Is your car making a rumbling noise? Do you not get enough power when you press on the gas pedal? Then you need to hop — or rather, drive — on down to the auto service shop. It's okay if you do not know what is wrong with your car, because that is the auto mechanic's job to figure out. They can take a look, run a few tests, and figure out what's going on. Then, they'll give you an estimate for the repairs. Your car will feel like a whole new machine once it's all fixed up! Learn more about that process as you read the articles we've curated here.
What To Do If Your Car's Steering Feels Funny
Any sense a car's steering is a bit funky can be disturbing. If you're not sure what might wrong, it can help to consider some of the possibilities. Learn about these three issues that could cause the problem.
Tire Damage
A lot of what feels funny in a car's steering starts where the rubber literally hits the road. If a tire isn't holding air, for example, you can have recurring steering problems. You'll especially want to look at this scenario if the problem goes away after airing the tires and then comes back. Small leaks happen due to holes, poor seals around the rims, and even damage to the wheels.
Take the vehicle to a local tire repair shop. A technician can check the problem and fix it if there's something minor wrong with one of the tires. When they take the ties off to check them, they'll also get a good look at the suspension system. This serves as something of a two-for-one deal just in case there might be damage to the vehicle's suspension or axles.
Misalignment
If you're noticing a persistent steering issue, it may be because the car's wheels aren't properly aligned. This happens even to newer vehicles. Wear and tear can cause components to warp and twist. The damage doesn't have to be visible, either. When wheels are spinning many times a second, even a fraction of an inch in misalignment can cause a noticeable wobble in the steering.
Notably, alignment problems can occur anywhere on the vehicle. A slightly bent frame, for example, can misalign a car. The issue doesn't have to compromise the vehicle's integrity, but it can be annoying.
Fortunately, most of these issues are fixable. Wheel alignment shops have systems that can check how the tires are working together. If the camber is a bit off, for example, the testing machine will catch it. The technicians will then make adjustments and retest the wheel alignment. They'll keep doing this until they've corrected it as much as is practicable.
Unbalanced Wheels
The wheels themselves also can suffer damage over the life of a car. If a rim gets slightly dinged, it can unbalance the entire wheel and cause steering issues. A typical shop that does wheel alignment and tire repair work should also be able to rebalance wheels. Usually, they will use small weights to redistribute the force of the wheel's spin. They will also use a machine to test the balance and keep tweaking it until it's corrected as much as possible.