DIY Oil Changes Messing up Alignment?

[chubbs1]

I do my own OC's and look forward to them. I use a hydraulic jack and place stands under each side of the vehicle of course. Could jacking the car up, putting so much weight on the other side, alter the front end alignment? I am having problems with my Altima's tires wearing unevenly. I took it in to a local shop and they said it needed work. With only 24k on the vehicle could this be possible?

I must admit I was obsessive in the beginning with OC's. I will just admit it and take my lumps...I have probably changed the oil 12 times in 24K

I swear I have learned my lesson, but do you think this is what caused front end alignment problems?

The longest OCI i've had is 3.1k on AFE 0w30 and 4.1k on G-oil. So sometimes I changed the oil before 1K. I know it is in excusable. but I got on a tear in the beginning with finding the "best" oil

 

[dubie2003]

No. Doing your OCs that way will not affect the alignment.

When you bring your Altima to the shop, do they provide a printout of the alignment specs? Sometimes you are within spec but on the limits that result in odd wear patterns.

I would bet that all the speedbumps and potholes you have to drive over thru your travels is screwing with your alignment more then jacking up the vehicle to do an OC.

SideNote: Instead of jacking, have you thought about using a low-pro set of ramps?

 

[cmf]

I highly doubt it, unless it's exacerbating some other problem. If you're worried about it you could jack it up via the crossmember (if it's a hard point for your car). I prefer the crossmember because it jacks both sides at once and saves time, also allows for more room to place the jack stands.

 

[Xstang]

What seems like the best bet here is to find a place that does good alignment work.

I had a friend with a '95 Thunderbird, who, after getting it aligned at a Firestone, had serious issues pulling to the right.

After going back, we got a huge speech along the lines of, "derp, all the readings were in the green, should be fine!" What they didn't say was all the readings (camber,caster,toe-in) were right on the edge of being acceptable.

 

[hate2work]

Very doubtful this is changing your alignment. Have you given any thought to using ramps?

Don't worry about the frequent OCs, many people have done the same thing as you have. It just shows that you care about your vehicles, nothing more. The important thing is that you've learned and are no longer being quite so obsessive

 

[tinmanSC]

Originally Posted By: chubbs1
I must admit I was obsessive in the beginning with OC's. I will just admit it and take my lumps...I have probably changed the oil 12 times in 24K

 

[tomcat27]

oh, I have a friend who changes his oil every 2000-2500 miles. once a month. he has done that for 200k+ miles in 3 of his cars. all PYB and OEM filters.

 

[JoeWGauss]

12 changes in 24 mo/ ???

To the OP....


seriously you are wasting your time, effort and money, not only that simply but over doing the work you add risk by having something go wrong with one of the OCs...the more you do the more you risk making mistakes on stuff like this, sure it is not likely but still why test fate?

 

[mechtech2]

Modern oils are great.
Strongly consider extending your OCIs. 4-5,000 on dino is easily done nowadays.

Messing your alignment so far? Nah...
But a good alignment with a printout before and after is wise.
She should track straight, with maybe a very slight drift on crowned roads. The steering wheel should be centered.
Don't settle for less. It is not hard to accomplish this.

 

[artificialist]

Some Nissan cars did have an issue with oil changes causing alignment problems.

What happened was that they would locate the oil filter in such a way where oil would always spill on the RF LCA bushing whenever you removed the oil filter, gradually making the bushing weaker.

After about 5-10 years, the RF LCA would need replacement, but the LF would be fine if you lived where there was no road salt.

 

[WMSmotorhead]

I'd say gets some Ramps... it's easier, and doesn't strain the suspension as much. Emphasis on easier.

 

[Lost1]

Agreed- get some ramps.
And send me your used oil- I'll run it another 3k-4k miles...

 

[kasedian]

The oil drain plug and the tie-rod are 3rd cousins. If the drain plug doesn't see a ASE mechanic change the oil, it will tell the timing belt to tell the tie-rod to act up. Watch it close, sometimes the belt will start to squeal, too.

 

[Bladecutter]

I put 54k miles on my '07 Altima 2.5S before trading it in for my RX8.

In that time, I never had any alignment issues that caused uneven tread wear on my car.

I replaced the OEM Continental tires around the 20k mile mark, and had Firestone check the alignment, and it was in spec, and when I traded in the car, the tires were evenly worn across the 2 replacement sets of tires.

I rotated the tires myself, front to back, back to front, not crossing sides, every 7500 miles on the dot, using the tire rotation alert on the dash.

How many miles have you been waiting before rotating the tires on your Altima?

BC.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: chubbs1
I must admit I was obsessive in the beginning with OC's. I will just admit it and take my lumps...I have probably changed the oil 12 times in 24K

So sometimes I changed the oil before 1K.


My portfolio (which includes oil company stocks) thanks you.

I don't see any way property lifting the car could cause alignment issues, so please, continue your current short OCI's so my portfolio continues to grow.

 

[someguy]

Crazy, I second the recommendation of ramps. The same set should work on all 3 cars.

 

[johnsmellsalot]

I use ramps. No problems with alignment.

It's also nice to see that you change your oil every 3,000 miles.

Make sure you read your manual. On my mom's Civic, there is an oil life monitor that displays the oil life as a percentage. The manual says to change it when it says 10%.

On my Buick, the manual says to change it every 3,000 miles.

 

[Scum_Frog]

Ramps here as well.

 

[weebl]

Ramps as well for me. The 12,000 lbs Rhino Ramps are what I use. Overkill in capacity, but then I know the likelihood of failure is lower that way.

When I read the title, I thought this was either a joke, or you did an oil change for someone and they were blaming you for an unrelated problem. Never thought of the possibility of stress on a jack stand or oil dribbling on bushings.

 

[TomYoung]

Don't worry about the cause of misalignment. If the car is misaligned, it needs to be aligned. Potholes, and curbs or terrible blowouts are usually the issue, but my general sense is that cars in the modern era tend to stay in alignment forever.

If you look around the site, you'll see that with only a few exceptions, nobody id advocating oil change intervals of less than 5,000 miles.