1997 Saturn SW1 Wheel Alignment Cost

To ensure the longest possible service life from tires, vehicles need their wheels aligned as part of regular maintenance. This keeps all four wheels perfectly aligned to each other, also ensuring the safest and best performing driving experience.

As tires are used they encounter four different paths, and typical driving patterns will being to wear the tires in different places. We rotate the tires so the wear of each wheel position is blended with the next. That helps tire wear patterns remain even, but does not prevent wear patterns that will prematurely ruin a set of tires. For this, the wheel alignment is necessary, and corrects the direction the wheels lean in and out, the direction they point, and the amount of stability they will have at high speed. The wheels are all corrected to the manufacturer's specifications, so the vehicle will feel like it did when it came from the factory if the wheel alignment is performed correctly, and the tires are not excessively worn.

When the wheels on a vehicle do not point the proper direction and at the right angle, the steering wheel is normally the first indication of an issue. The steering wheel will be slightly off center, but a light bump can dramatically affect the amount the steering wheel is turned while driving in a straight line. Also, the vehicle may feel as though it pulls to one side of the road, which can increase or decrease with braking. The vehicle may also feel unstable while driving at normal speeds, increasingly so with greater speed. Lastly, after these symptoms have existed for a few hundred miles, the tires will being to show patterns in the tread, also called uneven tread wear.

Poorly aligned wheels do not pose much of a problem while driving. The alignment does not usually affect any other component of the vehicle, but premature tire wear is almost always the result of continued use. If the alignment issue is severe, there is more than likely a bad or broken steering or suspension component, which will require repair before the alignment is performed. In these cases the vehicle should not be driven, as collision or loss of control may be likely.