Just back from a trip to Utah. Truck ran great, got ~22-23 mpg overall. We did some minor off road trails, none of which required 4WD and none of the trails had anything that could have bent, bashed or damaged anything. On the way home, I noticed the steering wheel Off center to the right. Prior to this it was perfectly centered. (pic attached) There are no indications of anything wrong. No shimmy, shake or vibration. Steering tracks true (1/2 mile w/both hands off the wheel stayed in lane) No new or unusual noises. Before I take it to the alignment shop what should I check?

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It's always good to have your alignment settings marked in some manner so when something like this happens you can easily check and see if anything moved. Maybe a rock banged one of your tie rods? Do you know what your toe setting was before you went out?

Swap the front tires and see if the symptom goes to the other side. If a tire belt has slipped or broken it can cause a pull to the side. Just because the car stays in the lane it doesn't mean you are in alignment. I'd swap the tires and if that doesn't do anything then I would have an alignment done.

Possibly relevant? Especially after off roading.

https://youtu.be/xsOptgpfshg

Thanks for the rplies. Going in for an alignment this morning. Hope the shop can tell me what caused it.

Got the alignment done. No big difference in the before & after specs. He said he couldn't tell what moved. Oh well.....

He told me last time that 3 of the four bolts are seized. He marked them but I have been spraying them w/a 50/50 mix of acetone & ATF every chance I get so the marks are pretty much gone!

I've heard rumor steering racks can skip teeth though I would assume this would be mostly during offroading. Probably not worth worrying about at this point with it fixed.

Agreed.

Hey man! I had this issue. Your planetary gear within the steering rack is skipping a tooth. I assume that you can have your truck on and in drive, turn the steering wheel slowly counter-clockwise and youll either hear or feel a pop and now the steering wheel will be back on the correct spot.

You will need to get this fixed. It can skip the other way as well and can be a safety issue.

Is this a common problem? My 2WD/RWD truck pulls to the left/needs correction to the right. At the last MOT (Inspection) all they flagged up was anti roll bar drop links had perished rubbers, so I have ordered those, but they couldn't say if that was the problem. Everything else would have been checked.

I had tracking/alignment done somewhere else and they said it was fine but I didn't get a print out of results.

The only other thing I noticed was that on a section of the M25 (Highway) where the road surface is concrete pads rather than tarmac, is that the regular "oscillation" type input from the road surface made the steering feel slightly squirrely, but it's always been a horrible road surface to drive on in any vehicle.

This has begun happening to me ('03 SR5 V8) and even taking it into NTB to align didn't fully solve it. I chalked it up to an old car and I just need to live with the very slight off-alignment.

Interesting, thanks.