Tyres & Alignment

Five Signs Your Car Needs a Wheel Alignment Checked

9 July 2026 · Hitech Auto Mechanical

A wheel alignment is one of the cheapest jobs on a car and one of the most frequently skipped. That combination costs people a lot of money in tyres.

Alignment sets the angles at which your tyres meet the road. Get them wrong by a fraction of a degree and the tyres scrub sideways as they roll rather than rolling cleanly. Badly misaligned, a car can destroy a set of tyres in as little as 10,000km.

1. The car pulls to one side

The clearest sign. On a flat, straight road with a light grip on the wheel, the car should track straight. If it consistently drifts one way, something is off.

Test it properly before assuming. Most roads are crowned — deliberately sloped for drainage — so a slight leftward drift on a normal road can be entirely normal. Find a flat stretch, or check whether the pull reverses when you drive in the other direction.

A genuine pull can also be caused by uneven tyre pressures or a sticking brake caliper, so it is worth diagnosing rather than assuming alignment.

2. The steering wheel sits off-centre

If you are driving in a straight line and the badge on your steering wheel is sitting at ten past the hour, the alignment is out — specifically the toe setting.

This one bothers people once they notice it, and it is a reliable indicator because it does not have the road-camber ambiguity that pulling does.

3. Uneven tyre wear

Look at the tread across the width of each front tyre, and run your hand across it.

Worn on the inside edge only — usually excessive negative camber or a toe problem. Extremely common, and easy to miss because the inside edge is the part you cannot see without turning the wheel.
Worn on both outer edges — often chronic under-inflation rather than alignment.
Worn in the centre strip — usually over-inflation.
Feathered or saw-toothed, where the tread blocks feel sharp one way and smooth the other — classic toe misalignment.

Turn your steering onto full lock and look at the inner shoulder of the front tyres. People are regularly surprised to find a tyre that looks fine from outside is nearly bald on the inner edge.

4. The steering feels loose or wanders

If you find yourself making constant small corrections to hold a lane, that can be alignment — but it can equally be worn suspension or steering components.

That distinction matters. Aligning a car with worn tie rod ends, ball joints or bushes is a waste of money, because the geometry will not stay where it is set. Any competent workshop should inspect the suspension before touching the alignment, and tell you if the underlying problem needs fixing first.

5. You hit something

Sydney is hard on alignment. Potholes, patched roads, aggressive speed humps and kerbs while parking all knock geometry out, and the impact does not have to feel dramatic to shift things.

If you have hit a pothole hard enough to wince, clipped a kerb while parking, or you live somewhere with speed humps on every block, it is worth a check even without other symptoms.

Alignment is not balancing

These get conflated constantly, and they fix different problems.

Alignment adjusts the angles of the wheels relative to the car and the road. It fixes pulling, off-centre steering and uneven tyre wear.

Balancing corrects weight distribution within the wheel and tyre assembly, using small weights on the rim. It fixes vibration at speed — typically a wheel-wobble through the steering at highway speeds.

If your car vibrates at 90km/h, that is almost certainly balancing, not alignment. If it wears tyres unevenly or pulls, that is alignment. Plenty of cars need both.

How often?

At least annually, or every 10,000km to 15,000km. Also:

Whenever you fit new tyres — protect the investment you just made
After any steering or suspension repair
Any time you hit something hard
If you notice any of the five signs above

Always ask for the printout

Computerised alignment equipment produces a before-and-after report showing each measured angle against the manufacturer specification. You should always be given it.

If a workshop cannot produce a before-and-after readout, there is no way for you to know what was actually adjusted, or whether anything was. We print it and go through it with you.

Call 02 9667 4008 or book a service.