Toyota - 4runner :: Steering Wheel Crooked But Alignment Is Fine - Fix?
Sep 15, 2013
After some off-roading and hit some pretty big bumps at speed, and now my steering wheel is about 15 degrees off, but the car is not pulling.
I am in another country where I don't speak the language well, so what should be done to fix this. I took it into the shop, and they pulled the car onto some electronic sensors and said the alignment was fine. They did a very visual inspection (glance?) under the car as well, and were ready to send me on my way.
I showed them that the steering wheel was off, and their solution was to just take off the wheel and put it back on straight. Is this what should be done to fix this problem? I do believe the alignment of the cars is okay because it's driving fine, but I'm still not sure if there is something else going on that caused the steering wheel to be knocked out of line. I've been doing some online searching and I'm not so sure that they are doing the right thing.
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I have my Toyota 2000 4 Runners having a slightly problem. When I paddle the brake at the Stop or traffic light, the wheel turns (mostly anti-clockwise) a little bit like 10 to 20 degrees. It doesn't turn all the time but especailly when the car is going slightly downhill such as when I paddle the brake and stop from parking lot onto the main road. The road is a little dip down or sometimes in front of the traffic light and it was slightly inclined. I don't know if this normal or not.
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I have a 2000 Corolla CE with 48k miles. When braking hard, the pedal vibrates and the brake performance was not that good. So I had the mechanic replace the front calipers (L&R), both brake pads on front, and rear drums.
After that, when braking, the pedal vibrates...but not that much. So I had the mechanic replace the front rotors (L&R). Now, when braking, the performance is good and it does not vibrate.
However, if I brake really hard...there is a little bit of pedal vibration AND shaking steering wheel. My car also needs an alignment since it pulls to the left (will get one on Friday).
Do you think the shaking steering wheel and the slight pedal vibration is due to the alignment or maybe the rear rotors need to be replaced? When traveling at 70mpg, sometimes the steering wheel slightly (very slightly) shakes....my guess this the tires need to be balance/alignment.
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My car is a 2000 corolla with 51k miles that I bought a couple of months ago.
It had the following problems:
Creaking noise from front drivers side when going over bumps
Steering wheel vibration when braking
Steering wheel vibration (slightly) at certain speeds
Very out of alignment
In august, I replaced the rotors, did a tire balance and alignment. The shop used a Hunter RoadForce balancer. They said that the front tires were bad so they put them in the rear.
After that, the steering wheel still vibrated slightly at certain speeds. Also, the front end would vibrate when the steering wheel vibrated. Also, when braking hard...the steering wheel would vibrate even though the rotors and pads were replaced.
Yesterday, I replaced the front struts/spring/mount...yet the drivers front still creaked over bumps. The strut change also caused the alignment to pull slightly to the left (only very slightly).
Today, I replaced the rear struts/spring/mount, both front ball joints, both front sway bar links.
This fixed ALL of the problems. The steering wheel is now perfect (even when braking), the creaking noise is completely gone. And best of all, the alignment seems to be correct as it no longer pulls from yesterday's front strut change.
Do I really need to replace the tires or even get an alignment? The alignment might be slightly out of spec but it does not pull to any side.
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I have a 2004 Toyota Camry that the steering wheel veers to the left while driving (not all the time) I have triedan alignment and a tire rotation and still have the problem.
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So I changed the front struts, springs, mounts, bearings, etc with factory Toyota parts. The car is a 2007 Camry LE 4 cyl with over 200k miles. While the car does not pull to one side, the steering wheel is now at roughly the 2 o'clock position for the car to be driving straight. Nothing else was changed, replaced, or modified. I do notice the car sits much higher now than it did before (old struts leaked oil and needed to be changed).
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I dropped off my 2006 Mercury Milan at a local Ford dealer this morning to have an AC temperature chip replaced because my air was not cold and prior diagnostics determined the chip no longer functioned. This turned out to be quite a costly repair. I was told it took 9 hours of labor requiring the entire dashboard to be removed. After picking up my car, I started driving home and immediately noticed the steering wheel was angled about 45 degrees to the right while I was driving straight. I have never seen something like this (and my car has been out of alignment before). I took it back to Ford to tell them that the steering wheel was crooked while the tires were straight and the manager said she didn't know how this could have happened because they never even lifted the vehicle. What might be wrong? Silver lining...the AC works now.
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My 91 4 runner, with 192k miles, has very scarily lost power twice on the highway. She gets to about 50mph and then drops to 40, 30, 20 rapidly. First time I had her towed because I didn't want to take the chance I couldn't arrive safely at mechanic. 2nd time, I just sat for awhile with her running, and tried and succeeded to get her to mechanic. First time, mechanic thought there was some boot loose around the fuel line.Second time, mechanic is stumped.
She has new fuel & air filter (and battery + leads); catalytic converter tested fine. Had a tuneup less than 5k miles ago.While I feel safe driving around town, I am terrified of highway driving and need getting it fixed so I can resume highway driving.
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I have a 2006 Kia Rio base sedan. I've owned it from 55K miles to 70.5K miles. It does not have power steering.
When moving at rather slow speeds, maybe 0-15 or so mph, it seems that bumps or potholes or other irregularities will cause the steering wheel to turn significantly. I feel the steering wheel move back and forth by itself and the wheels feel like they "flop" to either direction to the whim of the road's irregularities if that makes sense. The wheel feels almost as if someone is grabbing it and moving it back and forth. The movement is forceful enough that if I'm not holding the wheel, the car can really wander around, possibly into another lane but I have not wanted to test that.
I tried looking up this issue on existing threads but couldn't find it. Also, I didn't really know what to call it. I had an apparently useless alignment at Firestone about a week ago (car still pulls to the right) which did not seem to affect the issue. I attached a scan of the alignment sheet thing.
Incidentally, it seems like they left a thing out of spec but maybe that's a whole other question. So, what could cause this and whether it can lead to damage or safety hazards?
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When I took my 4WD Highlander Hybrid in for an alignment, they said there was a problem that kept them from aligning one wheel. Assuming they did the other 3, can the one remaining wheel be aligned when the wheel is fixed? Or do they all have to be redone?
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After installing drive gear springs i had a wheel alignment done. Since then the steering wheel is not level even thought the car goes straight it is slightly off. i brought it back 3 times and every time they did the alignment the steering wheel is off either the left of the right. i made an appointment to have it done at the dealer but cant figure out why they cant get it right.
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After purchasing 2 new tires I went to a shop to get alignment done. The steering on my high mileage V4 1993 Toyota Camry was perfect when I took it to the alignment place. An hour later, the alignment having been done, as I was pulling out of the shop onto the road the steering was very hard but I thought something was tightened and would loosen up although I had never experienced that problem any other time an alignment was done. After driving it for several days, the problem wasn't improving. I left on a trip for several weeks. While gone my daughter drove the care for a few days and asked me what was wrong with the steering. When I returned I took the car back to the alignment shop and told them the problem. The manager or head mechanic checked the alignment and said the numbers were fine.
However, he said the rack and pinion needed replacing. I asked him what might have happened to result in the bad steering in the course of one hour while the alignment was done. He said that he didn't know. I took it to my usual mechanic who said that someone might have over tightened something. He's an older guy and does not want to work on racks and pinions. He suggested that I take it to Les Schwab and have them inspect it to see what's wrong and maybe tell them the whole story. I haven't done that yet.
After researching a bit about alignments, racks and pinions etc. I think that it is highly likely that some inexperienced person at the alignment place screwed up something. It's too much of a coincidence that exactly the hour that the alignment was done, the steering went bad. I am thinking that I might go back to the alignment place and ask them to do whatever they need to do to return the steering of my car to the way it was functioning when I brought it to them. They will likely refuse, of course.
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My mkiv gti leans a lot to the right whenever I let off the steering wheel. I brought it to a shop and they put it up on a lift and told me that I needed a tie rod flip kit because it's lowered. Long story short, they charged me $70 to look at it for 10 minutes. Do you really need a flip kit for a car lowered on coilovers? I have several friends with lowered cars and none off them have had to do this. I'm thinking it's something else such as a bad shock but I'm no expert.
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I have a 2013 Sonata gls, 5200 KM on it. I was recently experiencing an issue where at highway speeds my car would not go straight. I took to dealer, and they saw that 3/4 tires were not within the specs of alignment. Any way The dealer put the car in alignment however, now It seems like I have steering vibration in my steering wheel. It appears to go away when I put foot on brake but when I let go and at an speed I can feel a lot more vibration in my steering wheel now then before. It doesn't actually shake the steering wheel but its now annoying to feel when holding the wheel. I can also feel vibration in the seat as well.
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2012 Sonata ... I took it to dealer for alignment. Steering wheel off center.
mechanic said the left camber is off, cannot be corrected.
My question is, can the steering wheel still not be put to center so as it is not tilted to the left aprox. .5 "
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I just had an alignment done and the steering wheel is turned counter clockwise a little. I know very little about alignment. I know the terminology and what it means and i heard the the rear camber and toe isn't adjustable on mk4s. I did lower my car,only about one inch though.
Here is the sheet that came with the alignment:
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Took delivery of car and alignment is way off. Steering wheel is turned left when car is straight. The dealership is trying to charger me for a alignment. Car has 2500 miles on it and came from factory this way.
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I bought 2015 Prius two 2 month ago and the mileage is almost reaching 2000 mile. I am satisfied with my Prius so far. However about 2 weeks ago I found that the steering wheel is little off centered to the right and the car is leaning to the left. I didn't drive on the potholes so I guess the issue has been there from the first day I bought the car. I was just too excited to see the issue at the time I think. Anyway I brought the car to the Toyota dealership where is close to my work. I explained the issue and the technician drove the car and said it seems ok. I said it's not my first car and I have driven several cars so I am certain that the steering wheel is off centered. I researched this forum so I knew the first wheel alignment is covered by the warranty. They seemed reluctant to provide the service but I insisted.
After about an hour they had done the wheel alignment and showed me the result and the result said everything is ok and all the numbers are in the range. It was strange so I asked what if the car is still pulled off to the left and he said there is nothing he can do further so if the issue is still there, the service manager should be involved. I hoped the issue would be resolved but when I drove the car back to home I could still see that the steering wheel was still off centered just like before the wheel alignment. I called them and made another appointment on this coming Monday. I read all the steering wheel alignment related threads and found that it's pretty common issue for the new cars. But I found few people that the issue was completely gone. I think it's a quite easy job to fix by adjust something to make the steering wheel rotated little to the left(3~5 degree). I showed to my wife today to see if I'm too sensitive and she also agreed that the car is pulled to the left.
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I have a 2014 RX350 with 20K miles.
Recently noticed the steering wheel pulling a bit to the right. I took the car to a local Conrad's Auto service place which I believe is very reputable.
They told me the vehicle is out of alignment and to contact my Lexus dealer because they would likely fix for no charge given the low miles.
I brought the car to Lexus dealer and they said nothing is wrong. Not sure if they did anything but I did not notice the pulling to the right at that time.
However, I am noticing the wheel pull to the right again. Not sure what to do here. I also had a 2011 RX and never noticed an issue.
What can I do here to determine if there's a problem or not?
My Lexus dealer is over 30 miles away so it's not a convenient drive. Also, I have no proof of anything just the wheel pulling a bit to the right.
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I recently had a 4-wheel alignment performed on my 2003 VW Passat. A couple days after the procedure I noticed my steering wheel was stiff and a whirring noise when I turned the wheel. Come to find out my power steering fluid is now leaking. Is this just a coincidence, or could the garage have broken something. It was not leaking or making any noises prior to the alignment.
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It seems to be coming from the front passenger side wheel well area. It's only present during braking and coming to a stop. Seems to be also related to wheel speed. The brake performance doesn't seem to be impacted but it's very embarrassing creaking through a parking lot. The noise doesn't seem to be present on a cold start but once the brakes warm up it really comes to life.
I noticed with both wheels up off the ground that the front passenger side wheel (The side making noise) had more resistance than the drivers side when trying to spin. [URL]...............................
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