I have a Saturn where the natural straight-ahead position of the steering wheel is around one o’clock. I have a Volkswagon where the wheel sits at around 11 o’clock.
I once asked my mechanic if he could straighten the Saturn’s steering wheel, and after he examined the car, he shrugged it off, saying that there was nothing mechanically wrong with the vehicle, possibly just some manufacturing defect, and to not worry about it. Besides, he didn’t want to mess around near the air bag.
So what’s the truth about this? Is it possible to straighten a steering wheel without a huge amount of labor? Was my (former) mechanic full of it – blowing off what would be a trivial task because he didn’t want to bother with it?
Do I have to take my cars to the dealer and have them use fancy custom tools and a half day of labor to fully align everything, or is it a case of someone loosening something, turning it until it’s just right and then tightening it back up?
Don’t worry – with something like my steering wheel, I’m quite fine paying a proper mechanic to do it right. I’m just trying to decide if I should bother more mechanics or just live with the slight unaesthetic position.
I would take the car to someplace that does alignments. If the steering wheel is out of alignment it doesn’t really matter. It’s how the wheels line up with each other that really matters. But, alignments are all about details, and if the steering wheel isn’t quite right, it makes me wonder what else isn’t quite right. You need to get a full alignment done, not just have them put the steering wheel back into place.
A lot of mechanics don’t do alignments these days. I’m not sure if this is because of the special equipment involved or the extra complications of having and airbag system, or maybe both.
That’s what I had in mind when I took the car to my old mechanic – he told me it didn’t need an alignment. Of course, he may have been dodging the issue. This is one of the many tiny things that made me change mechanics.
I think what a good wheel aligner does is to position the steering wheel in the correct position, and then align the wheels. I sympathise with you. It is aggravating to drive with the steering wheel all cattywampus when you are driving straight ahead.
I’m sort of repeating what’s been said, but I remember doing some work on a car where I had to remove the steering wheel, and the manual said to be sure not to change its position when putting it back on. I believe the reason is that if the steering wheel is not at dead-center when the wheels are straight, it means there is something wrong with the wheel alignment. Merely changing the position of the steering wheel won’t fix the problem. I think if you fix the alignment problem, the steering wheel will automatically return to the correct position.
If it’s not an alignment problem, then I don’t know. My steering wheel was pretty easy to take off, and it would have been easy to realign it. In fact, the challenge was to not change it’s position. But that was pre-airbags.
In my experience, steering wheels just slide onto a splined shaft threaded on its end and a nut keeps it on tight. It’s not unsafe if it’s misaligned and has no affect on the turn signals, it just looks wrong.
Like the OP, I always like my steering wheel to look straight when I’m going straight and over the years have adjusted a few. All I needed was a steering wheel puller and a socket wrench. None of mine involved an airbag in the wheel though. That probably complicates things very much and doesn’t make it worthwhile to take things apart just to move the wheel a few degrees.
Almost certainly a properly done wheel alignment will solve the problem. First though, I’ll mention some other issues that need to be in good shape.
The steering wheel needs to be at the 12:00 position (or as close to it as possible) at the center of the lock-to-lock range of the steering mechanism. It almost always is unless someone has taken it off the steering column and reinstalled it a spline or two off, or something is badly bent out of whack. Both of these conditions are rare, though not impossible. To check for steeering wheel centering, jack the front wheels off the ground and turn the steering wheel from left lock (as far as it will go to the left) to right lock. The top of the wheel should be at equivalent positions at the locks, e.g. about 8:00 on the left and about 4:00 on the right. And at halfway between left lock and right lock, it should be at 12:00. For example, if it turns 3 1/2 turns lock-to-lock, then 1 3/4 turns from left lock should equal 12:00 should equal 1 3/4 turns from right lock. This may not be exact, but it should be close, say within less than one “hour” of rotation (the exact amount varies with how many splines are on the steering column). If the wheel is not reasonable centered this way, it will need to come off and be repositioned on the steering column. Chances are however, that it will be okay. If something is really badly bent, it should be detectable with a careful visual inspection.
It’s also possible to have a faulty tire that causes a noticeable pull to one side, which can necessitate the steering wheel being turned off center to go straight ahead. To test for this, rotate the tires, because it’s extremely unlikely that more than one tire is causing such a pull; in fact it’s not that common for even one to do it. For this reason, this possibility is usually not tested for until after an alignment is done.
Once its known that the steering wheel is correctly positioned on the column, the thing to do is align the road wheels so that the steering wheel is at 12:00 when the car is going straight down the road. This is done by adjusting the toe-in (once the other alignment angles – caster and camber – are adjusted, if they’re adjustable). It may be that the total toe-in value is right on the money, but if the steering wheel is off center the toe-in needs to be adjusted so that the total is correct AND the wheel points straight ahead. As David Simmons mentioned, this is normal procedure in a properly done alignment.
Be aware that many shops underprice wheel alignment, using it a loss leader in the hopes of selling steering and suspension parts that may be needed before the car can be aligned. I always fear that they may rush through the alignment and not do a careful job, since they know they’re not getting paid well for it. Ask around and find a shop that has a reputation for doing really good alignments. They likely will charge more for the alignment than the average shop, but in this case that’s probably a good thing.
Gary T speaks words of wisdom. I’ve had the same problem myself on several cars, and it’s invariably due to a sloppy tracking adjustment, where the front wheel toe-in is adjusted more or less OK, but the front wheels aren’t aligned to the rear wheels or steering column.
A quick and dirty (though not foolproof) way to check whether the steering wheel is aligned on the steering column correctly is to check the position of the steering wheel when the steering column is locked. It should be level if the steering wheel and the column are aligned properly.
A note on toe-in tracking. If it’s out then your tyres will scrub a lot, as indicated by heavy steering, and high tyre wear characterised by burred edges to the tread blocks. If it the tracking needs adjusting regularly, then there’s something wrong with your suspension or steering (usually worn bearings or balljoints), and adjusting the tracking won’t help for long. This is more of a problem for front-wheel drive vehicles.
After having read these detailed posts, I’m inclined to simply accept the misaligned steering wheels in my cars. It’s kind of annoying, like a permanently tilted picture frame, but I can live with it.
I’m going to give Gary T’s test a go – I’ll run the wheel between the stops and see if the endpoints are symmetric.