Steering Wheel Alignment

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

 

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.

 

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

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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!

 

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.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jayman\";p=\"52967)</div>

This is not how you adjust, or center, a steering wheel. If the steering wheel is not centered, alignment should be checked as this could be a toe setting problem. The proper way to resolve centering is by means of the tie rod adjusters which should only be done on an alignment rack.

Also of note, I recall before I got my Prius several complained of off-center steering wheels at delivery and blamed it on the boat ride to the US. My experience is similar. My wheel was off to the right, and sure enough the toe was out of spec. Upon correction, not only is the wheel straight (the tech. is responsible for the final wheel position after alignment) but the sensitivity during windy conditions is nearly gone!

 

In an ideal world, what you describe is the best method. Unless the guy on the assembly line is having a bad day (Grumpy, fight with the lady, etc) and doesn't care which way the wheel is slapped on.

BTW: the toe on my old Ford could be perfect and the steering wheel was still off a bit. The toe on my Prius was ok but they centered the wheel anyway. Will have to ask the tech how.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mdacmeis\";p=\"53973)</div>

This is not how you adjust, or center, a steering wheel. If the steering wheel is not centered, alignment should be checked as this could be a toe setting problem. The proper way to resolve centering is by means of the tie rod adjusters which should only be done on an alignment rack.

Also of note, I recall before I got my Prius several complained of off-center steering wheels at delivery and blamed it on the boat ride to the US. My experience is similar. My wheel was off to the right, and sure enough the toe was out of spec. Upon correction, not only is the wheel straight (the tech. is responsible for the final wheel position after alignment) but the sensitivity during windy conditions is nearly gone![/b][/quote]

For the most part I agree with you. If when your car left Japan it was aligned and the steering wheel was straight and then when you got it the wheel was turned one way or the other going straight...then the toe is DIFFERENT from what it was when it left Japan. I've had my car aligned now maybe 10 times. The toe was basically equal left to right but the steering wheel was not centered. Most of the time it was to the left and once it was off to the right when they over corrected it. Toe-in and centering are related but just because one is out doesn't mean the other is out also. Change one and you need to check the other one again on an alignment rack like you said.

 

Evan, don't forget units there. One dealer quotes me in degrees and the other in inches. The spec for the front is 0 deg +/- 0.2 deg. or 0.0" +/-0.080"

Negative values generally mean toe-out not toe-in. My car right now is 0.03" and 0.04" which is probably around 0.08 deg and 0.0.10 deg left and right respectively. The only time mine was ever negative was when I received it off the boat.

 

When I took delivery of my 05 Package 6 on 12/14 it was definitely 2 degrees to the right. The dealer looked at it on Thursday and concurred, toe in was definitely off from factory. The fixed it under warranty.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tesseract\";p=\"58490)</div>

Just to be clear for everyone, the fact that the steering wheel was turned when going straight does not mean the toe-in was out. It could be, but the toe-in can be correct with the steering wheel off. I've had it that way many, many times. It's now straight for the 1st time in 10,000 miles. There must be something about the odd shape of the steering wheel that fools the tech into thinking it's straight when I know right away that it's not.