Wheel alignment

[messi]

Hi guys

Hope someone can help.

So, I've had the drivers side inner and outer tie rod replaced, and had wheel alignment done, the car drives straight but the steering wheel is slightly to the left, but the car still drives straight, after a week I took it back to check the alignment, he said it was out slightly but it's still the same. Does that mean I should have replaced the passenger side too?

[Tinonline]

Hi that’s a familiar thing…I spend fretting moments wondering if it’s the camber of the road or the steering wheel is ever so slightly off.

This has nothing to do with fixing the other side. The garage needs to make the adjustment ensuring the steering wheel is absolutely bang on centre point during and after the adjustment. They rely on the steering wheel clamp and that’s just lazy.

I’ve had to take my car back a couple of times on this issue. On one of the occasions the steering wheel was well off.

[messi]

Thanks for the reply

Yes they used a clamp to hold the steering wheel centre, and it did look centre to me too, but when I drove it out, it's still to the left slightly, well a little more than slightly, it's doing my head in, I took it back, he re did it again, but it's still the same

[wharfhouse]

If it was out of alignment or had play in the suspension before you did the repair the tyre(s) may have worn oddly and this is causing the issue now it's been repaired and aligned. I've had this before on some of my other cars. Also check tyre pressures all round (assuming you haven't already) as that can cause some issues too. May be worth driving it for a couple of thousand miles and see if the issue starts to right itself or not - it it does new tyres may then be the order of the day. 

[messi]

1 hour ago, wharfhouse said:

If it was out of alignment or had play in the suspension before you did the repair the tyre(s) may have worn oddly and this is causing the issue now it's been repaired and aligned. I've had this before on some of my other cars. Also check tyre pressures all round (assuming you haven't already) as that can cause some issues too. May be worth driving it for a couple of thousand miles and see if the issue starts to right itself or not - it it does new tyres may then be the order of the day. 

I've put a new tyre on, the right one had wear on the outside bit due to the faulty tie inner and outer tie rod, and then had the alignment done and checked pressure. It wasnt out of alignment before I had the parts fitted.

It does drive straight, but the steering wheel is to the left, it wasnt even that bad after the parts were fitted, but I was told I had to get alignment done. Do you think I should have the left front tyre replaced too?

[wharfhouse]

27 minutes ago, messi said:

I've put a new tyre on, the right one had wear on the outside bit due to the faulty tie inner and outer tie rod, and then had the alignment done and checked pressure. It wasnt out of alignment before I had the parts fitted.

It does drive straight, but the steering wheel is to the left, it wasnt even that bad after the parts were fitted, but I was told I had to get alignment done. Do you think I should have the left front tyre replaced too?

If something was out if alignment / loose it can affect all the tyres (not just the one where the work was done) - putting one new tyre on when the others are old/worn by the issues prior to the repair / alignment can certainly cause issues - I have had this before on a car when I had suspension components replaced and as tyres were replaced the issue went away. Mind you, I've also had issues with getting proper alignment / centring done at many tyre places - including leaving steering wheels slightly off centre - now I have only a very select number of places I will take a car for alignment. One place where I had tyres replaced had not centred it correctly but swore they had done all they could (including a second go at it). Took it to another (which is now one of my select places) and they told me the issue was that one of the adjustment nuts on the steering rack was seized so it had certainly not been centred correctly at the last place. They eventually freed the nut off and did the adjustment correctly.

[messi]

All sorted now, I took it to someone competent to do the alignment 

[wharfhouse]

17 minutes ago, messi said:

All sorted now, I took it to someone competent to do the alignment 

Excellent to hear - all too often incompetence seems to be the root cause - I've experienced it myself a number of times - keep going back to competent one in the future now that you have found one.