Straightening steering wheel

[dramsey]

Just had my 2011 SHO aligned, and although the car tracks like a laser now, the steering wheel's cocked about 15 degrees to the left when the car's going straight. Alignment guy notes "It's hard to get 'em perfectly straight."

Hm. Ford manages to do it on every car they sell, on an assembly line.

Anyway, back in the day, steering wheels fit in splined shafts and you can make small adjustments by pulling the wheel off (with a puller) and rotating it slightly.

When I replaced the wheel on my 2007 Mustang, though, I saw that on that car at least Ford uses a D-shaped shaft and the wheel only goes on in one position.

Do I have any options other than getting another shop to try to straighten it via toe adjustment?

 

[sho_ted]

its done by adjusting the tie rods and then the toe, take it back

 

[SHOrod]

You might see if it's still cocked when running down the highway. If you are on a road with a pretty good crown to it, it should be cocked to the left. I suspect though you're on a road that you've driven a lot before the alignment.... We never had trouble getting them straight either, but my dad was a bit of a specialist (did the local police cars, race cars, and the local Corvette club, etc.). He made it look easy to get the steering wheels straight. The only times we had issues was when we made one straight that wasn't previously, sometimes those customers came back and complained until my dad told them to change lanes on the one-way streets or run down the highway so they could tell it was just due to the crown of the road.

-Rod

 

[19sho90]

Yup take it back, Being a 2012 the Alignment couldn't of been so far out that he cant get it back to 0*

 

[LotusDriver]

Any shop that accepts that as normal is a shop I wouldn't dream of bringing my car to. EVER! Make them fix it!

 

[dramsey]

You might see if it's still cocked when running down the highway. If you are on a road with a pretty good crown to it, it should be cocked to the left. I suspect though you're on a road that you've driven a lot before the alignment....

Yep, I know about road crowns and yep, I was on a road I've driven a lot before. It's definitely off. The steering rack has a defined center position; with the rack so positioned, the steering wheel should be straight.