Our cars are 3000+ pound machines that are capable of achieving high speeds and safely keeping us moving along through hazardous weather conditions year-round. While our cars feel firmly connected to the ground, all that work is being done by four narrow pieces of rubber. As such, when something is off with any one of our tires, it’s clear to see how things could so easily go wrong. In this blog, we’ll cover the purposes of tire alignments and rotations, and why each are important.
Tire Rotations
Tire rotations are exactly what they sound like. We simply change the position of each tire on your vehicle. As simple as the procedure is, it is a highly cost-effective form of maintenance that every car owner should routinely take care of. While there are many different ways to determine when you should get your tires rotated, we recommend going by what is in your particular car’s manual. For the sake of simplicity however, you could simply schedule your tire rotation at each oil change with your mechanic.
The sole purpose of this procedure is to guarantee even wear across all four of your tires. That comes with two major benefits that should not be glossed over:
- Maximizing the life of your tires and avoiding the need for early replacements due to uneven wearing.
- Ensuring your tires perform safely in any weather conditions.
Tire Alignments
In a perfect world, our tires would always be centered within our wheel wells. This would ensure that our tires would always meet the road at the perfect angle. However, wear and tear from potholes and general driving begin to knock our tires out of alignment little by little. The purpose of tire alignments is to reset the tires back to the center of the wheel well as they were when you drove it off the lot. Keeping up with routine tire alignments comes with a host of benefits for you and your vehicle:
- Improved ride quality.
- Prolonging tire life by allowing even wearing of all four tires
- Improved car performance in any weather conditions.
As is the case with tire rotations, roughly every 6,000 miles is typically the ideal time to schedule an alignment. It also makes sense to include an alignment along with the installation of a new set of tires to ensure they are set up to wear evenly and provide great performance in the meantime.
Ensure Your Tires are Fully Safe with Churchill Auto Care
If you are unsure whether your tires should be replaced, give us a call! We offer excellent service at a fair price for all of your automotive maintenance and repair needs. To schedule an appointment, please visit our site, give us a call at (301) 620-7620 or text us at (301)-804-6035!