Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting steering wheel crooked after wheel alignment

Today I had the wheels aligned on my 99 SVT. This is the second time I have had alighment done on this vehicle. About a year and a half ago I had the wheels aligned and the service seemed successful at stopping the pulling the car was doing. However, after the alignment the wheel was slightly off center. Not thinking it to be to big of a deal I just got used today. Now, I recently purchases some new wheels, so I decided to get them balanced and also get the car aligned as it was again pulling slighty to the right. It seems as if the car again drives straight without pulling, but now the steering wheel is in an even more crooked position when traveling in a straight path. For those who have the problem, they will probably attest that it is one of the most annoying little issues to get used to. My question is: should the wheel be brought back to center after an alignment? If so, how come most places don't re-center the steering wheel, as I have heard many people say they experienced this problem after an alignment? I've read articles saying the wheel should be center after an alignment, and plenty of others saying it cannot be fixed. So what is the truth? Let the debate rage on!

I'd go back to the place where you got the allignment done right away. Wheel allignment is supposed to leave your steering wheel and of cource wheels straight otherwise what's the point of doing it?

The reason I had my allingment done a month ago is because my steering wheel was not straight. The first thing I asked the mechanic is does wheel allignment cover straightning of the steering wheel or not. It did and so I assume that every allignment should. Got a good deal too - $40 for fronts. Both wheels & steering wheel are straight now.

Yes , take it back!

An alignment is to make sure the wheels are tracking in a straight line, not to make the steering wheel appear straight.

Whenever I used to perform an alignment on the assembly line at the car factory I worked at one of the first things I did was to put an steering wheel leveler on the steering wheel. THEN I would proceed to do the wheel alignment. Of course, that was not a Ford product - maybe they're used to not having them straight.

Centering the steering wheel is part of an alignment.

You may have more going on here though. Since the caster and camber are not adjustable by ordinary means unless you have installed the caster / camber plates, an alignemnt will not solve a pulling problem. You can adjust the toe until the cows come home and it will not change a pulling problem.

I suspect that you have a tire problem. They tried to rotate the tires to solve the pulling problem. A tire pull is sometimes manifested by an off center steering wheel.

If you got a read out from the alignment (and you should have), please post the readings and I may be able to help.

When you have a steering pull, one common way of determing if it is caused by a tire, is to swap the two front wheels. If it is a tire pull, it will either go away or start pulling the other direction. Even if you have unidirectional tires, it is safe to swap sides long enough to road test for the pull. It usually pulls in the direction that the bad tire is located on. When a tire that is causing a pull is on the front, it can sometimes also cause the steering wheel to go off center. The steering wheel can be straight on the alignment rack but be off center when driving.

Sometimes a tire that is causing a pull will restore itself from running on the rear for a while, so once you have determined which tire is causing the pull, put it on the back for about 5,000 miles or so.

All of this gets really nasty when you have more than one tire causing a pull. Sometimes you have to find a like car with known good tires and swap all tires and wheels for a road test to prove that the alignemnt is proper.

If the tires are all good and you have a slight pull, sometimes you can make a small but perhaps enough change in the caster / camber readings by shifting the subframe, but don't mess with this until you know that the tires are good and you can see from the alignment readings that this could help. Basically, you loosen the subframe bolts while on the alignment rack and pry the subframe so that you push one wheel slighty forward or the other one slightly back or both.

If you truly do need to make any real significant change in caster or camber, you need to install the caster / camber kits.

Post the alignment readings.

Do you have all new tires?

If its off center, and there's no real pulling going on, you may have worn your tires unevenly on the inside and they might be contributing to the crooked feel. This happened to my car, now I'm using a Camber Kit to make sure its perfect. I had to flip my tires and use the other side b/c the insides were unevenly worn and heavily worn as well.