Steering Wheel

[Steve_D]

Hi Guys,

I had two new tyres fitted today by Lex Aberdeen (Goodyear F1 GSD3) before now I had very slight inner tyre wear but it ran straight on the road & the steering wheel was perfectly straight, car still runs straight but now the wheel is off to the right about 10 degrees, ok its just cosmetic but soooo annoying - what do you think? will it re-straighten after a while or should I take it back?

Cheers,

Steve.

[shak]

Hi Guys,

I had two new tyres fitted today by Lex Aberdeen (Goodyear F1 GSD3) before now I had very slight inner tyre wear but it ran straight on the road & the steering wheel was perfectly straight, now its off to the right about 10 degrees, ok its just cosmetic but soooo annoying - what do you think? will it re-straighten after a while or should I take it back?

Cheers,

Steve.

Alright mate

The first thing I would do is check the tyre pressures if they are ok then I would get it tracked, how long have you had the car for???

[Steve_D]

just a few months but what bothers me is that it was ok before fitting them

[shak]

just a few months but what bothers me is that it was ok before fitting them

Yeh I'm thinking the car may have been tracked before you brought the car with the old tyres (I assume the old tyres were warn on the inside edge?), if so it will pull the tracking out with new tyres

[bridgerippa]

yes sounds like a tracking issue to me also.

plenty of threads on here about inner tyre wear n causes too.

[Steve_D]

I dont fancy a 1000 mile round trip to WIM right now for the tracking to be done - anyone know the whereabouts of a u joint or knuckle that can be removed to straighten up the wheel?

[shak]

I dont fancy a 1000 mile round trip to WIM right now for the tracking to be done - anyone know the whereabouts of a joint or knuckle that can be removed to straighten up the wheel?

????????, what do you mean????????

[Steve_D]

I dont fancy a 1000 mile round trip to WIM right now for the tracking to be done - anyone know the whereabouts of a joint or knuckle that can be removed to straighten up the wheel?

????????, what do you mean????????

I guess your not a mechanic or you'd know what I mean, i'm looking for the best universal joint to remove & adjust

[shak]

I dont fancy a 1000 mile round trip to WIM right now for the tracking to be done - anyone know the whereabouts of a joint or knuckle that can be removed to straighten up the wheel?

????????, what do you mean????????

I guess your not a mechanic or you'd know what I mean, i'm looking for the best universal joint to remove & adjust

Actually mate, I've been a vehicle technician for 7 years now, I've never known anyone to remove a uni joint to adjust the tracking, it doesn't happen that way!!!!!!, Its the trackrod ends that need to be adjusted and you can't do it your self properly, you will end up making it worse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Steve_D]

LOL - if you read all that I wrote up there you would understand that I dont want to adjust the tracking - only to centre the steering wheel & there's no need for a dozen question & exclamation marks btw.

[Steve_D]

Happy days - I found a UJ under the steering column on a spline shaft which with a little tweak has done the trick. :P

[whiteman]

I would still get the geometry checked if the insides of the tyres had wear as the steering wheel had moved with the new tyres, it is not a solution to move the steering wheel to make things alright.

If you initially had inner wear of the tyres it could possibly mean the geo is out, someone else will be along to clarify or even the doctor himself :winky:

[Steve_D]

Hi Whiteman, thanks for your comment & your right its not the perfect solution at all , hopefully I can get down to WIM sometime later this year to get it done properly (unless IM24601 makes Lexus GB feel so guilty that they accept responibility for their geo errors and fix it, hmmm )

[Tony-Bones]

Moving the steering wheel is only masking the real problem... If the tracking was done when the tyres were fitted then this was done incorrectly.. If not then you have a tyre bias which is also their problem.

Either way if you had inner tyre wear then that's your problem since Lexus won't confess to it... The data wim wrote to correct the wear is available in this clubs knowledge base.

Personally if we were to measure the Geometry i would want the steering linkage re-aligned first so the lock angles left/right are the same.

[shak]

LOL - if you read all that I wrote up there you would understand that I dont want to adjust the tracking - only to centre the steering wheel & there's no need for a dozen question & exclamation marks btw.

That makes more sense, its just that you said straightening up the wheel i assumed you meant road wheels not steering wheel, but any way glad you found what you were looking for!!, but Whiteman and Wheels In Motion are right, this is not a permanent solution but I suppose it will be less annoying, now that the steering wheel is straight

[Rory]

Happy days - I found a UJ under the steering column on a spline shaft which with a little tweak has done the trick. :P

can u explain further for me as I am not mechanically minded at all, I had my ball joints done for the mot and the steering wheel is a couple of degrees out to the right, how exactly did u sort it? mine doesn't really bother me too much, but if its easy enuff to centre, I might aswell do it