The tires on my car are wearing slightly unevenly with the passengers side wearing more than the drivers side. There is probably 60% tread on the drivers side and 40% on the passengers. My steering wheel is also slightly crooked to the left. I know a wheel alignment is the fix but should I still do it if that the damage is already done? Meaning if I do the alignment now will the unevenly wore tires cause the wheels to become misaligned again shortly after doing the alignment? Should I just get new tires or would an alignment fix my issue? Obviously I don’t want to get 4 new tires unless I absolutely have to but I don’t want to pay for the alignment if it’s only going to resolve the issue for a week
Do the alignment and rotate the tires left to right. Measure the tread depth on each tire before the alignment and measure it again 6 months later to see if things are evening out.
The wear you describe I’ve only seen on cars that the drivers turned more aggressively to one side than the other.If you feel more comfortable carrying greater speed turning towards the driver’s side than the other direction, that might be your answer.
The other possibility is your car was in a significant accident that warped the entire uni-body.
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So you think I should be fine keeping my current tires and just doing the alignment?
Personally, with the tires that far worn already, I would switch them left/right now, before doing the alignment. This will certainly have them wearing to a match. I would take them down to about 20%, and then get new tires and then get an alignment. Be sure to tell the aligner what you have done, and to get a 4-wheel alignment.
This recommendations assumes that you are not seeing any handling problems at any time.
What I would do would depend on a lot of things you have not told us. Specifically the model of the car, whether the tires are evenly worn… i.e. 40% across the face or just on the inner or outer edge. Has the car been hit? Did you buy the tires on the car? Or did they come on the car and you discovered this.
Get the alignment and post the before and after numbers, and I’ll have better advice.