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Alignment & Steering wheel

15K views 32 replies 13 participants last post by  Mongo53 
#1 ·
The dealer said that my alignment is perfect but on a flat even road my GC veers to the left when I centered the steering wheel. So I have to drive with the steering wheel slightly turned in order to go straight on a flat even road. Anyone having this issue?

 
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#2 ·
yep many have had the cocked to the right steering wheel including me, they have been rolling off the assembly line for years like that. they need to adjust for that when aligning it. I had mine aligned 3 times before they got it right. there are other threads on here that go into this
 
#3 ·
Mine did not have that issue, but your dealership is absolutely wrong and the problem can be fixed with a simple alignment. Funny thing is it's apparently common on all new cars. My wife's new 2014 Toyota Highlander had to go back for a slightly off steering wheel (about the same as yours), and my dad recently bought a new Cadillac ATS. He let me drive it and sure as shit his wheel was a tad off center when driving straight lol.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Mine is the same way. But, every vehicle I have owned--1 Toyota, 4 Infinitis, 1 Nissan, 1 Jeep)--has had the wheel off-center to the right in order to drive straight. It isn't confined to just Jeep. In fact, it took the dealer replacing the steering rack on my Infiniti QX56 for them to realize it was off-center and adjust. Since it has occurred with every vehicle I have owned and driven, I have just accepted and never made an issue of it.

I have heard multiple theories as to why most cars seem to suffer from this. None make any sense other than lack of quality control at factories and dealers not giving a rats ass.
 
#9 ·
The issue going on with the GCs off center to the right steering wheels has nothing to do with road camber. The final dealer that corrected mine knew exactly what I was talking about he said he corrects them all the time. Just make sure the dealer acknowledges the wheel being off center that needs corrected and not that the car is not pulling in either direction. Mine was like yours slightly off, just a matter of the dealer taking time to understand the issue and knowing how to correct for it vs just doing a standard alignment and not listening to a word you say.
 
#10 ·
Wow, I'm surprised to see some of you guys trying to blame the road, and one guy even says he just accepts it. Guys, if the steering wheel is offcenter its offcenter and thats not correct. The OP should know if its the road or not and you can easily and quickly determine that just by driving on different roads. Even wind is a factor, and again thats easy to tell if its a contributing factor. Either way a proper alignment will fix the issue. On any car a slightly offcenter steering wheel is annoying, but a new one? thats gotta be fixed. We are turning it into a bigger deal than it is though, its a simple fix that any dealership can do. Apparently yours is lazy or incompetent...or probably both.
 
#11 ·
Mine also took three alignments for them to get it right. First it pulled hard right, then they adjusted and it was pulling hard left, then I took it and raised hell and the guy tried to say it was the road. I went on a test drive with him and showed him and they pulled it in and showed me that it was way off. They showed me the alignment and spent some time to fix it this time and got it right. I live in AZ, and due to monsoons and flash flooding during the monsoon season, they do have some roads pitched, but I can tell which roads are like that versus the normal roads.
 
#13 ·
How a dealership can't tackle a simple alignment is beyond me. I'm frustrated for you!!! I mean is there something else wrong that we don't know about? Why is it I was able to take my Acura and my wife's Toyota in for the exact same issue and I leave an hour later with a perfectly centered steering wheel? I love my Jeep and service has been fine so far for me, but reading other people's stories makes me cringe sometimes and was one of the toughest things when leaving the Honda/Acura family.
 
#14 ·
The best theory I've heard was its made like that so if you fall asleep at the wheel it won't drift to oncoming traffic.

After many alignments by various tyre shops, I've learnt how to do minor adjustments to correct it. I'd say turn both tie rod ends downwards to the front 1/4 of a turn and it should be good. Turn both evenly. Advise to mark it before you attempt it.
 
#26 ·
Hi Sir,

My steering wheel is turned to the right when going in a straight line. This means, if I centre the wheel, it drifts to the left. This means to correct this, I need to shorten the left hand tie rod and lengthen the right hand tie rod be equal amounts. Could you tell me which way the rods are threaded. Ie, to shorten the left one, which way do I turn and to lengthen the right, which way do I turn? I am tired of never having an aligned wheel. I guess I can try looking at the screw threads but it might be difficult to see which way they are threaded.

Kind wishes,

~Tom
 
#15 · (Edited)
I see this type of thing on a daily basis. Dealerships, well, service writers blowing smoke at customers. Plain and simple, if your steering wheel is offcenter AND you are experiencing a drift, there are two things that are quite likely. 1: Your alignment is NOT to spec (possibly a caster issue. Vehicles tend to drift towards the side with the lower caster.). 2: You may be experiencing a radial pull (a radial tire can push or pull in a specific direction).

A rather large majority of folks that perform alignments, merely set the toe angles and make an attempt to center the steering. That's basically all. Rarely do they adjust camber/caster.

To the original poster, if possible, send me the alignment result sheet if they provided one.

And it's not a good idea just to start tampering with vehicle alignment without knowing before and after measurements. Just because the bolts are the same size, doesn't mean they are set equal. Take tie rods for example. Just because the steering wheel is not centered, you should NOT assume both tie rods are adjusted to the same value. The problem could be on one side alone. Find a dealer/service center with a Hunter alignment system. The newer the better. And also somewhere with a competent alignment technician.
 
#16 ·
With all assumption that his alignment is to spec, but just off Center at the wheel. If his alignment is out then that is a whole different story.

All alignment results will differ no matter which shop you use and which system and also how the car is driven up onto the hoist. I've also posted on this forum the camber and caster which should be used for these jeeps, where some clown reckon the cambers are slot bolted and have limited adjustments(refusing to make adjustment and asking customers to fit adjustable universal joints).
 
#22 ·
to silvermax: Interesting that they didn't take a caster measurement. Regardless of air suspension or not, our WK2's are fully adjustable.

And most definately there are techs out there, or so they call themselves techs that just don't take pride in what they do thus giving the rest of us a bad name.
 
#23 ·
yeah not sure about what all he did but the tech clearly knew what he was doing and knew exactly what I was talking about when I was telling him about the off center issue. It was dead on when I left there and no issue since. I did look under after I had got home I could tell that both tie rods had been adjusted, there were probably other things done but the tie rods were all that stood out that I could tell they had been worked on.
 
#27 ·
I have the same issue but after I had Bilstein 5100s installed and suspension aligned. The shop didn't align properly. Before that, it was perfect.
 
#28 ·
It is indeed very frustrating. It was perfect last year, the dealership checked and recommended aligning and the wheel was crooked. I took it back and it was still crooked and I just accepted it and drove for one year like that. And yesterday they re-did the alignment because I had a wheel bearing failure and now the wheel is even more crooked to the right when going in a straight line. I know all I need to do is make the left one shorter and right longer by equal amounts and the problem is fixed. It is just knowing which way to turn. Still it is annoying that we need to do this ourself because I don't want to waste more time waiting on them to do it incorrectly.

~Tom
 
#30 ·
There is a steering angle sensor adjustment that should be done post-alignment. I had my JGC aligned this morning and that was something that the shop noted on their services summary.
 
#33 ·
They are suppose to make sure the steering wheel is centered as they align the wheels, check the steering wheel is centered when they're done and go back and adjust if it is not.

The Caster being off is a good thought, if there is a mismatched between left and right caster, but the toe and camber is aligned with the steering wheel centered, the mismatch in caster could pull the wheel to one side while moving forward.....

There is a spec in the alignment spec, for the max difference in Caster Left/Right....

And the WK2 moves the anchor points front/rear of the lower control arm to adjust camber and caster, you can't adjust one without affecting the other....

Throw in Caster measuring is often a PITA, turning the wheel left and right, measuring the camber change and doing math, then to adjust caster means you just change camber that you just got in.... ....and the WK2 has no eccentric nuts to turn and gradually adjust, you've got to loosen the nut and muscle or tap the nut along a slot....

Eitherway, they are likely blowing something off, either the check of the steering wheel being centered or the caster is within spec for difference left/right....

One last thing to consider, big fat tires often don't track very well, they dart and pull to one side, so its possible the big fat tires on the WK2 play into this as well....
 
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