Proper tire alignment is important to avoid excessive wear on tires and vehicle parts. Bad tire alignment can decrease your MPG, make wheels work against each other, and wear out tires by causing bad tread wear patterns. Here are some signs that suggest you need an alignment fix.

· Uneven wear. If one of your front or back tires shows a much different wear pattern than its opposite, more likely than not, it's time for a tire alignment.

· Pulling to the right or left. If a vehicle's wheels are badly out of alignment, you'll notice the vehicle will automatically try to turn to one side or another. If you have to wrestle with the wheel, it's time for an alignment, so that the wheels all point in the right directions.

· Passive pulling. With a lesser alignment problem, the vehicle may not actively pull, but when you let the car go straight ahead, without a hand on the steering wheel, the vehicle may naturally drift off to one direction or another. This is also a sign of an alignment problem.

· Vibration. Bad alignment can also cause vibration as wheels pull against each other. If your car is shaking while running down the road, check your alignment.

· A crooked steering wheel. Another sign of a vehicle that is out of alignment is that the steering wheel may be crooked while the car or truck is going straight ahead. Keep an eye on this tell tale signal of an alignment problem.

The Benefits of Tire Alignment

Bad tire alignment can lead to a lot of different problems on a vehicle. Here are some of the reasons it's not a good idea to keep on driving without a good tire alignment from a professional shop.

· It aids tire rotation. Even though you may take care to rotate tires every 7000 miles, if the car is out of alignment, they can still wear wrong and get shredded in a relatively short time.

· It satisfies warranty requirements. If your tires carry a warranty or "lifetime certificate," check the fine print. It's likely that it includes the requirement of getting periodic alignments to keep tires from wearing incorrectly. Don't let your warranty be voided by a lack of proper maintenance.

· It improves handling. A car with a proper wheel alignment is easier to drive. When dealing with road obstacles such as potholes (which also throw out the alignment even more), you're one step ahead if you have correct wheel alignment on your vehicle.

· It reduces wear on steering column. Bad alignment causes wear on a lot of car parts, not just the tires. In extreme situations, a vehicle out of alignment can shake parts and cause even more deterioration. Your best bet is to do periodic alignments so that car systems don't suffer from being jolted around.

· Improves gas mileage. Like numerous other car problems, bad alignment can lead to lower MPG as the vehicle puts more energy into its trajectory than it should. Don't let improper wheel alignment work against the overall health of your vehicle and limit the MPG it gets on the road.