Car Not Pulling But Steering When Off Centre After Front Tyre Change.

[ghsaunders40]

Hi,

We had to change both from tyres last week. Since then the steering wheel has been off centre when driving straight the car is not pulling to the left or right.

Could this be the wheel alignment/tracking?

Thanks.

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[Stoney871]

It's due to a shoddy job at the fitters.

Once an alignment is done the steering wheel should be re-centred if necessary.

They obviously haven't bothered.

You need to go back and get them to correct it.

[SandyCat]

I agree. When I was young and stupid (now I am just old and still stupid) I went to KwikFit who managed to knock my steering out simply changing over some tyres. When I went back they told me it needed re-tracking which they then charged me for!! I have since learned my lesson and now use a garage that knows what they are doing (Hi-Q).

[BigRog]

More likely to be off balance as its only the wheel that is off centre, ask them to rebalance the wheels.

[SandyCat]

That doesn't cause the steering wheel to be off centre. They have pulled the track rods out of alignment by being heavy handed.

[BigRog]

Thats a good diagnostic without seeing the car, a tenner says it is the balancing. I had the same on my MPS.

[SandyCat]

You are on :) You have not seen the car either ;) I had the same thing and it was the track rod arms that needed adjusting.

Balancing would cause vibration but I cannot possibly see why it would make a steering wheel off centre. I will be happy to be proved wrong.

I just hope the OP isn't fobbed off and can stand and watch what they do. I am happy to be proved wrong of course. It's all good fun.

http://www.ehow.com/info_12230943_correct-offcenter-steering-wheel.html

[BigRog]

When my steering wheel was out by about 8-10mm I took my car (bought second hand with the problem) in for 4 wheel alignment on the lazer machine, after they checked it all out, all was ok, it was the weight that was wrong, I still say it is either lighter or heavier on one wheel than it should be.

[stef123]

It could cause the steering to be off, think of how a grass bowl works. It has a bias, heavier on one side than the other.

I'm not convinced though

[SandyCat]

Odd I agree. As the wheel weights are very small I just find it hard to believe that alone would cause a steering wheel to be off centre when driving straight ahead. We know that tyres are not always perfect and they alone can cause tracking problems so maybe the weights dial this out. But I have always believed it's do with the track rod arm adjustment.

[BigRog]

Changing two tyres and the fitter manages to mess track rod ends up? think of all the pot holes and ruts on the road, surely the car gets more hammer on the road than a spotty teenager can cause changing tyres.

Where's Matt when you need him?

[MattDRX]

Right here,

Personally I'd say the wheels were hard to get off and they clumped them with a hammer from behind, take the wheels off and check for damage also as I've had this in the past.

If steering is off centre it should just be a track rod issue, but you'll need alignment checked first, try and find somewhere nearby that has Hunter laser Alignment, most places do the check for free.

Rods are easy to change and only about £30 odd each.

Either that or they bashed a driveshaft / slipped on the jack and did it in but that would develop more of a torque steer effect than anything.

[David_cabral]

Are those new tyres or second hand?

If so check for the depth on both of them.

I have one front tyre with 5mm and another one with 7mm. That causes the steering wheel to be offcenter to the right because the left tyre is higher than the right one. Also check for tyre pressure. It as to be the same on both tyres. For example in my mk7 1.4tdci fiesta its 2.1bar at the front and 1.8bar at the rear. Sorry i dunno psi measures as im from portugal e we use metric.

Steering out of alignement would cause the car to pull to one side. Wrong tyre pressure and having more thread on one tyre than the other causes the steering wheel to be off center. Other than that tyres might have been mounted in the wrong way or be ovalized but that would make the steering shake like if it was unbalanced. Check all those because when i used to swap tyres in a few shops they would just put wrong tyre pressure in the tyres.

[Stoney871]

I think everyone is assuming various horror stories and seriously bodged jobs here.

Reading the initial post, the Member says there are no handling problems.

Pure and simple- the steering wheel was not re-centred after the alignment.

5 minute job- put the front wheels straight, pop out the airbag, loosen off the nut, re-centre the steering wheel and re-fit the airbag.

Simples!

Sent from my S5

[SandyCat]

LOL No! That is not the way you do it !! You are masking all sorts of problems that could be lurking in the steering geometry. You could have the steering rack biased to one side and just re-centre the wheel to disguise it. This is not the cure! You centre the wheel by adjusting the front geometry to the manufacturers intended settings.

Remember the old Minis that you saw crabbing down the road because they just got all 4 wheels pointing in the same direction without lining them up with the body !

Unless.........Clive was joking of course ha ha

[Stoney871]

The standard routine when changing tyres is to offer an alignment.

If that was done then it is as I stated- steering wheel needs repositioning.

If no alignment was done then suspect other factors.

It's easy for us to spout horror stories but at the end of it we could be pushing someone to pay for 'remedial' work they don't need.

It's not our hard earned money to spend.

And no I wasn't joking, I was just not trying to over-think something that could be an easy and inexpensive fix rather than scaring someone into thinking their car could be a death trap.

Remember the K.I.S.S principle- keep it simple stupid.

Sent from my S5

[MattDRX]

Or we could be right, who knows.

The only way to find out is for a Pro to inspect the car, I could think of about 50 ways the steering could be out, but I'm going to be nice and not waste your drive space.

[stef123]

Just to clear something up.. If the steering wheel isn't straight you need to have the alignment and suspension looked over.

When setting the steering wheel straight the procedure is to lock it in place using what some people call the 'wee man'. It sits on the seat and its spring loaded to hold the wheel while the mechanic adjusts the alignment until the correct values are set up - this means the wheel is set straight! There is no other correct method to straighten the wheel unless it's by adjusting the track rod ends

[SandyCat]

Exactly. Thank you.

[ghsaunders40]

Hi all.

Many thanks for the thoughts. Took car back to the fitting garage.

They looked at the issue and insisted that there was no issue at all.

Took car to an independent alignment centre in the West Midlands who was sceptical at first.

They checked the car and produced a printout showing the alignment was quite far out of tolerance.

They reset the alignment and now my steering wheel is in the right position.

Off to do battle with the tyre fitters this morning. Lesson learnt, watch when tyres are being fitted!

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[SandyCat]

Good result glad you got it sorted.

[jeebowhite]

Definitely a good result I would be demanding a refund for their shoddy efforts towards alignment

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[jeebowhite]

Oh and a reimbursement for having the second alignment done

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[kevzs960]

Could of been the fact that they smacked the wheel with a mallet cus they were siezed on.

Ive saw it a few times. The steering racks are pretty fragile to be honest. As long as there is no damage thats all that matter.

But removing a steering wheel an moving the spline to get it to be centralised...how 1950's is that bodging method!!!

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