Wheel Alignment Service

No matter what kind of car, truck, SUV, or van you drive, keeping up with the health of your tires and wheels is vitally important. If you want to stay in control of your vehicle, you need your wheels to be properly aligned. When wheels are out of alignment, it can wear your tires down unevenly, which can be dangerous.

Luckily, you can have wheel alignment service taken care of right here at McCluskey Chevrolet. Our certified technicians have access to state-of-the-art equipment to help them diagnose issues with your wheels and fix them so you’re ready to face the road ahead.

In this guide, we’ll cover why wheel alignment is important, how to know that you’re due for an alignment, and the alignment services we offer here. We want to help you make well-informed decisions about your vehicle so you can drive with confidence.

Why Your Wheels Need Alignment

Your tires are the only points of contact your vehicle has with the ground, and they’re wrapped around your vehicle’s wheels. When the wheels are properly aligned, you’re able to use them to control what direction you’re headed in easily and accurately. If you take your hands off the wheel in a neutral position, the vehicle will continue going straight, and when you turn the wheel left or right, the vehicle will behave predictably.

But without any intervention, wheels will shift out of alignment over time. There are many things that can affect wheel alignment:

• Normal wear and tear over many miles of regular driving.
• Hitting a pothole.
• Driving over a curb or parking barrier by mistake.
• Spending time on bumpy dirt or gravel roads.
• Going too fast over a speed bump.

When your wheels are misaligned, it can affect both the wear of your tires and the handling of your vehicle. Your tires last as long as possible when they wear down evenly. Misaligned wheels can concentrate wear and tear on certain parts of your tires.

If you’ve ever tried to navigate a supermarket with a cart that has a wobbly wheel, you have a good idea of how misalignment can affect handling. You want steering to be predictable and easy, and with misaligned wheels, that’s not the case at all.

On top of that, misalignment can also affect some driver assist features, like lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control. These features can help you stay safe when they’re functioning properly, and you want to be able to rely on their accuracy. You can’t do that if you don’t keep up with proper maintenance like regular wheel alignments.

Signs to Look Out For

So now you know how important alignment is and what problems misalignment can cause. With that in mind, it’s important to know when your vehicle might need an alignment. As part of your routine maintenance, it’s recommended to get an alignment roughly every six months. This lines up with how often vehicles should get oil changes, tire rotations, and multi-point inspections, so it’s easy to stay on top of.

However, there are times when you should come in for an alignment even if it’s been less than six months since your last service visit. If you notice any of the following problems, it might be a sign that your wheels need to be aligned:

• Steering is pulling to the left or right, especially while you’re braking.
• The steering wheel is vibrating.
• It takes more effort than usual to move the steering wheel.
• Tires are wearing down faster than usual.
• You recently hit a pothole or curb.

If you’re experiencing these issues or anything similar, it’s a good idea to get your vehicle checked out, since a wheel alignment could be necessary.

Of course, you should also bring your vehicle in for service if you notice any problem or strange vehicle behavior that’s concerning you. Whether you have an idea of what the underlying issue is or not, our team will use information from you and from our diagnostic equipment to figure out what’s wrong and fix it so you can get back on the road and drive safely.

How We Inspect Your Wheels

Because your wheels exist in three dimensions, there are multiple ways for them to be thrown out of alignment. The three factors that our technicians will consider while diagnosing alignment issues are toe, camber, and caster.

• Toe: This is best observed with a bird’s-eye view looking down at your vehicle.
  • Neutral: your tires are pointing straight
  • Toe-in: your tires are turned inward, like pigeon-toed feet
  • Toe-out: your tires are pointed outward
• Camber: This is best observed looking head-on at your vehicle and seeing how the wheels are tipped in relation to the fender
  • Neutral: the wheels are straight
  • Positive: the wheels are tipped outward
  • Negative: the wheels are tipped inward
• Caster: This is best observed looking at your wheel from the side of your vehicle, and has to do with how the steering pivot axis of the wheel is tilted
  • Neutral: the axis is straight
  • Positive: the top of the axis is tilted toward the rear of the car
  • Negative: the top of the axis is tilted toward the front of the car

You might intuitively think that you want everything to be neutral, but that’s not the case. For example, most modern vehicles are meant to have toe-in, negative camber, and positive caster. Each vehicle has its own manufacturer specifications for how the wheels should be aligned for best performance.

The suspension and steering systems also come into play here, since they can be affected by misaligned wheels or they can throw your wheels out of alignment. A vehicle is a complicated machine with a lot of moving parts, all of which need to work together for proper performance.

If all of this sounds complicated, that’s because it is. That’s why our technicians are factory-trained to handle issues like these and have access to both manufacturer-recommended settings and diagnostic equipment that can accurately identify issues.

No matter how or why your wheels are misaligned, our team will get to the bottom of things and get you back in road-ready condition.

Ensuring You Get the Right Service

As the names suggest, a front-end alignment involves just the front two wheels while a four-wheel alignment involves all four.

Front-end alignments used to be more common, and they’re still appropriate for certain types of vehicles with body-on-frame construction (typically used for pickup trucks and SUVs) that don’t have independent rear suspensions.

However, many vehicles today are made with unibody construction (typically used for cars and crossover SUVs) and/or have an independent rear suspension. In that case, a four-wheel alignment is strongly recommended.

If you’re not sure what kind of construction or suspension your vehicle uses, don’t worry. No matter what kind of make or model your vehicle is, our team will look up the details and match your service to your vehicle’s configuration. We supply the expertise so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the drive.

Preserve Your Tires With Regular Alignments

Your tires are wrapped around your wheels, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to learn that wheel alignment can significantly affect the health of your tires.

When your wheels are out of alignment, it can cause your tires to wear down unevenly. In the best-case scenario, this means you’ll have to spend extra money to replace your tires more frequently. In the worst case, the stress could cause a blowout while you’re driving.

There are also plenty of bad outcomes in the middle. For example, poor tire performance can affect your fuel economy, so you’ll be spending more time and money than necessary at the gas station.

Excessive tire wear can also affect traction, particularly when roads are wet. That means that a vehicle that’s causing a little trouble on dry days can suddenly become a highly dangerous concern on a rainy day. This is one example of why you should address even small automotive issues as quickly as possible.

Aligning Your Wheels With Us

Clearly, there are a lot of complex ways that misaligned tires can cause problems. Fortunately, the solution is simple: schedule an appointment at our service center.

Our convenient online scheduling tool can help you get an appointment that fits seamlessly into your schedule. We have multiple locations, and we’re open for late-night and weekend hours because we want you to be able to find a time that’s not just doable but perfectly convenient for you.

You can contact us via phone or email to ask any questions you may have. When you visit us in person, you’ll find that our team of technicians isn’t just well-versed in engineering but also in customer service. We’re proud of our full transparency and communication skills, and we’ll make sure you have all the information you need for a smooth and rewarding vehicle ownership experience.

While our technicians will certainly give your vehicle the proper care it needs and will never cut any corners in the diagnostic or repair process, they do know how to work efficiently. Our state-of-the-art facility has all the equipment they need to get you back on the road ASAP, so you can spend less time waiting and more time enjoying the ride.

Our Service Center

Wheel alignment isn’t all that we do here, of course. We offer a full range of mechanical and auto repair services to help you keep your vehicle in great shape for the long haul. We service all makes and models, not just Chevrolet vehicles, so you can come to us for just about anything.

Our full range of services includes:

• oil and filter changes
• brake service and repair
• multi-point vehicle inspections
• tire rotation, repair, and replacement
• battery service and replacement
• engine diagnostics and repairs
• transmission service
• steering and suspension repair
• electrical system repair

From routine maintenance to complex repairs, we’ve got you covered with everything you could need as a driver.

MobileService & MobileService+

For certain services, we can even come to you with our MobileService program, which is built for individual drivers, or our MobileService+ program, which caters to businesses with fleets of vehicles. With these programs, you don’t have to come to our service center—we’ll come to you in a special van that’s full of all the equipment necessary to take care of a variety of common services.

While a wheel alignment requires complex diagnostics that need to be done at our service center, there are many routine services that can be brought to you, including:

• preventive maintenance (oil, filter, and windshield wiper changes)
• replacing lights and bulbs
• brake service
• tire rotation and replacement
• battery service and jump-starts
• Check Engine Light diagnostics and repair
• warranty and recall repairs
• key fob programming and replacement

If diagnostics reveal an issue that requires a visit to our service center, we can arrange for vehicle pickup and delivery so you can still get service taken care of without interrupting your busy day. We can even offer discounted loaner vehicles to help you stay on the go in the meantime.

Why Service With Our Dealership

Here at McCluskey Chevrolet, we’re proud to be your one-stop shop for all things automotive. Our team is factory-trained, experienced, and eager to help you with anything you need. Our competitive prices and service specials make it easy to keep your vehicle in great shape without spending an arm and a leg.

While we proudly service all kinds of vehicles, we specialize in Chevy models. If you drive a Chevy, you can enjoy easy access to genuine OEM parts, warranty care, and more.

You can also come to us for service, whether or not you bought your vehicle at our dealership—everyone is welcome.

We work hard to bring everything you need together in one convenient location. Here you can find just about anything you could need as a driver:

• state-of-the-art facility
• cutting-edge tools and technologies
• factory-trained technicians
• flexible hours to meet your schedule
• online appointment scheduling
• mobile service
• pickup, delivery, and loaner cars

Parts & Accessories

Our well-stocked parts department has everything you need to keep your vehicle in great working order and to make it your own.

If a part has worn down, we’ll help you get a replacement that’s a perfect fit for your model and is built to last for as long as possible.

We can also help you replace parts that are functional, but not serving your needs. For example, we can help you upgrade from standard tires to all-terrain tires for off-roading or winter tires for snowy weather.

On top of that, we can help you make your ride your own with accessories. Some are functional, like light bars for off-roading or towing equipment that lets you connect to a wider range of trailers. Others are more aesthetic, from steering wheel wraps and floor mats to exterior decals. Whatever you’re looking for, you can find quality products at competitive prices here at McCluskey Chevrolet.

Our Lifetime Mechanical Warranty

If you did buy your vehicle from us, you can enjoy our complimentary Lifetime Mechanical Warranty. Included at no extra cost with all of our new vehicles and most of our used models, this warranty covers all of your major engine and transmission parts.

We’re proud to offer this to our customers because we want you to have a great experience as a driver and vehicle owner: not just today or tomorrow, but for many miles to come.

This coverage lasts for unlimited miles and unlimited years—as long as you own your ride and keep up with the manufacturer’s suggested maintenance requirements. While our warranty doesn’t require you to service with us specifically, you can trust that any service you get done at our center will keep your warranty active, so you can continue to breathe easy as you carry on down the road ahead.

Schedule an Appointment Today

Whether you’re due for your next regular maintenance visit or you’re concerned about how your vehicle is steering or handling, there’s no reason to delay. The sooner you book an appointment with us, the sooner you can get your wheel alignment checked out and, if needed, fixed. Schedule a visit today and let our team of skilled technicians get your vehicle back in tip-top shape.

Between our convenient online tools, our comfortable in-person amenities, and our exceptional customer service, we have everything you need to turn automotive maintenance from a frustrating chore into an easy experience. We’re here to help, so you don’t have to stress about your vehicle. When you partner with us, it’s all smooth sailing.