My car was recently aligned to a -2.0camber/0 toe Front and -1.0camber/0 toe rear configuration after putting on some Works Ride springs. The alignment itself seems to be spot on (I got a before and after printout and the numbers are good), the car seems to be tracking fine. The one thing they didn't do is "center" my steering wheel. I've taken it back twice now and they can't seem to quite get it right. I'm tired of taking it to then and am wondering if it is possible for me to adjust the centeredness of my steering wheel myself without an alignment tool like the FasTrax? It seems like what I'd want to do is just adjust it equally on both sides toe-wise until it has the steering wheel sitting where I want. Since the car drives ok I don't want to change the alignment at all, just the steering wheel center position. Thoughts?

 

Yea, but could be tough to briefly describe... I'll try though...
1. Buy 4 commercial 12x12 floor ties, sandwich some grease between 2 pairs and drive the front wheels over them. This allows the wheels to move freely.
2. center the stearing wheel, balance a small bullet level on top to see if it moves when you adjust the toe.
3. run a string along the side of the car, at the hight of the hub, and exactly the same offset from the hub (like 1 inch). (assumes no wheel spacers)
4. measure the distance from the front and rear of the wheel to the string. If its not exactly the same, loosen the tie rod and turn the tie rod in or out as necessary to get to exactly zero difference between f/r of wheel and string. Recheck the stearing wheel is centered, recheck the string is still equal distance from front and rear wheel hub. if all is good, tighten the tie rod and repeat on other side.

fyi: "exactly" means like within 0.01". A digital caliper isn't necessary, but you really need to be as accurate is possible.

or..

go back for a 3rd time and make sure they "lock" your wheel centered when they align it. have them test drive your car before they give it back to you.

 

wow so exact

 

you have the right idea

assuming you are not just riding the road crown and it's making you think the wheel is off center, you have found flat road or driven on the center line on a road with no traffic to check this.

Assuming tire air pressures are all even, a low tire can cause wheel off center with perfect align.

Note in which direction the steer wheel is off.

Also try and gauge how much it's off.

You can tape 2 pieces of paper, 1 on the top of the steer column and one right next to it on top of the steering wheel air bag. Now set the wheel dead center and make 1 mark on the top center of the steering wheel air bag and a 2nd mark aligned with the first on top center of the column. Now move the wheel to where it is when the car drives straight and make 1 more mark on the column aligned with the center mark on the wheel. You should now have 1 mark on the wheel and 2 marks on the column.

Now when you adjust a certain amount on the tie rods you will see how much movement you got at the wheel.

For this example let's say it's off to the right. So when you center the steering wheel both wheels are steering to the left.

So you want to adjust the right toe out or tie rod shorter and the left toe in or tie rod longer.

RIGHT SIDE: Start by marking the hex part (12 or 14mm) of the tie rod on one of the hex flats with a magic marker for reference. Then loosen the lock nut (17 or 19mm) and turn the hex a 1/2 turn in the shorten direction using the mark to guide you, then tighten lock nut. Try to be exact as possible noting your wrench angle before and after and starting the wrench angle in a position that will let you swing the 1/2 turn without obstruction.

LEFT SIDE: same procedure as R side just turn in the longer direction.

1/2 turn is just an educated guess. You have to drive and see if it aligns.

If it isn't centered try to gauge how much difference it made at the wheel and adjust the tie rods accordingly. Let's say it corrected only 1/2 the distance to center, you would go another 1/2 turn at each tie rod. Or if it went past center to an equal distance in the other direction you would go back a 1/4 turn at each tie rod.

Keep in mind other factors may be at play. Look at your align, are caster and camber pretty much even side to side, front and rear? Sometimes you can be within specs but not equal side to side and it will cause the centering to be off. Sometimes with power steering you have to start the car to get an accurate centering before lock down. Slight chance also a tire is causing a slight pull to one side. These reasons may be why they couldn't get it to center.

double check lock nuts when all done.

 

Thanks for the help guys.

I don't have my alignment spec sheet right in front of me but my camber was -2.0 on the left and -2.04 on the right I believe. Toe was -0.01 on the left and like 0.01 on the right, really dang close. Rear was similarly close. I'm pretty sensitive to changes in the driving of the car and know when the road is causing pull or some other shenanigans. I have a trusted piece of road I use to test things like this out. The alignment seems fine except for the centering of the steering wheel.

I"m not sure why I'd need to go through the procedure in the first post since the toe is already "dialed in" so to speak, I'm simply wanting to do as suggested and lengthen the left tie rod while shortening the right with exactly equal turns of the tie rods on both sides so that toe remains the same and the only thing that changes is the steering wheel position relative to zero toe.

Question: what is the procedure for loosening the tie rod bar locking nut? The tie rod takes a 12mm wrench but seems to be for adjusting only. Should I just put some force on the nut with a single wrench? I don't want to damage the tie rod ball joint.

 

Once you start adjusting the tie rods you have two jobs to do - centering the steering wheel and setting toe. Yeah, it sounds great, but in real life there's no way you are going to be able to center the steering wheel without messing up the toe. So, if you can't set toe yourself take it back or take it somewhere else.

As for the wrenches, there's the locking nut, there are flats on the tie rod end for a wrench and there are flats on the tie rod itself. Don't forget to release the clamp on the boot.

 

The more you pay for tires the more exact you want.

 

Not sure I understand this. Let's say both tires have zero toe, I mean 0.00 and completely straight laterally. Steering wheel center is off to the right a bit, so when I center it the tires are now pointing off to the left of vehicle centerline, let's say a half-degree. I undo the locking nuts on both tie rods. I turn the left tie rod 1/10th of a turn to lengthen it. This makes the front left tire more lined up with vehicle centerline but now total toe is off in the front. I then turn the right tie rod 1/10th of a turn to shorten it, making the front right tire more lined up with centerline. Both tires are now back to toe zero, no? And since the tie rods have been adjusted the steering wheel is more "centered". A test drive will tell me if I went too far or not far enough.

 

You can get the better part of half a turn without releasing the lock nut on the tie rod due to the movement available at the tie rod end. And, how much adjustment to center the wheel? So, pretty soon, without being able to set toe, you are lost.

I do all my own alignment so I have experience with this. For me to center the wheel would require the car on the jack maybe twice to get the wheel centered and maybe twice to get the toe back to zero. Well, I guess there is always luck.

On the other hand, if you can set toe then you can fiddle all you want, takes things apart and you are always able to set things right. So, if you want to do this, learn to set toe.

 

i have the same issue for some time. My steering wheel is off to the left. I have taking it to two alingments shops and still no fix.

 

I have been a mechanic for 10 years. If they shipped your car with the wheel off center that is not acceptable and I would be back there complaining.

You want to turn the front wheels in the direction the steering wheel is off. If the steering wheel is off to the left then both wheels need to turn left. Mark both tie rod locations with a marker. Turn both tie rods so they make the wheels turn left. I would only turn them an 1/8th to1/4 turn at a time. As long as the adjustments are even on both sides it would not effect your toe adjustment at all. I am sure someone will say otherwise but that is how mechanics do it in the real world and your toe does not change.

 

we used to do this centering procedure all the time with Honda PDI's, as long as you're reasonably careful you will easily stay within spec.

to break the locknut loose just one wrench and turn it till the tie end locks up, then break it loose, you can't hurt it with hand tools only, it will take way more abuse than you can give. Same way to tighten. You may need both hands, they are usually pretty tight. You may even need to smack the end of the wrench with a mallet, unless you have an extra long Snap-on wrench, but don't tighten that way.

those other settings are really close, shouldn't affect centering

start with a 1/4 turn if you want to creep up on it. Or one flat of the hex is 60 deg, or 1/6 of a turn. Keep in mind also that when you tighten the lock nut it sometimes turns the adjustment a little bit. Hold the adjust hex while you tighten the locknut if necessary. Always note the position of the adjust hex in relation to the tie end flats.

If the threads look dry and a little corroded, spray some WD-40.

One other thing, (I know it's just common sense, but have to say it) DO NOT get under the car with just a jack, you MUST have jack stands, AND leave the jack under it. (assuming a floor jack, not the spare jack). Most common way techs get killed. Unless you're skinny and it's not lowered

 

all correct but def more than a 1/10th of a turn.

 

you're probably right. If things go wrong, you want to be able to set toe.

 

Update:

Rolled the front end of my car up on my Race Ramps. Used a black magic marker on the tie rods to mark where my starting point was relative to the flat bottom of the tie rod end so I could return to "default" if things went south.

Then loosened the left side locking nut, turned the tie rod 1/4-turn to lengthen it. Tightened the nut back down (taking into account the tie rod turns a little even after the nut engages, took a few attempts to get it to sit where I wanted but it wasn't that hard). Then did the same procedure on the right side, except shortened it by a 1/4-turn. End result: centered steering wheel.