I just got an alignment done. But now the steering wheel is crooked to the right. Otherwise the ride is straight, or so I think. Just to check, I turned the steering wheel completely to the right and to the left and they both seem to end up at the same degree.

I've been reading some stuff, and I'm beginning to suspect that the thrust angle is off. The guy who aligned it showed me a print-out of all the measurements and said everything is within factory spec. There's got to be more to it than that. I'll try to post the sheet on Monday.

I've searched through the forum and closest related thread I found was this:

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=81319

Still no diagnosis for the problem. Please help! Thanks...

 

If your alignment guy did not re-center the steering wheel after he changed the alignment then find another shop. The steering wheel is re-centered from under the front of the car (don’t ask me how; I’m a driver not an alignment expert).

The old guy I go to is the best in our area, he got a full -2 on the front, reset the toe to zero. While working on the front he went over the set-up three times, took the car out and test drove it twice. He’s old school and does everything with hand tools.

After climbing out of the pit to tell me the job was done he looked back at the car and said “oops”. He went back into the pit, did something under the front end, got back in the car, centered up the steering wheel, back in the pit to tighten something up. Then he comes over and says “sorry about that, almost forgot to re-center the steering wheel.

I’ve made two trips to this shop during the racing season, once for a complete alignment of the front and once for a complete alignment on the rear. Each time he spent about 90 minutes with the car doing the adjustments however many times it takes to get it right.

The car handles perfect and is as smooth as glass at any speed. For each visit I was charged about $50 and they said in the future if I need any follow-up or minor tweaks they will give me a discount. So for Autox we have -2 camber, 0 toe in the front and -1.5 camber, 1/16’ toe-out in the rear.

Wish I could tell you exactly what he did, maybe someone else here knows how to center the steering wheel, I’ll ask next time I see him. So to make a long story short, if the car feels good your alignment job is more than likely O.K., it’s just not finished yet.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for your post RT. From what you are saying, it seems like a thrust angle issue since the rear wheels are not correctly aligned. Once again, this is just my hunch and could be something else completely. If you can ask that old guy about it and share it with us, that would be awesome.

Any other thoughts?

 

Ugh!

It's so annoying to have an alignment done and not have your steering wheel centered!

It's happened to me at numerous dealerships with previous cars and I had to take it back and waste my time waiting.

It's a lack of attention to detail.