[Moderating]
Requests for professional advice go in IMHO. Moving.
I tried Pork Rinds ’ non-professional advice and it was certainly helpful. I wrapped some blue painters tape around the “top” at around where 11 O’clock would be when going straight.
I met the owner, Mac. The first thing he denied was that the difficult screw was not drilled out. Well, neither of us was present for its removal, yet it was not restored (whatever its purpose). He drove it into the shop, put it in (I actually haven’t checked - anyway), we went for a test drive, and he could see the alignment was off. Not only the wheel, but a slight drift to the right. Brought it back to the garage and at the turn of a friendly card wrench, all was good, and now my blue tape really is at 11 O’clock, and the wheel is horizontal.
There was a 2015 Aygo there. I looked all around, it and the only change in 7 years was a longer rooftop antenna.
So all is good. My next decision is to pop back in both front-headlight LEDS. I tried just one for a couple of nights a whole back but I wasn’t sure if it’d pass the MOT. They did help light dark sections and didn’t seem anywhere near as obnoxiously bright as the mini-SUVs are.
Sheesss from the OP’s title, I thought a wheel was off by 15 degrees. Not just the steering wheel.
It would be really, really bad if and actual wheel was off by 15 degrees. Like can’t drive it bad.
There may be some British I’m having trouble translating, but it sounds like you had a bushing (bush in your land) that was worn on a lower control arm. On a 2008 vehicle, they’re all probably toast, but maybe this one was particularly bad. The anti-roll bar, also known as an anti-sway bar (or, usually, just a “sway bar”), is a suspension component that connects the left and right wheel on a given axle so that some energy is transferred on compression of one side to the other. The sway bar is connected to the lower control arms via sway bar end links, the threaded portions of which are going to be a rusted mass on your car. I live in America’s rust belt and on a 15 year old car the odds of me not having to cut them off is basically 0. So all of that tracks, if it makes you feel better. The end links are fairly cheap.
The wiring for lighting systems is weird. Often times several unrelated things are wired up in series, either to save money (always a real possibility) but usually to alert the operator immediately if something isn’t working. Things like, if a brake light goes out you lose all your interior dash lights so you know something is wrong. It’s reasonable (to me) that a bad connection in the headlight stalk would take out an a seemingly unrelated circuit. But I don’t know the specifics here. (FWIW, I don’t think any of this is true with modern CANBUS electrical systems).
I’m not sure why you think the missing screw was drilled out as opposed to just not re-installed. Was part of the screw still in there?
Putting the steering wheel back on and getting the spline alignment wrong happens. It’s sloppy, but it’s happened to me and I just had to go back to the shop and say “Do it right this time.” The 19mm nut is most likely a nylock nut and I wouldn’t worry about the wheel flying off. You’ll get plenty of warning if it starts to loosen up.
There’s a chance they left the battery connected, pulled the fuse for the SRS system and then connected some contacts to make sure the power was drained. I wouldn’t ever take out an airbag without verifying the circuit was discharged, but maybe these guys yoloed it.
Anyway, it sounds like this particular mechanic was a bit sloppy, but at least the shop owner made good.
I think that answers why I think it was drilled out. Perhaps if you can lift the car a bit and get your head under the shroud you don’t need a mirror and like a hole-in-one to lock in a small Phillips head. The owner said it hadn’t been drilled out (I had wrote an email with just enough restraint of my anger) and no particular reason to not believe him. Using a drill under the steering wheel column might attract some attention. That damn screw which I still don’t know the purpose of, took me even longer to put back in (it’s recessed almost an inch in a pinky width column); involving the tip of a paper straw and gorilla tape and again, sheer luck when it actually bit. I felt I had to do it because I modded the shroud to have a tachometer (I think called a rev indicator) and while I didn’t expect they’d re-do the stalk, thought it likely they’d look for that pesky screw. So maybe the mechanic forgot it, conveniently or not. Water under bridge.
I think you’re exactly right about bush/bushings being worn. I’ve never myself had access to a lift, yet many garages in the USA would allow you under the car and point out the situation, and after looking up the terms it seemed to be about the same. I asked about other things like brakes, shocks, exhaust and while I didn’t get a guarantee, they’ll hold up another year plus before making the MOT worthwhile for some garage.
It’s “spot the American” when I refer to a “hood” or “trunk”. And interesting when someone says you have a “nice motor” and they are referring to the whole car.
Just on that, the owner has a convenient nearby spot with parallel lanes that we test drove in (post-screw restoration) and said it was pulling slightly to the right. If it took him 15 minutes to do the screw, it took him 10 to do the alignment and another test drive and my painters tape which had been at 12 was now at 11, as expected. He was positive it was the alignment that caused it.
So interestingly, since he did this post-screw, there is no way he could have cheated and yoinked the wheel off and kludged it to the right place. To guys like this, it’s like tying shoelaces.