On alignment I do not believe it makes any difference whether rotated before or after. As to balancing, why balance if they are wearing well, normally balancing is done at time of install and that is it. Save the money.

Also, if all 4 are wearing well why do an alignment? Just do the rotation.

 

Well, I have a $25 Hyundai gift card that expires at the same time I'm due for the next free oil change. The car does pull some on the flats and I've dropped it in some amazing and impossible to avoid potholes in the two years since I had the last alignment. Everything else was done in June of this year, Belts, hoses, coolant, filters (me). Brake fluid, PS fluid, have been replace. Tranny fluid's not due for two more years. Hate the idea of throwing $25 away and the alignment is the only thing not recently done.

 

Personally - I have a lifetime (of the car) alignment for $180 at Firestone and lifetime (of the tires) for $80 at Firestone.

For me, I have the tires rotated, balanced, and aligned every 5K miles and I know the car is setup properly.

That said, we have the same deal on my wife's car, but for the first 40K miles and 4-years that we owned it, it got free tire rotations from the Lincoln dealer and so we never aligned it or re-balanced the tires.

I also used to do my own tire balancing and it was rare that a tire wouldn't need re-balancing after 5K miles. It might only be 0.25 ounces off and might only need the weight moved a 1/2-inch, but it rarely was still perfect (although that might have been the calibration of the balancer also ...)

So I somewhat see both ways. For $180, I don't see that it hurts to align every 5K, but it probably isn't required either ...

 

I do rotate tires every 3K miles (free) and balance every 6K. As far as alignment, if tires are wearing out properly and or the car doesn’t got to the right or left, I have ch3cked once a year.

 

Rotate before so the alignment is spot on.

 

Rotation and balance does not effect alignment. The tire alignment is toe only on Hyundai vehicles. So if they try to pull as fast one getting you to PAY for a 4 wheel alignment tell them its a 2WHEEL alignment. The cost goes down for a front end only.

 

Cool, so if it doesn't matter while I still have free time I can sneak down to the tire shop and get my free rotation and balance and then throw the $25 gift card at an alignment in March. Thanks for the discussion guys!