Wonkey Steering Wheel

[FiestaOwnerMk5]

My steering wheel is wonky and if I straighten the wheel while driving the car drifts over to the left. I have to keep the steering wheel wonky to go in a straight line. Why is this? Someone mentioned something about the steering wheel alignment being off, is that correct?

[ChrisZetecS]

My mum had a similar problem on the Mini she's just bought... something about the steering being off centre.. took it to a tyre garage and cost £20 to be sorted :)

[MrrNoName]

My mum had a similar problem on the Mini she's just bought... something about the steering being off centre.. took it to a tyre garage and cost £20 to be sorted :)

its not a big problem, but can be annoying as hell I know, most likely is that at some point for some reasong the steering wheel has been removed and was not put on 100% straight, making it wonky when driving. easiest thing to do would be what ChrisZetecS said and take it to a garage who will take it off again and hopefully put it back on 100% straight, shouldent take very long or cost much, careful if your tempted to have a go youself as they can be a nightmare to get off sometimes and you have to be careful of the airbag within the centre :)

[jmurray01]

Let me get this right, if you take your hands off the wheel the steering wheel straightens up and the car drifts to one side ? Or you mean the steering wheel is just on squint ?

If its the first one your tracking is out... BADLY!

If the second one just take the wheel off and put it back on straight!!

[Michael P]

Mine does a similar thing, i just put it down to the car being a bit crap...

Can it actually be resolved then?!

[jmurray01]

Of course it can be resolved

[FiestaOwnerMk5]

Let me get this right, if you take your hands off the wheel the steering wheel straightens up and the car drifts to one side ? Or you mean the steering wheel is just on squint ?

If its the first one your tracking is out... BADLY!

If the second one just take the wheel off and put it back on straight!!

To drive the car in a straight line I must keep the steering wheel in the wonky position. When I straighten the steering wheel the car goes off to the left.

[MrrNoName]

the wheels just been put on wonkey when works been done on the car, its realllly simple to fix :)

[fordpartsman]

Let me get this right, if you take your hands off the wheel the steering wheel straightens up and the car drifts to one side ? Or you mean the steering wheel is just on squint ?

If its the first one your tracking is out... BADLY!

If the second one just take the wheel off and put it back on straight!!

both of these situations are related to the vehicles tracking, its easy to fix, take it to a garage that does wheel alignment, they will turn the steering wheel to centre and then adjust the track rods on the steering rack so that the wheels point ahead

DO NOT TAKE THE STEERING WHEEL OFF, its on splines and the chances of getting it dead centre are minimal at best as for one youll have to put force on the column to undo the bolt and this will then turn the rack and you wont know where centre is and the other being the splines will only allow it to go on at regular intervals and it probably wont allow it to go where you want it

in short, get it tracked up

[MrrNoName]

id presumed that the steering wheel was way off central and too excessive for tracking to solve, if its only a very tiny bit off tracking both sides could well fix it

[coysht]

Its very unlikely that the problem is with the steering wheel itself (as some have already said).

Being a Mk5 Fiesta (basically a Mk4) I wonder if one of the bushes on the front, lower wishbone (control arm, suspension arm, or whatever you want to call it) has gone.

I heard that this is quite common and I've seen two Mk4s where its happened and the steering did pull quite hard to one side.

If it is that, you're talking upto £50 in parts, plus fitting.

The failed bush on my Mk4 was diagnosed by some technicians at a tyre place who were checking the tracking - so I'd recommend you get the tracking looked at first so that they can either fix that, or tell you if there is something more going on.