Question about balancing/alignment on new wheels
 

I'm looking for some feedback from you guys... I recently recieved my new wheels and I'm planning on having tires mounted on them tomorrow. I assume they will need to be balanced, which is fine, but I'm wondering... Is an alignment really necessary? This car is only 7 months old and has 6200 miles on it. I am going from 17x7 215/45 to 18x8 245/35 or 40(haven't decided yet).

The reason I ask is because I would like to just bring the wheels in and have the tires mounted and balanced, then I can take them home and put them on the car myself. That way, won't have to do anything to the actual car. I'm not cheap, it's just that I am not crazy about having the local Tire Discounters(or whomever) playing around with my car's factory settings. Oh, how I wish there was a local shop I could trust with my car...:cry:

Does simply changing your wheel and tire size alter the car's alignment? It seems like such a small change, I would not imagine my suspension/steering would need adjustment.

What's your opinion?

To answer your question in short, no. Changing your wheels will NOT have an impact on the alignment.

My opinion is... depends on how many miles you have on the car and when the car was last aligned, and how much longer you plan on driving on this setup.

If your car has more than 1 year or 15k miles, I'd suggest you to get an alignment after the wheels have been installed, because your alignment may be slightly off from normal driving.

But if you're 100% confident that your current alignment has not changed, then just slap the wheels on and call it a day.

-alex