Balancing tires and alignment?

[asenna]

How often should you have your tires balanced and alignment checked?

 

[Kestas]

As often as needed. I've driven cars 100K without ever having an alignment done.

Tires should be balanced whenever there's vibration at speed. Alignment should be done anytime the tires are suspected of having a bad (uneven) wear pattern, or anytime suspension parts are replaced.

 

[cryptokid]

it really depends. the suspension normally does not magically "go" out of alignment. somthing must make it unaligned, this can be a pothole, or other road obsticle, or just general wearing of youre suspension components. the odds that you entounter somthing on the road which changes your alignment are fairly high for most people. if you think about it, the more you drive the better a change of hitting somthing.
driving over a speed bump too fast can misalign your suspension. i normally do not get an anignment unless i happen to run over somthing.
this happens to be around every 10K miles for me.

on the tire subject, again you cant really go by a set number. if you happen to park your car for an extended time your tires can be out of balance from minor flat spots. if you hit a curb you can slightly dent the steel belts changing the weight distrobution, run over a brick in the road, take corners hard which can wear down the side of the tread, lock up your brake and skid for a few feet, even driving in mud or slow which will change the balance, and cause one part of the tread to wear more.
so to say "balance youre tires every 5000 miles" to me is nonsence. likewise, a set interval for alignbment is also nonsence to me.

 

[jorton]

Compare the left side and right side. If one side looks like it has more wear you should get the allignment. If the car pulls to one side on the highway you should get the allignment. A slight drift is ok though. If the steering wheel isn't straight the allignment is out of wack because the shop straightens it when they do an allignment.

 

[labman]

If you are going to keep the car long enough to put 100K miles on it, cough up for one of the "stabilized, lifetime" alignments. Then go back every 10 - 20K. This way you may catch a bad alignment before ruining a couple of tires. Pick a good, trustworthy shop. I ruined a pair of tires by having my car aligned before going on vacation. They set the camber too high, and by the time I got back, both front tires were down to the wear bars in the inside. Of course, they realigned it for free. I almost decked the guy that commented that he was surprised I noticed it since it wasn't off very far.