidentally forget to do so during a critical turn.
It helps give you a smoother and quieter ride
Misaligned tyres can result in you feeling a strong vibration coming through your steering wheel, which can be quite distracting and disconcerting, especially in long-haul driving. It will also create a higher amount of road noise, especially on bumpy or uneven terrain, which can disturb your passengers.
It helps reduce wear and tear on your car’s moving components
Driving with misaligned tyres inflicts a larger amount of wear and tear on your car’s main components. For example, the constant compensation for drift that you have to provide with the steering wheel creates a larger amount of stress in your car’s steering, making its many components wear down faster.
Your car’s suspension system also suffers from this, as the misalignment of your tyres causes the force of every bump in the road to be applied unevenly among the shocks and other major components.
All this increased wear and tear will result in certain parts failing sooner than they’re supposed to, which can cause an unexpected and costly breakdown.
It helps increase the life of your tyres.
Finally, having your tyres realigned regularly results in them lasting longer. This is because misalignment causes them to make contact with the road unevenly, resulting in certain areas of your tyres receiving more friction than others. As such, your tyres will wear out much faster than normal, forcing you to replace them sooner. It’s also possible that the increased and uneven wear and tear can lead to a disastrous blowout on the road, which may also result in a vehicular accident.
Have your car’s tyres properly realigned every six months
The regular maintenance of your car’s tyres should never be overlooked whenever you get your vehicle serviced. While this may cost you a bit of extra money, the added fuel efficiency, safety, and driving comfort are more than worth it.
