I just had a new set of tires installed on my Toyota Camry and was pressured to buy a wheel alignment, in addition to having the new tires balanced. The salesman did his best to explain why this was needed, but I left with some doubts as to whether this was really necessary. The car seemed to drive fine with the original tires for almost 47,000 miles and I’ve never hit any curbs with it. Was I taken, or simply taken care of?

Susan Porter,

San Jose, Calif.

Great question, Susan, and it’s one with a fuzzy answer. Proper wheel alignment is important, as it ensures the vehicle will track straight down the road in a stable manner, while maximizing tire tread life.

Your Camry’s wheels are connected to the chassis through a series of suspension and steering components, much like your feet are connected to your body. Imagine how your ankles, knees, and hips must allow complex movements, while keeping your feet securely beneath you. Add in some joint wear, an occasional encounter with a large pothole or curb, and over time it’s likely things will drift out of alignment.

One symptom of improper wheel alignment is uneven tire wear, such as when there’s more wear on one side of the tread than the other or jagged tread edges when your hand is rubbed back and forth across the tread.

Other symptoms include the vehicle pulling to one side, or wandering.

Was a wheel alignment called for when you purchased a new set of tires? This is a reasonable precaution to insure optimum tread life from your new tires.

My tiebreaker would be the cost of the tires. On a vehicle with wide, exotic or expensive tires, I’d align it in a heartbeat. On a grocery-getter with moderately priced tires, I’d be tempted to keep on going unless symptoms appear.

If one does opt to have a wheel alignment performed, many vehicles require all four wheels to be checked/adjusted, rather than just the fronts, as in the past. I’d insist on receiving a before/after printout of the alignment specs (a requirement in many areas), along with an explanation of what work was done.

On many vehicles, some or most alignment angles are nonadjustable as it was built to exacting standards, unless an after-market component such as a special bushing or shim is retrofitted.

This can turn a simple alignment inspection into a correction job taking several hours. Also, a vehicle with worn suspension/steering parts requires correction, as wheel alignment will vary with each twist and turn of the road.

New tires should be balanced, without question. Small manufacturing irregularities in the tire and wheel can result in an ounce or two of imbalance, which can lead to shaking and accelerated suspension/steering component wear.

Things also can change over the life of the tire with a lost weight or irregular tread wear requiring a rebalance. I wouldn’t rush to do this unless shaking/vibration was evident.

Brad Bergholdt teaches automotive technology at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, Calif.

E-mail him at under-the-hoodjuno.com or write to him in care of Drive, Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, Calif. 95190. He cannot make personal replies.)

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AP-NY-12-10-04 0616EST