Steering Wheel Off Center? 4 Common Causes

Your steering wheel can be off center after an alignment or after hitting something. Either way, driving with your steering wheel off center makes for a frustrating driving experience. Here’s how to fix the problem

If your steering wheel is off center after getting an alignment

An off-center steering wheel after an alignment is the #1 complaint from customers. It’s caused by poor craftsmanship/laziness on the part of the auto tech.

Here’s how it happens and what you can do about it.

To set up the vehicle for an alignment the technician should sit in the driver’s seat, start the vehicle and move the steering wheel to the 12:00 position. This is an important step the must be done accurately. Because once it’s centered, they lock the wheel in place using a special steering wheel lock. See this video to learn more about locking the wheel during and alignment

The steering wheel should be centered and locked during and alignment

Lazy techs reach through the driver’s window to “eyeball” the steering wheel, rather than sit in the vehicle and straighten the wheel from a “straight-on” point of view. That’s the first instance of laziness.

Then they perform the alignment.

After the alignment the tech is supposed to take the vehicle for a test drive and double check for wheel centering. If they find that it’s off center, they have to bring it back into the shop, put it back on the alignment rack and center the wheel. Some alignment techs skip this step, call it “good” and hope you won’t notice.

If you steering wheel isn’t centered after an alignment, TAKE IT BACK TO THE SHOP and complain. The tech must make it right. It’s just part of the alignment process. It’s what you paid for, so insist that it’s fixed right

Your steering wheel isn’t centered after hitting a pothole, curb or another vehicle

If you’ve hit something like a curb, speed bump or another vehicle and you your steering wheel is no longer centered, you bent a steering or suspension component. The most commonly damaged components are:

• Tie rod
• Control arm
• Strut
• Wheel

A curb impact can bend the control arm, strut, tie rod and even the steering knuckle — or all of them if it was a high speed impact

Your steering wheel is off center but you didn’t hit anything and you haven’t’ had a recent alignment

If you have to constantly turn your wheel while driving but you didn’t hit anything or have a recent alignment, your problem may be caused by worn steering or suspension components or a tire issue.

Here’s what causes condition due to worn parts

1) Worn Tie Rod Ends – The tie rods connect the steering gear to the front wheels. There’s a flexible joint at each end of the tie rod. When the tie rod ends wear, it creates slop in the steering that allows the wheel to wander off center. You constantly have to turn the wheel in the opposite direction to keep the vehicle going straight.

With the engine off, move the wheel left and right to see how much play is in the steering system. If the steering doesn’t feel “tight,” get it checked out.

2) Worn out Steering Gearbox – Just like worn tie rod ends, a worn out steering gear can have slop that forces you to constantly correct steering by turning the wheel.

3) Worn Ball Joints – Worn suspensions ball joints can introduce

extra play and cause steering components to be misaligned. So you have to drive with the wheel turned.

4)  Low Tire Pressure – Having very low pressure in one or more tires can cause the vehicle to pull and make the steering wheel feel off-center.

5) Sticking brakes – A seized brake caliper will cause that wheel to turn slower than the others, resulting in a pull to one side that forces you to drive with the steering wheel turned off center.

©, 2022 Rick Muscoplat