Steering wheel off center?

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hec983

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How many of you have notice the steering wheel little off center to the left? I had my alignment done at the dealership and the steering wheel still off center to the left. Is just slightly to the left. Anyone notice this as well? 2012 4Runner
 
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hec983 said:
How many of you have notice the steering wheel little off center to the left? I had my alignment done at the dealership and the steering wheel still off center to the left. Is just slightly to the left. Anyone notice this as well? 2012 4Runner
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Did you tell them what the problem was before the alignment? Simple adjustment of the tie rods fine tunes the steering wheel centering as well as adjusting toe. Usually they will test drive it to make sure they got the tie rods right after adjusting them if it's after a complaint. Hard to tell for them when the vehicle is sitting still on the alignment rack and they assume it was straight going in ,unless told otherwise beforehand of the problem.

Or was this the guy who did the alignment?...........
 

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harper7 said:
Did you tell them what the problem was before the alignment? Simple adjustment of the tie rods fine tunes the steering wheel centering as well as adjusting toe. Usually they will test drive it to make sure they got the tie rods right after adjusting them if it's after a complaint. Hard to tell for them when the vehicle is sitting still on the alignment rack and they assume it was straight going in ,unless told otherwise beforehand of the problem.

Or was this the guy who did the alignment?...........
Click to expand...

I just took it in because it was hanging to the right. So the performed the alignment and also adjust the toe. Alignment is fine noe but steering wheel is off
 
IF I have had rigs that I took notice it seemed like the wheel was slightly off to the left which I attributed to the natural road camber (roads dip right) so to hold a rig straight (especially sensitive IFS rigs) the wheel appears off Left slightly.
See how it is in a Big empty parking lot.
 
hec983 said:
I just took it in because it was hanging to the right. So the performed the alignment and also adjust the toe. Alignment is fine noe but steering wheel is off
Click to expand...

Take it back and tell them he screwed up the steering wheel centering now. This can be fixed and is not normal. Ask for a print out of the alignment also.
 
RubiconSS said:
IF I have had rigs that I took notice it seemed like the wheel was slightly off to the left which I attributed to the natural road camber (roads dip right) so to hold a rig straight (especially sensitive IFS rigs) the wheel appears off Left slightly.
See how it is in a Big empty parking lot.
Click to expand...

Interesting that may be the cause.
 
Roads can't be made Flat, If they were you'd/we'd be driving on shallow lake beds in heavy rain. IF the steering wheel is dead nuts perfect AND you are in the right lane (usually) it will seem slightly (slightly) off to the Left.
You can try driving in the Left lane (SAFELY) and see if it is off slightly to the right OR a Large parking lot but even there it has to pitch towards drainage.
 
hec983 said:
Interesting that may be the cause.
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Mine is perfectly straight! Anybody elses off center?
Sounds like he took the easy/lazy way out of alignment for"hanging to the right" by just adjusting the pass. side tie rod in a thread or two or vise versa.

The camber setting is usually offset to account for road crown,not the toe setting ,as far as I know.

Road Crown and Camber
A crowned road means that the outside/right hand side of the lane is lower than the left side of the lane. This improves the drainage of the road but adversely affects vehicle handling. Road crown must be compensated for in alignment settings because a vehicle driving on a crowned road leans to the right, causing some weight transfer to the right, and the camber changes slightly more positive. This combination creates a pull or drift to the right. Most alignment technicians adjust the vehicle with a slightly more positive camber, usually 1/4°, on the left to compensate for the road crown. This slightly more positive camber will not cause a noticeable pull when driving on a flat road. However, if camber is unequal from side to side with a difference greater than 1/2°, the vehicle will pull to the side with the most positive camber. If the specifications allow, 0° to ±.5° is usually best for tire life and vehicle handling.
 
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harper7 said:
Mine is perfectly straight! Anybody elses off center?
Sounds like he took the easy/lazy way out of alignment for"hanging to the right" by just adjusting the pass. side tie rod out a thread or two.

The camber setting is usually offset to account for road crown,not the toe setting ,as far as I know.

Road Crown and Camber
A crowned road means that the outside/right hand side of the lane is lower than the left side of the lane. This improves the drainage of the road but adversely affects vehicle handling. Road crown must be compensated for in alignment settings because a vehicle driving on a crowned road leans to the right, causing some weight transfer to the right, and the camber changes slightly more positive. This combination creates a pull or drift to the right. Most alignment technicians adjust the vehicle with a slightly more positive camber, usually 1/4°, on the left to compensate for the road crown. This slightly more positive camber will not cause a noticeable pull when driving on a flat road. However, if camber is unequal from side to side with a difference greater than 1/2°, the vehicle will pull to the side with the most positive camber. If the specifications allow, 0° to ±.5° is usually best for tire life and vehicle handling.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
hec983 said:
I just took it in because it was hanging to the right. So the performed the alignment and also adjust the toe. Alignment is fine noe but steering wheel is off
Click to expand...
they did a halfass job.

harper7 said:
Take it back and tell them he screwed up the steering wheel centering now. This can be fixed and is not normal. Ask for a print out of the alignment also.
Click to expand...

yup. take it back.
 
As noted "Most" Techs know to compensate for road camber BUT I have known a few that go for dead straight resulting in what appears to be a slight "off to the Left" appearance.
 
Mine (12 LE) has the same problem, it's very slight but definitely noticeable, mine happened after the first maintenance at 5000 miles.

I took it back to the dealership, they put 1 psi more pressure in the passenger side tires instead of trying to actually find and fix the real problem, so be careful with the dealer...
 
Dongbeiren said:
Mine (12 LE) has the same problem, it's very slight but definitely noticeable, mine happened after the first maintenance at 5000 miles.

I took it back to the dealership, they put 1 psi more pressure in the passenger side tires instead of trying to actually find and fix the real problem, so be careful with the dealer...
Click to expand...

Did they fix it?
 
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