CLK4EVER

Hi, today, I noticed that my CLK350 (2006) has a slightly off-center steering wheel.
As you can see in picture (inside the red circle), the top and bottom markings are slightly to the right (clockwise).
Does anyone know how to fix this?

megacrazy

Ummm take the wheel off and align the markings? Alternatively you could get an alignment.

Bill51sdr

If your wheel is off center, you have an alignment problem. Start there.

Fatz

How will a wheel alignment move the steering wheel shaft? Or am I just misunderstanding?

Yidney

You can move your steering wheel a lot with a wheel alignment. One of my pet peeves is getting a car back from an alignment and they have not centered the steering wheel. You can have a perfectly aligned car and a badly off-center wheel. It has to do with the tie rod ends used to adjust toe. If you thread the tie rod end in or out the exact same amount on each side, your wheels will still be aligned, but your steering wheel will move. Just get it aligned and ask them to make sure they center the wheel.

megacrazy

Yup. What confuses me is why not simply take the wheel off and align it properly...It looks like the nut is already off in the picture .

Shadow5501

If you take the steering wheel off to center it, you'd be driving straight down the road with the rack&pinion not centered. Not a big deal, but not what you want either. The correct way to center the steering wheel is by adjusting the tie rods so that both front wheels have the exact, correct toe measurement while the wheel is centered.


It's pretty easy to fix at home yourself. Just adjust each tierod the exact same amount - say 1/8 turn - and check how it drives. The trick to know which way to turn both of them to get the correct adjustment of center and not to botch it up, which cause your car to be out of alignment.

Yidney

Not necessarily. It depends on why the wheel is not centered. It could have been mounted one notch off one way or the other. I could pull my wheel and put it back on 90 degrees off. The correct fix for that is not to adjust the tie rod ends. To respond to the post above yours, putting the wheel on centered may not fix it either because there is always several degrees difference between each position you can place the wheel in. I'd put the wheel in the best possible position, then get an alignment if it is not close enough. Self-adjusting the tie rod ends can be difficult if you don't understand exactly how they work since the sides have to be turned in opposite directions.

megacrazy

If the wheel was simply removed, and installed incorrectly then that has nothing to do with getting an alignment. If the car is out of alignment altogether then yeah, getting one will fix the issue.

Regardless, I think the OP got his answer...and a lot more.

Fatz

Now that was good for me....... =>

Rudeney

Often, the cause of the steering wheel being off-center is from an alignment. The tech is supposed to center the steering wheel and put a weight or bracket on it to hold it in place. If the wheel is not perfectly centered when doing this, or of the weight slips, then the result will be a good alignment, but an off-center steering wheel.

Critter

Gentlemen, most if not all car manufacturers use a spline arrangement to hold the steering wheel to the shaft, the complete shaft is splined EXCEPT for one area, this allows the wheel to be put on in only one position, car after car.
Get a good alignment, they should be able to adjust the tie rod ends to keep the wheel in the center position.

Rudeney

MBZ steering wheels doe not use keyed splines. Their angle can be adjusted by removing the steering wheel and rotating it slightly to another spline position. But, with the wiring from the airbag and buttons going into the clockspring, there's not much adjustment.

Regardless of that, the proper way to re-center the steering wheel is with a proper road wheel alignment.

Critter

Thanks Rudeney, my bad,,, forgot we were talking about German ingenuity, image just what BMW has for their steering wheel placement, maybe a sun dial

MykhailoM

What "CLK4EVER" meat is to say that the driver seating position to the steering wheel is not being straight as the car's steering wheel off set to the left. So the steering wheel is slightly positioned to the left for some reason. It looks as Mercedes decided to have drivers kind of tilted. It still puzzled me as to why they wanted to have the steering wheel to the left and not straight at the front of your seating position.