15K scheduled maintenance

[cayenne_016]

so we're coming up on 15K miles on our 2016 Rogue SV AWD and I have an appointment for the scheduled maintenance set. The service advisor says that they will do the oil/filter, cabin air filter, engine air filter, tire rotation/balance, and an alignment for $299.

Seems overkill to me - I've never heard of doing an alignment after only 15k miles and only 18 months....also the engine air filter is, if I'm not mistaken, a 20K scheduled item.

I'm already going to do the cabin filter myself because it's low hanging fruit, and will at least inspect the engine air filter and probably replace it as well.

The alignment gets me - this dealer never tried to sell us an alignment at a scheduled maintenance on our other Nissan...

We did have a run in with a cement mixer a while back so it might be worth doing the alignment anyway. No major damage but we narrowly avoided being t-boned and the only contact was a very minor scrape on the rear driver's side bumper by the truck's front bumper - I was going through an intersection and looked up to see the grille of the cement mixer (literally all I could see) coming at me. Apparently he did not see that he had the red light. I floored it and swung the wheel - actually burned rubber getting out of the way which is pretty hard in a Rogue....but that could be grounds for an alignment - not that the dealer knows anything about this incident.

thoughts?

[amc49]

The vehicles will always pretty much tell you if alignment is needed, and then beyond that others can use imagination to get them. If the car drives fine and the wheel stays straight and car in the lane as it should you are OK. I realign my own cars and maybe once every 5 years if that, the tires pretty much get replaced for being suncracked here in Texas or I get the rated life out of them.

I do that work myself and $100/hr. pay rate doing it.

[mrsteve7]

Alignment issues don't always symptomize as pulling to one side or the other (at that point, it's pretty severe). It's best to inspect the tires for uneven wear, cupping, etc. If you see none, you might skip the alignment.

[casperfun]

How much is your time worth?

Personally, if I had no time, I have no problem paying.

I can do everything you mentioned but the balance & alignment.

Which I have already done.

So I have saved hundreds of dollars.

Thank god for the internet & YouTube.

Allowed me to make home & vehicle repairs!

[BigOc90]

mrsteve7 is correct !
I was a front end tech for almost 30 years and if you have had any kind of hard bump to the front end or if the tires show any kind of irregular wear then at least have it checked. If the tires are wearing like they should then you can probably wait until later.
Waiting until it pulls to one side or the other could be too late. If it is out of alignment, the tires can set a uneven wear patteren.
Just take a good look at your tires and see if they are wearing evenly across the tire and run your hand across the tire and see if you feel any feathering or cupping, if so, get the alignment, and if not you can probably wait.