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After Alignment Steering Wheel not centered?

Hi

I just had a 4 wheel alignment on my 1990 Toyota Camry. I got a printout and they brought everything into spec.

Now when driving straight the steering wheel is clocked to the right a good amount.

I brought it back and they said the car is inline and that is that. I asked them if they could bring the toe in on one side and let it out on the other to get the steering wheel straight and they told me know.

Am I getting the runaround?

The rack and starring and front end were never touched on this car.

How can I get the steering wheel recentered?

I thought with the tie rod adjustments on both sides that they could play with that and get the wheel centered?

Reply to
Tube Audio
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yes. the shop you took your car to sucks balls. The only car in which this would be an acceptable explanation would be an old watercooled VW, but replacing the driver's side tie rod with an adjustable one (all new replacement parts are adjustable) will fix that.

they poked you in the no-no spot, whether you try to get your money back or simply call it a lesson and find a better shop is up to you.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Ditto.

Reply to
idbwill

Forgot to mention, tweaking the tie rods is the right fix. reclocking the steering wheel isn't. So your intuition was right on, and if you're really careful and trust that they got the rest of the alignment right, you could take a stab at fixing it in your driveway - just turn each sleeve one half turn at a time, making sure that you're loosening one and tightening the other, and iterate until the wheel is centered.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

You need to go back and complain. I've had this happen numerous times, even when I told them to center the steering wheel. All I got was a rash of shit from someone who couldn't speak English about how the machine said that it was aligned. I do my own alignments now.

Reply to
zzyzzx

Poor shop. If you paid for it with a credit card call the credit card and contest the bill. They apparently don't know how to do an alignment.

Reply to
Woody

You need to go back and either get it done correctly or get your money back and go somewhere that can do it correctly. I would be suspect of their ability to do it correctly at all if they can't do a propert alignment setup before making adjustments. Part of a wheel alignment is using the tool that is included with any decent alignment machine and adjust the chassis components to be "straight" when the steering wheel is straight. This is true of both 2 and 4 wheel alignment setups. Re-clocking the steering wheel of most modern vehicles is not possible because of a master spline. A master spline is used so the turn signals cancel correctly. You may have alreadly noticed this if you have a habit of conciously using them. They should also be checking the column shaft joints for wear and the over center play in the gearbox or rack.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

thats crap they can recenter the wheel by adjusting the inner tierods

Tube Audio wrote:

Reply to
mr.som ting wong

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