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      07-12-2012, 04:40 AM   #1
gan1hck
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Alignment

May be a stupid question, but I'm still wondering.

Will parking on an even surface every day mess up your alignment?

I mean the car is canted to one side...with the suspension clearly compressed on one side more than the other....

Anyone knows or have opinions?

The reason I ask is because my previous car (wrx sti) seemed to always need to be realigned, and I don't hit pot holes or curbs...the only thing I could think of was perhaps my parking spot at work....

Any thoughts?
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      07-12-2012, 05:29 AM   #2
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I would sure hope not, but I try to park my car as level as possible.
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      07-12-2012, 08:45 AM   #3
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The stresses of driving (accelerating, braking, turning, hitting bumps in the pavement), etc are what's going to do damage to your alignment. The fact that the front sits lower than the rear isn't something that will change over time; it's not as if the rear will start sagging. That's a product of how the suspension is set up and the physical geometry of the parts, not an alignment -- in fact what you're asking about isn't even something that's addressed in an alignment, which focuses solely on the absolute and relative orientations of the wheels.
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Last edited by jphughan; 07-12-2012 at 08:51 AM..
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      07-12-2012, 08:49 AM   #4
gan1hck
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jphughan View Post
The stresses of driving (accelerating, braking, turning, hitting bumps in the pavement), etc are what's going to do damage to your alignment. The fact that the front sits lower than the rear isn't something that will change over time; it's not as if the rear will start sagging. That's a product of how the suspension is set up and the physical geometry of the parts, not an alignment.
what about left side tires on even ground...the right side lower and on also uneven fore and aft....

Like I said...it's probably a stupid question because I don't know much about how cars are put together....I just drive them.
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      07-12-2012, 08:50 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gan1hck View Post
what about left side tires on even ground...the right side lower and on also uneven fore and aft....ie unbalanced forces constantly being applied to the wheels.

Like I said...it's probably a stupid question because I don't know much about how cars are put together....I just drive them.
edited
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      07-12-2012, 09:35 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gan1hck
Quote:
Originally Posted by jphughan View Post
The stresses of driving (accelerating, braking, turning, hitting bumps in the pavement), etc are what's going to do damage to your alignment. The fact that the front sits lower than the rear isn't something that will change over time; it's not as if the rear will start sagging. That's a product of how the suspension is set up and the physical geometry of the parts, not an alignment.
what about left side tires on even ground...the right side lower and on also uneven fore and aft....

Like I said...it's probably a stupid question because I don't know much about how cars are put together....I just drive them.
Should not mess up your alignment one bit. The biggest thing that throws alignment off is hitting bumps and potholes while driving.
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      07-12-2012, 05:23 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gan1hck View Post
what about left side tires on even ground...the right side lower and on also uneven fore and aft....

Like I said...it's probably a stupid question because I don't know much about how cars are put together....I just drive them.
It sounds like you don't know what an alignment is for..... an alignment doesn't check for issues like one pair of wheels sitting lower than another, and chances are your car would just sit off-axis there rather than letting the suspension drop the wheels farther down on one side. If you're worried about your parking eventually causing you to end up with a car that drives constantly tilted to one side, don't.

Short of parking in a way that constantly stresses your wheel's orientation (i.e. pressed up really hard against a curb while the wheel is turned), I really don't think you have anything to worry about. Alignments pretty much make sure the wheels are pointed straight front to back and tilted left to right per the manufacturer's specification within a certain tolerance per tire and per axle. I can't really see any reasonable parking scenario that would affect those factors. You might want to Google around to see what an alignment checks for so you can see for yourself why parking wouldn't really affect it.
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      07-13-2012, 07:13 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jphughan View Post
It sounds like you don't know what an alignment is for..... an alignment doesn't check for issues like one pair of wheels sitting lower than another, and chances are your car would just sit off-axis there rather than letting the suspension drop the wheels farther down on one side. If you're worried about your parking eventually causing you to end up with a car that drives constantly tilted to one side, don't.

Short of parking in a way that constantly stresses your wheel's orientation (i.e. pressed up really hard against a curb while the wheel is turned), I really don't think you have anything to worry about. Alignments pretty much make sure the wheels are pointed straight front to back and tilted left to right per the manufacturer's specification within a certain tolerance per tire and per axle. I can't really see any reasonable parking scenario that would affect those factors. You might want to Google around to see what an alignment checks for so you can see for yourself why parking wouldn't really affect it.
thx
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      03-24-2013, 11:45 PM   #9
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Summer and Winter swap

Are alignments neccessary when swapping summer and winter setups when tire sizes and/or rims sizes differ?

I have stock 18" OEMs on 245/40(f) and 265/40(r) for the winter. My summer setup consists of 18X9.5(f) on 265/35 and 18X10.5(r) on 285/35. Would these seasonal swaps warrant a new alignment?
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