My car initially came w/ a wooden wheel ( it was a dealer locate car). Before I took delivery I told them to give me an all leather wheel. When I took delivery I noticed the car was tracking straight, but the wheel was off to the left. I went back and they moved the wheel a tooth to the right, which was almost dead center and the 2nd tooth was off center to the right more than the 1 tooth was slightly off to the left. Since then the slightly off to the left still bothers me. I am thinking that the car was aligned from the factory to the wooden wheel that came w/ the car and the new wheel's tooth pattern is putting it slightly off. What are your suggestions, should I have a tie rod adjustment or an alignment or leave it as is and not screw w/ the alignment? Is this a common problem w/ the clk's, do they tend to come not properly aligned, or is it the wheel swap issue?

 

You didn't say - but when you first tried the car with the wooden steering wheel fitted, it was perfectly centered - is that right?

So this cannot be a tire wear or a tracking problem, which I have had on previous cars with this issue.

Have you considered going back to the original wheel?

 

I never used or even saw the car w/ the original wheel. It was a dealer locate. I had them swap wheels before I took delivery, because I do not like wood wheels. Original wheel is mounted on the car they took the leather one from and god knows where now, but I don't want it anyway. They set the new wheel up right in that the mark on the tooth of the wheel they matched up w/ the column, but the mark on the wheel was from another cars column so the wheel was not properly centered. Then like I explained above I went back and it is close but not perfect. It is accentuated by the shape of the 3 pointed star, because I can see that top point is a little off! Not on every road though, sometimes it is on. I also noticed that my Porsche Cayenne S tends to be slightly off to the left sometimes also, so maybe it is just me, my driving style or the roads.

 

To Center the Steering Wheel the Steering Rack MUST Be Centered as MB Workshop tools are required and a wheel alignment

The car is Built with a Factory Mark on the Steering wheel AND the Steering Column shaft....Sometimes the steering wheel is Off cente Even with the marks matched up

 

The marks were matched up. I saw them when i took it back to have it adjusted. Mind you that the mark on the new wheel was from a different cars columm. We had to move the wheels mark one tooth to the right of the column mark to get it almost dead center, but it is the almost that still bothers me! When we went 2 teeth it was off more the other way than the 1 tooth being very close. Maybe i am too **** and a perfectionist, is everybodys wheel when looking at the point of the star dead center when going straight or off a hair left or right?

 

No, I don't think that's ****. But it is true that once you have noticed a 'defect' it is hard to ever ever ignore it! Plus it's distracting to have the wheel slightly turned when driving in a straight line.

I had a car returned in that condition from a body shop once after major front end damage. They clearly had not lined up the steering wheel and the front wheels exactly during re-assembly. It went back for a steering realignment which did clear the problem.

In your situation I can't see that you should have to pay for this fix.

 

There isn't enough adjustment at the steering wheel. You've seen this with moving one tooth.

I think what needs to happen is for the shop to do an alignment with the steering wheel held centered. They would adjust the alignment of the wheels to match the steering wheel.

 

I took a pic of how it looks at worst case when driving straight. Sometimes it is centered somethimes a hair off and worst case this pic.
How does this compare to your wheels?