Steering no longer centred after alignment
 

I had new tyre and alignment done for the upcoming holiday and it was after driving off i noticed the steering is no longer centred :mad: Do i need take it back or can i fix this?

Its annoying me seeing the steering like that

It is something you can fix, if the wheel is down on the Right then you need to lengthen the left hand tie rod and shorten the right hand one by 1/2 a turn, each, drive car and see where the wheel is now, if ok youve cracked it if too far then reverse what you did slightly if not enough then a bit more, remember what you do to one tie rod you have to do the opposite to the other, obviously if steering is down on the left all above is reversed, have fun

Think you should be bringing this up with the company that did the alignment. They should have done it properly. Tell them it worries you even though it doesn't.

Yeah, when an alignment is performed, the 1st thing that should be done is to strap the steering wheel to the brake pedal to ensure it stays centered during the alignment process. Someone did NOT do that.

I personally take my vehicles for alignment at a specialist, or front end steering shop and not some chain retail location.

For sure you should take this back to the shop and have them center the wheel for you...that is a standard part of a front end (or four wheel) alignment; it is very sloppy to send a car out with steering off centre. When I was a wrench I would have been ashamed to have that occur. As another poster noted, centring the wheel and then locking it is standard..except on some simple older cars where you might set the caster camber and toe; and then simply pop the steering wheel off and center it....for any modern car that has horn airbag radio controls etc in the steering wheel that is a PITA, so you lock off the steering before setting the toe.

Happy Motoring.

I had new front tyres fitted by Kwik Fit last week and they also offered a 'FREE' wheel aligment check using their super duper digital electronic box of tricks. They have a display screen in the waiting room so customers can see the before and after values. The tracking on mine was a mile out so I handed over £43.00 for the re-alignment and a print-out of the results. It was money well spent and the car feels much better. (and the steering wheel was properly centred too)