Tire alignment / rotation - How often? (vehicle, tires, best, purchase)

[mrs1885]

Keeping in mind my car was apparently in an accident before I owned it and sustained some damage to the frame so it's not perfectly aligned, how often should I have the alignment done and the tires rotated? It's a 2001 Eclipse GT if that helps any.

[JoshB]

I always have been my tires rotated and balanced every 5,000 miles

[elgusano]

Although 5,000 is ideal, I would say that most of us do it when the tires wear out, or the car steers one direction or the other while holding the wheel straight.

[Marcian]

Originally Posted by JoshB

I always have been my tires rotated and balanced every 5,000 miles

I agree with JoshB every 5,000 miles would be the best, but elgusano makes a good point also. So try to rotate tires every 5000 miles, and when time comes to replace all tires do the wheel alignment then.

[Mr.Cat]

I would just follow the manufacturer's recommendations since everybody has a different driving habits, some tires wear out faster for some people than others.

[Donn2390]

Originally Posted by mrs1885

Keeping in mind my car was apparently in an accident before I owned it and sustained some damage to the frame so it's not perfectly aligned, how often should I have the alignment done and the tires rotated? It's a 2001 Eclipse GT if that helps any.

If you suspect you have a frame damage problem, you need to find a good quality frame shop to resolve the problem. Alignment will never sovle a bad frame, you're wasteing money having an alignment on a vehicle with deeper problems. Your average alignment shop is not equipped to handle a car with a frame problem. You need a collision repair frame shop.
If you were in So Calif, I could point you to a few. Check the yellow pages to find a quality frame shop, or ask a top notch body shop where to go.
If your frame isn't perfect, alignment every week won't help....!

[wankel7]

I rotate and balance every 3000 miles. Since it was included in the tire purchase.

And Firestone has this lifetime alignment deal. For 150 bucks as many as you want for as long as you own the car.

So alignment every 6000 - 10000

[texdav]

Wal-maqrt chearegs liek 30 dollars when you pruchase tires fr rqaod hazard;lifetime balnace and rotation very 5000 miles. Last I knew they also replace tires and no long fix flat. Also I liked that the use a torque wrench totighten all lug nuts to specs.I never align unless there is a problem.

[M3 Mitch]

Depending on how your tires are wearing, rotating them maybe as often as 3-5000 miles may help distribute the wear and avoid ruining one or two tires. I had a bent rear axle (axle carrier) in my Scirocco, was like that when I bought it. Tended to wear the inside edge of the driver's side tire pretty severely. By rotating frequently (DIY) I'm thinking I could still get about 35K miles out of a set of tires that will probably give me more like 50K now that I have fixed it.

Donn is dead right, though, if you get the underlying problem fixed, that will settle it, and if you don't, you will have to make compensating measures (which will eventually cost more than the correct fix) till you *do* fix it right, or get rid of the car.

What kind of car is this? FWD cars generally wear the front tires almost exclusively, if you don't rotate you'll end up with 2 almost new tires on back and need to replace the fronts - and, depending, you may find the tire is no longer available, so you'll have some degree of mis-match among the tires...

Doing an alignment more often won't help. Car needs aligning when an impact or just accumulated wear gets it out of adjustment. Otherwise it's like sharpening a knife that's already sharp - does not really hurt anything but does not help either.

[elgusano]

In all fairness, most Alaskans rotate their tires every season because they switch from regular tires to studded tires. But, I know very few who rotate before wearing them out unless they change seasonal tires.