Provo Alignment Service

Does your vehicle need an alignment? We are Provo’s alignment specialists. Our mechanics are trained on all the latest alignment technologies and can perform wheel alignments on all makes and models to highest industry standards and most accurate tolerances. We have the right equipment and training to get it right the first time and at an affordable price.

Provo Alignment Service

The average cost for an all wheel alignment in and around the Provo area is typically around $130 to $160 or more. At Cougar Tire, we offer a complete professional alignment service to our Provo customers for the low price of only $89.95 which includes our 6-month no-hassle warranty. If we do an alignment on your vehicle and you experience alignment-related problems with your vehicle within 6 months after the date of service, we will perform an additional alignment at no charge and troubleshoot any potential problems for free.

How do I know if and when I might need a wheel alignment?

You may suspect you need an alignment when you drive down the road and it feels like your car drifts or pulls to one side. This is the most common sign. Another sign is when you are driving straight ahead and your steering wheel is not centered or is turned slightly to the left or right. However, that’s not the only thing to look for, there are several factors that can be at play.

At times your car might drive fine but your tires wear out faster than expected. While we don’t have any recommended service intervals for vehicle alignments, we do recommend you have an alignment inspection each time you come in for an oil change.

At Cougar Tire, we offer free multi-point inspections with every service. So any time we have your car in our shop for any reason, we will let you know if we see a need for an alignment so you can make an informed decision.

What to look for

Here’s how to know whether you should bring your car in for an alignment or have it inspected to see if it needs one:

1. Your vehicle pulls to one side: In a perfect world, your vehicle should drive down the road in a perfectly straight line. In the real world however, most roads are made with a slight crown to allow rain water to drain properly which naturally causes your car to veer slightly, usually to the outside of the road. In reality, your car should drive down the road with little steering effort on the steering wheel. If your car pulls to the right or left on its own, it’s time to have your car inspected for an alignment.
2. Your steering wheel isn’t centered: It’s obvious that when you’re driving straight down the road, your steering wheel should should settle in the centered position provided you’re on a relatively flat road. While you’re driving straight and you notice the steering wheel a few degrees off to the left or right, this is a good sign something may not be quite right with your alignment.
3. Your tires show abnormal or uneven wear: Tires should wear evenly over time on any vehicle. If you notice your tire tread doesn’t look quite right, or if you see excessive wear on the inside or outside of the tire, you may have an alignment problem. Typically, abnormal tread wear on the inside or outside of a tire can be related to the camber adjustment. If you notice feathering or cupping in the tread, you may have an issue with the toe adjustment.
4. Handling feels loose or shaky: If your car feels loose on the road or if you’re having difficulty keeping it centered in the lane, it may be time for a wheel alignment. Sometimes you may notice the car will wander or it may feel sloppy around corners. If you notice your car seems a bit difficult to drive, it’s time for an alignment inspection.
5. Steering wheel won’t return to center position: Normally, after you make a turn, your steering wheel will naturally return to center position as you accelerate. If you notice your vehicle’s steering wheel doesn’t return back to center naturally, this is a good indication your alignment may be off.

Misaligned wheels can create a variety of unsafe and difficult driving conditions, not to mention premature tire wear. It’s best to have your vehicle inspected sooner than later to avoid future problems or even accidents. Driving a vehicle that is not properly aligned can be dangerous to you and others and can cost more than the price of an alignment. But even if you don’t experience an accident or safety-related issue, the cost of premature tire wear can quickly outweigh the cost an alignment.

When you bring your car into Cougar Tire for an alignment inspection or alignment service, our mechanics will perform a multipoint inspection on your entire vehicle at no cost to you. Among other things, we’ll check your steering and suspension components and advise you of any potential issues we may see so you are always properly informed.

About wheel alignments

Here’s a helpful video showing how wheel alignments work.

What causes my vehicle to go out of alignment?

If you live in Provo, Orem, Lindon, Springville, Vineyard, or surrounding areas, you know the roads can be a bit rough in some places. Especially, if you do a lot of city driving. Poorly maintained roads with potholes or asphalt imperfections can throw your vehicle’s wheels out of alignment in a few seconds. Any sudden jarring or heavy impact can cause wheels to come out of alignment. Bumping into a curb, driving too fast over speed bumps, running over bad spots in the road can be tough on a car and throw it out of alignment. If you get get into an accident, you should definitely have your wheels checked for alignment before you put the car back on the road.

Alignment: Provo Driving Conditions

Here is a short list of things to watch out for that can cause alignment problems:

• Running over a large pothole at a relatively high speed
• Bumping your tires or wheels against a curb
• Driving too fast over speed bumps
• Hitting a concrete block in a parking lot
• Getting into an accident

At the end of the day, it all comes down to the beating your tires and wheels take while you’re driving. If you think your car or truck might need an alignment, you might want to bring it in for a pre-alignment inspection to be sure.

Improper Tire wear

Sometimes, the easiest way to diagnose an alignment problem is to simply look at how the tires are wearing. If the suspension and steering components check out fine, then looking at tire wear can give us the best indication as to whether the vehicle is in or out of alignment.

Provo Alignments: Tire Wear Patterns

• Toe wear: Excessive wear on the inner or outer edge of the tire, commonly known as the toe wear, suggests improper toe alignment. If you’re seeing this type of premature tire wear, it’s probably a good time to think about getting an alignment done.
• Camber wear: Uneven wear on only one side of a tire tread commonly occurs when the tire is leaning due to camber misalignment.
• Center tire wear: Center wear occurs when a tire is overinflated, resulting in the center of the tire wearing more quickly than the edges.
• Outer edge wear: Edge wear occurs when a tire is under-inflated, resulting in the edge of the tire wearing more quickly than the center.
• Cupping wear: Cupping wear usually occurs when a suspension or balance is worn, bent, or somehow compromised. A diagonal scalloping pattern on the tire is usually the sign to look for.
• Patchy wear: Patchy tire wear is common when your vehicle’s tires are out of balance. If you examine your tires and see this type of uneven tread wear, it’s time to have your tires balanced and your wheels aligned.

Understanding the basics of wheel alignments

Common elements relative to a vehicle alignment include: 1. Camber, 2. Caster, 3. Toe. We’ll cover all three elements so you can better understand what’s involved in a wheel alignment.

1. Caster Angle
   The term “caster” refers to the angle in which the front suspension is positioned in reference to the vertical position. The only place where caster is set is on the front end of your vehicle. This angle is not visible by the human eye but must be measured with the modern alignment equipment. For most vehicles, the caster angle is set in a positive position which assists in the steering stability at higher speeds. This angle does not usually affect tire wear.
2. Camber Angle
   The term “camber” refers to the angle of the left or right tilt of the wheel which can sometimes be seen by the human eye. Camber refers to the angle of the top to bottom according to how the tire sits on a flat surface. If the you look at a tire and the top of the wheel appears to lean toward the engine compartment, then the wheel has a negative camber. If the wheel appears to lean away from the engine compartment, then the wheel is considered positive camber. In the alignment procedure, we aim for a zero camber for both front and rear ends of the vehicle. When a wheel is angled at negative camber, the inside edge of the tire can wear faster. When a wheel is angled at positive camber, the outside edge of the tire will wear out faster.
3. Toe Angle
   The term “toe” refers to the forward or backward position of the wheel. This is the alignment angle that causes the fastest premature tire wear and is the most commonly needed type of wheel alignment. Think of the toes on your feet. If you pointed your feet out, your feet would be “toe-out”. Conversely, if you pointed your fee in, they would be “toe-in”. It’s not much different with wheels and tires. This angle needs to be set on the front and rear of your vehicle for proper wheel alignment.

Start with a free alignment inspection

Cougar Tire offers a 100% free alignment inspection that will help you know whether or not your vehicle actually needs an alignment. If your vehicle doesn’t need an alignment, we’ll show you why. If we feel your vehicle might need an alignment, we’ll show you what we find during our inspection and provide fair and accurate prices for any repairs that might be recommended. That way you can make an informed decision on whether to go ahead with the alignment or wait until a future date.

Free Alignment Inspection

If you live in or around Provo and think your car might be due for an alignment service, feel free to stop in for a free alignment inspection. No need for an appointment, we’ll get you in and out in about 30 minutes or less.

What’s included in our free pre-alignment inspection?

Here’s what you can expect when you bring your vehicle in for a free pre-alignment inspection.

Free Pre-alignment Inspection in Provo

1. Wheel angle measurement: Our alignment specialists will measure your vehicle’s wheel angles to determine if they meet manufacturer recommendations. While we have it on the rack, we’ll inspect your tires, suspension, and steering components for abnormalities, excessive wear, or damaged components.
2. Tire tread wear: Our mechanics will look for abnormal tire wear that might be causing or related to wheel misalignment. We’ll measure tread depth to make sure the tires are wearing evenly and look for signs of cupping, feathering, or inside/outside excessive tread wear.
3. Check the tires & wheels: Our mechanics will check the tires and wheels for proper size and fitment. If the tires are not the proper size according to manufacturer’s specifications, or they they do not match, then we cannot perform an alignment. If the wheels are not all the same, the alignment cannot be performed properly. If the tires and wheels do match and meet the specs for your make and model vehicle, then we will adjust the tire pressure to meet the manufacturer specs. These simple pre-checks will help result in a properly aligned vehicle.
4. Staggered Tire Sizes: Some vehicles are manufactured with staggered tire sizes. The front and rear tire sizes are not the same size. This is not common, but some vehicles are made this way. Usually, the rear tires and sometimes the wheels are larger than the front tires. If the manufacturer built the vehicle with staggered tires, then an alignment can be performed as long as the wheels and tires are in spec and match from side to side.
5. Check the steering components: Once we have your vehicle on the lift, we can check the steering components. Steering arms, tie rod ends, and ball joints need to be inspected for any excessive movement. If parts are loose or not within manufacture specifications, the parts will need to be inspected more closely or possibly replaced.
6. Check suspension parts: With the vehicle in the air, our alignment specialists will check all suspension parts to make sure they are in good working order. If the ride height needs to be adjusted to achieve a proper alignment, we’ll consult with you first. Sometimes, if the ride height is not within specification, the springs may need to be adjusted or replaced.

How our mechanics perform an all-wheel alignment service

If we recommend an alignment service after we perform our free pre-alignment service, and if you decide to go ahead with the alignment service, we’ll first pull your vehicle back into our alignment bay and lift it so we can access the wheels and steering system.

• Visual inspection
  If we performed a pre-alignment service for your vehicle we will already be ready to perform the wheel alignment. If not, we will preform a pre-alignment procedure so we know that all suspension and steering components are working properly. If we noticed something wrong we will need to address those issues before we move ahead with the alignment procedure.
• Tire pressure adjustment
  Our alignment specialists will then make sure all four tires are properly inflated to manufacturer specs.
• Set steering wheel to center
  We will then set your steering wheel to center position so that when the procedure is finished your steering wheel will be set correctly in the specified position.
• Attach alignment heads
  Our alignment techs will then set the alignment heads on each wheel. This makes a laser connection to the computerized alignment machine so we can accurately measure the caster, camber, and toe of each wheel.

Provo Alignment Specialists

• Take computerized measurements
  Once we have the measurements recorded in our alignment computer, we then begin taking alignment readings. Wheels that produce readings that are not within manufacturer specifications will need to be adjusted.
• Make the adjustments & bring all 4 wheels into alignment
  Our mechanics will make the necessary adjustments to caster, camber, and toe settings until all four wheels are well within tolerances. This is a process that takes the right equipment and the right know how. Our alignment techs are required to take specific alignment courses and pass rigorous certifications to make sure we do the job right.
• Print computerized alignment report
  After all measurements are within spec, our alignment techs will print out the final computerized alignment report so you can see that your vehicle is in alignment. This report will be given to you at checkout. If you have any questions about the report, please let us know and we will be happy to explain it to you.
• Final test drive
  After the alignment procedure is complete, our alignment tech will take the vehicle for a short test drive to make sure everything is in order and that the car is indeed tracking properly. They will make sure the steering wheel is centered, that there is little or no play in the steering, and check that the suspension and general ride feel of the car is proper. This is all done with plastic and paper covers to your car’s seat and floor to ensure we properly care for your vehicle.

Alignment FAQs