Steering Wheel Alignment

[Bonneville52]

There was a previous post regarding this subject (March 16,04)but I thought I'd toss it back onto the playing field for your additional input.

In receiving your Prius, have you noticed the steering wheel to be 'just slightly' out of alignment as you drive down a straight, well paved road.
Perhaps a few degrees to the left or right? The car appears to track just fine. It's not something I would obsess over ... it's that slight.
It seems to be a minor appearance thing and not a real issue from the standpoint of mechanical integrity.
I'm not real keen on correcting a 'minor appearance' issue such as this. From a mechanical perspective the cure may yield results that are worse that the ailment. As a man much wiser than I once told me, "Don't poke sticks at the Monkey".

Well, to be perfectly honest, this must be something of a twitch for me or I wouldn't be posting this. LOL
What are your thoughts?

Bob
Oak Creek, WI

[DaveinOlyWA]

my car is dead center on the road.

my steering is so sensitive that miniscule movements of the wheel is enough to make very tiny adjustments to the path the car is taking.

i can (and have several times) drive down the freeway without my hands on the wheel, making course corrections say once every 20-30 seconds without any danger of wandering out of my lane on straight roads.

if you cant do this, you need to get your tires checked to make sure you have good air pressure in all with +2 lbs in the front over the back tires. get your alignment checked also.

OR

try driving on a day with less crosswinds maybe

[jayman]

I think he asked if the steering wheel itself was centered while driving down the road. Before the dealer traded my tires and adjusted the camber, my steering wheel was not perfectly centered.

My steering wheel was pointed slightly left; that is, at around 11 o'clock instead of dead-center 12 o'clock.

The dealer tech asked if the wheel was centered before the alignment and I said no. After the Michelin Harmony's were mounted and the alignment checked/adjusted, the car tracked like on rails. And the steering wheel is also perfectly centered.

I've driven vehicles where the steering wheel would be at 10 o'clock or 3 o'clock. Geez, that really bugs the h*** out of me, it just doesn't FEEL right.

You find yourself subconsciously centering the wheel, which makes the car move. So you have to correct, and the whole cycle starts anew. Makes for a very tiring drive and a lot more stress.

[DaveinOlyWA]

ok let me restate the first line of my post...

"my car is dead center on the road when my steering is dead center"

[jayman]

Much better thanks.

Actually, I've had few cars/trucks with a centered steering wheel. I guess the factory doesn't spend the time to ensure this.

In every case except a 1984 Ford F-150 - which has awful steering anyway - the dealer could do an alignment to center the steering wheel.

[DaveinOlyWA]

most of the cars ive had, if the steering wasnt centered, i centered it. they are adjustable

[jayman]

Older cars and trucks with a splined steering shaft are fairly simple to center: remove the retaining nut and use a puller to remove the steering wheel. Then try to line up the wheel on the splines so the wheel is now centered.

Most cars and trucks made within the last 10-15 years with airbags cannot be centered this way. You must make all adjustments at the steering box (Worm and sector or rack), which is a lot trickier.

The only vehicle I've ever owned that did not respond to any attempt to center the wheel was a 1984 Ford F-150 that I bought new. That garbage "twin I-beam" front suspension is impossible to keep aligned, as you travel over bumps the camber changes.

Another Better Idea from Ford. Still, it's durable. The truck is still on my hobby farm and I still use it. When I drive it on the highway, I'm shocked that most folks accepted how poor and unpredictable the steering response was.

[DaveinOlyWA]

my ford f 150 (1990 model) is aligned ok... but it does have a "dead zone" of about 2" or so.

something my Prius has none of. i must admit when i got my Prius, it took a day or two to get used to driving a straight line.

since then, ive driven my truck once and it was kinda scary as i found that my acclimation of the Prius made it difficult to drive the ford in a straight line.

[jayman]

Your 1990 F-150 must have that Twin I Beam, the 2WD and 4WD both have it.

Yep, the infamous "dead zone." I think there is so much slop in the front end that the truck will pretty much decide where it wants to go if it's in a bad mood.

Folks who have never driven a Ford truck of that vintage have no clue what we're talking about: the Twin I Beam has a lever point on the OPPOSITE side of the truck. Cripes! So when the wheel travels through it's normal suspension, instead of going straight up and down, it must go through an arc.

This is completely unlike an A-arm suspension, where the wheel has little if any arc in its travel. From full comrpession to full extension, the wheel will appear to move straight up and down.

This is really noticeable if you have a snow plow on front. Raise the snowplow with no weight in the bed, and the front end really sinks. Walk in front of the truck: the wheels will appear to be tilted in.

Now take off the snowplow and jack the front end up until the wheels just leave the ground. The wheels will appear to be tilted out.

I remember the first time I hit some lazy frost heaves while driving around a sharp curve. Scary!

[FredWB]

As someone who has had his Prius either aligned mor than a few times in search of stability I can comment on this. Not once was the car ever received after an alignment with the steering wheel straight. It's always been off to the left when traveling down a straight section of road after an alignment. It is straight now after the last alignment at Escondido Toyota only because I had them tweak it on a return visit.

One shop over-corrected it so much it was way off to the right once! The alignment sheet I get always says the steering wheel is centered. But for some reason, it never is the first time and ALWAYS off to the left.