I was driving west on 520 today (Bellevue, Wa) going about the speed limite, and


WHAMMMM


It felt like I hit a speed bump. I haven't gone back to see what it was exactly, either a big chunck of the freeway was ripped up, or part of the road sank a bit (today has been the first heavy rain in a while).

Right after that there were various other cars on either side of the freeway that either had flat tires, or had low profile tires and the owners were checking if they bent a rim.


I pulled off the next exit and took at look at my wheels. They're wasn't any obvious damage, but the left wheel (the side that took the bigest hit) was low on air pressure. I pulled out


Now my car seems to be pulling to the right slightly, before it was nearly perfectly aligned. It seems like the front end shakes a bit more now, but it's hard to tell. The roads are so bad around here it's hard to tell if its my wheel or just the road.

Anyway I want to have my alignment check now, and my wheels checked. Is there any reason I shouldn't just go to Les Swab, or some other brakes/aligment/muffler shop?

 

Not sure who Les Swab is but I'd take it to a reputable shop who will re-align in on a calibrated machine. You're taking a chance with a fly-by-night place. They could either do a poor job or damage your car and/or wheels.

 

http://www.lesschwab.com/

Looks like they are only on the west coast.

 

i trust stage performance in kirkland to do mine. They just fixed mine after I did the same thing to my car about a month ago. Brand new machine too. Tuan is the owner, their number is 425-820-2490. My name is drew. He knows me very well.

 

If your inflation is correct and nothing else is damaged, then your caster is off.

 

The guy at Les Schwab noticed that my wheel is bent slightly so I'm going to have that repaired, rebalanced, and then align the whole thing. The tire seems to be holding air now, so it's not as bad as I thought it was originally.



Eric