Why is the steering wheel not straight ??

[Zippyworld]

Call me a perfectionist, but, I have had two of my cars bumped recently involving kerbs, and a third car all of which do not have the steering wheel square on when the wheels are straight.
The two cars that ad a knock have been digitally aligned on a Hunter machine.
Its only a detail, but any thoughts about what may be going on ?

[mph1977]

the actual shaft from the wheel tothe rack is one spline 'off' based on where the wheel sits ?

[BritishRacinGrin]

They should've fixed this during the geo. Your road wheel geometry could be perfect but they failed to set the wheel straight.

[stevieturbo]

BritishRacinGrin said:

They should've fixed this during the geo. Your road wheel geometry could be perfect but they failed to set the wheel straight.

Absolutely. Seen this locally plenty of times. It's just plain incompetence by the operator followed by lack of road test afterwards.

Then they usually try and sell you new tyres, or other things to correct their incompetence.

[Matt Seabrook]

It is most likely a slight misalignment issue when setting up the geometry but tyres can cause a misalignment of the steering wheel. I have had this on two occasions now. I have had a steering wheels not straight after an alignment only to recheck the alignment again without issue. We have then replaced tyres the last was a BMW X3 that had some ditch finders fitted. We fitted some Pirellis and no further alignment adjustments made and the steering wheel was then straight on road test.

[Zippyworld]

Thankyou for the responses.
I am thinking that if the car has been geo aligned, what would the adjstment need to be to straighten the wheel ?
Excuse the potentially nieve question, but could it be a quick take the steering wheel off and put it back on straight ?

[rb5er]

Usually a device it fitted between the steering wheel and drivers seat to hold the steering wheel straight whilst the allignment is done around the steering being straight.

[BritishRacinGrin]

as rb5er said, you set the wheel straight first, lock it in place and then compensate at the track rods so that with the wheel straight the car is tracking straight ahead.

[Winky151]

Zippyworld said:

Thankyou for the responses.
Excuse the potentially nieve question, but could it be a quick take the steering wheel off and put it back on straight ?

If your car has servotronic assistance (less assistance the higher the speed) don't do this as it will alter where the centre of the assistance sits i.e. straight ahead position is already being assisted giving vague steering.

[Matt Seabrook]

What is little understood is if the rear of the car has thrust to one side or another then this will throw the steering wheel out of line. The other thing is if the car has hydraulic power steering the engine needs to be running when the steering is clamped off. If it's not the hydraulics in the rack will not be equalised and this could throw the steering off when the car is started. Also if the car has ESP don't remove the wheel and reposition the wheel get it done properly.

[stevieturbo]

Zippyworld said:

Thankyou for the responses.
I am thinking that if the car has been geo aligned, what would the adjstment need to be to straighten the wheel ?
Excuse the potentially nieve question, but could it be a quick take the steering wheel off and put it back on straight ?

No, the idiots doing the alignment are supposed to lock the wheel dead straight before carrying out any adjustments.

Some dont bother their arse, or simply do it wrong. And most never road test the car after to ensure they have dont the alignment correctly.

Basically just either laziness or incompetence.

You should never be removing the wheel and turning it to correct for shoddy work elsewhere.

[RVVUNM]

I had this from an incompetent bunch of rubber monkeys in Avonmouth Bristol, where I argued that the steering wheel wasn't fixed during the alignment and they told me it's not possible to straighten a steering wheel. Took it around the corner and the fixed it there and then.