Hi guys, I'm new member here and need some help with my steering wheel issue. My steering is between the 12 & 1 o'clock when car straight after getting alignment done. The car was taken back but the company have said its all straight on the machine. Any help?

This is the print out i got from the company.
Does this look all fine?

 

moved to W213 forum...

 

Alignment of the wheels has nothing to do with if the steering wheel is dead center at 12 o’clock… it has something to do with if the car veers to one side if you let go of the steering wheel. In your case, take the steering wheel off and re-align it(the steering wheel)

Make sure that the power to the battery has been cut before you remove the airbag, as it would otherwise make airbag light come on, and would require coding to remove again.

 

As above but (assuming the wheel is slightly off centre) I wouldn't try to adjust the steering wheel by taking it off an centring it, instead adjust from the steering rods (left more, right less or vice versa while keeping toe in unchanged until the wheel is fine).

 

There are several factors that can play here. The steering wheel being center does have to do with alignment. A good shop has a tool to lock the steering wheel in place, so it doesn't move during alignment and potentially end up off center. There's also the question of whether they align it with a driver in the seat or an empty car. While for a normal car a 180 lbs driver doesn't make all that much of a difference it can affect it. I would not recommend to take the steering wheel off and reposition it or mess with the steering rack, because the steering angle sensor if not reset afterwards will read wrong and potentially cause issues with ESP and other systems that rely on the steering angle.

Does the car track straight if you let go of the steering wheel on a road with little camber, or does it pull to one side? Roads tend to have a down slope to the outside for water to run off, so naturally cars tend to follow that down slope and you will always have to steer slightly against it to drive straight. So, in the UK, you'd always slightly steer to the right in order to stay straight, and to the left in LHD countries. Sometimes shops compensate for that when they do the alignment, so the wheel is slightly off center on a perfectly flat road, but on a road with the typical camber it'll be centered when driving straight.

Otherwise if the car does pull, then you are essentially steering against the pull. This could be the tires having a radial pull. To diagnose this, switch the front tires left to right and see if it makes a difference. With modern cars, I personally had bad experiences with alignments outside the dealerships. Seems independent shops just don't have all the tools, so they improvise. They often don't have the tool to lock the steering wheel, and they don't have the full diagnostics tools to properly reset the steering angle sensor after an alignment. Alignment racks today typically have extra equipment that can be bought which plugs into the car and handles the resets properly, but independent shops don't necessarily spend the money on it and manually reset it using laptops. The driver assistance features also may require calibration after an alignment.

I have a pretty good performance indy shop that I use for work outside the dealerships such as brakes, tires etc., but they really struggled getting my previous car aligned with all the electronics. Had to take it to the dealership to make it drive properly and since then I don't let them align my new cars anymore. On the other hand they have no issues aligning my wife's old school VW. For example after a minor collision it was aligned by one of the chains here and it drove terrible afterwards. So took it to my indy and they said it was all off and they got it to drive properly again. Just keep in mind that if the alignment rack is not properly calibrated, then the alignment will be crap even if the machine says it's good, so you might wanna take it to a different shop for a second opinion.

 

Am I the only one here who thinks that an alignment INCLUDES an adjustment of the steering wheel to center?

It even has a name... a "5-wheel alignment."

Every alignment I've had done in the last 40 years ended with adjustment of steering wheel centering. If this isn't done, take it back to the alignment shop and insist that they do it.

 

Centering the steering wheel is part of the alignment, is called clear vision, and is done with the tie rods. At least has been since 1972 when I started aligning cars. Talk to the shop or find a better shop.