Tires: tire wear, steering wheel vibrations, air compresser

Question
I own a '92 Celica GT with a good maintenance history.  Although I am college student on a penny-pinching budget, he gets all except one of the recommended pokings and proddings from the experts when necessary. I recently started feeling steering wheel vibrations at moderate to high speeds (say 40mph>>).  Because of the vibrations, I thought that perhaps the alignment was incorrect.  At the dealership, I was told that my tires were badly worn and it may be due to an imbalance.  This gets me to the one exception: I have never had the tires rotated or rebalanced after installation. At the dealership, it was recommended that I have the tires replaced and thereby solving the problem.  I have done this and the vibrations are gone.  Finally the question:  Should I now skip a few meals to check/pay for an alingnment or should I monitor my tires for the next few hundred miles and see what happens as far as the wearing goes?

Answer
Morton,

You seem to have a good head on your shoulders, so I'm going to start you down a path.

Go buy a caliper.  Doesn't have to be fancy - $20.00 will do it!.  Then measure the depth of the tread across the face for each tire.  Do this a couple of times around the tire.  Record those readings.  Then a couple of thousand miles later, do it again.  Is the tire wearing evenly?  OK? - No problem!!.  Then wait a couple more thousand and do it again.

But if the answer is yes, the tire is wearing unevenly, then an alignment is in order.

A couple of more tips.  Inflation pressure - 3 to 5 psi above the placard will help improve all kinds of things including wear and fuel economy.

Look around the web and try to find out how to measure your alignment using string.  Very cheap!!

If you get the opportunity, buy a jack and some jack stands.  And when you get some real money an air compresser and an impact gun.


Hope this helps.