How to correct an off-centre steering wheel without removing it (easy tie rod ends adjustment)
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- Опубліковано 11 чер 2024
- In this video I show you how to correct an off-centre steering wheel by performing a tie rods adjustment. The car in this video is a right hand drive Kia Cerato (also called Kia Forte and Kia K3), but it's the same process for any vehicle, any where and it doesn't matter what side the steering wheel is on.
This adjustment method if done carefully enables a precise re-centring which rarely can be achieved by removing and replacing the steering wheel onto a different notch on the spline. On modern vehicles it can also be quite a difficult task to remove a steering wheel with an airbag. - Авто та транспорт
Thanks for taking the time to make the video
Most welcome Ismael, hope it helped!
I just tried to do this yesterday and found the jamb nuts stuck on. That is probably the hardest part of this job. It’s very important to mark and take pictures before starting so you can go back if you need to. You don’t want to mess up the “toe” adjustment.
Thank you for the video!!
Most welcome :)
I may add, I have done the very same technique, worked great, but if this is your first time, remember to take pictures of threads on the tie rods, like counting the threads, both sides, before you do any adjustments, so in case you make an error, you can always go back to where you started.
That's a great idea, thanks Cesar.
Mark with sharpie
🤭
Simple ..can any one this world in this world can HumAAN take his stance..
Well done. I'm not sure I am game enough to do it, but your video certainly helps understand the issue. I just can't believe a tyre shop would let this slide or even more that the customer did not take it back. A steering wheel out of centre would annoy the cr@p out of me. Thanks for posting.
Thanks Dee Bee, it’s definitely one of those OCD triggers. Unfortunately only a handful, if that, of wheel alignments I have had done over the past couple of decades was the steering wheel centred precisely which is why about 10 years ago I decided to learn how to do it myself. I used to make a point of saying my steering wheel was off centre when I dropped the car off yet it would almost always be returned unchanged.
You shouldn't let the shop off so easy. It's annoying to have to go back and pressure them to do it right, but maybe that will help them learn to attend to details.
I bought four new tires from a shop and had the alignment done. My grandson said they had a factory trainer there showing them how to do it.
It almost immediately went out.
Since that was a Saturday afternoon and they were closed Sunday, I went to their sister show and explained what happened.
They took it in and said some of the bolts were not tightened down.
It worked for a bit after that, but still wasn't right.
I took it back to the original shop and had it done for a third time, yet wasn't happy with it pulling to one side.
I didn't trust them to go back. I bought three sets of tires from them, so I wasn't just a one time customer.
I adjusted it to get it usable myself, but didn't want the tires wearing wrong.
I took it to Pepboys and they did a good job and I was very happy with it.
Still I had to pay twice to get it done right.
I understand that after the pandemic, many places are struggling to hire back good workers, but the pressure needs to be on them to get it right.
The shops act annoyed that we have to bring them back when they did the shoddy work in the first place.
One of my other cars, a PT, I replaced steering gear, tie rods, control arms, struts, sway bar link, brakes, pretty much the whole front end.
I did the alignment after watching many UA-camrs and it's awfully close. I will take it in for alignment.
I should go back to the guys I bought the tires from to see if they can do it right or just say the heck with it and have Pepboys do it.
The steering wheel centering is very annoying for most drivers.
Even with this video, I would caution the every day Joe from doing this.
Thanks for making the video. It would be much easier to understand if you talk about extending or shortening the tie rod. That will avoid confusion about rotation direction.
Thanks Tim for the feedback. I'm planning to make another video about this using my Magna over Christmas and will keep in mind your suggestion and the others to make it clearer. :)
Thanks to the awesome video. It really helped me. I had exact same issue. But even after my steering is centered now. My car still pulls on right and I have to readjust my wheel after say 4-5 seconds driving on high way. What could be the reason for it? I have a new car with less than 10k miles. Just had my wheel repainted due to curb crash.
It sounds like you need to get the alignment checked. Small steering corrections are normal but if she is pulling to one side on a motorway which generally have very gentle cambers it sounds Ike an alignment issue.
I had the same exact problem with my steering wheel but it got fixed accidently by just trying to toe in my RF for inner tire wear which both front tires had.My question ,since the steering wheel is now centered ,do I have to do any thing with the LF wheel like toe-out or I shall leave it if the steering is fine.I am afraid to toe-out the LF and cause more inner tire wear.I do hit a lot of pot holes on the roads at high speed and the tie rods can be easily turned back and forth by hand,do u think that is the cause for both inner tire wear ?and what a coincidence that both tie rods are now loose and the wear is even the same on both tires.
Great explanation. I recently put new front suspension on and steering wheel was off slightly. I tried to make perfect now it’s all fd up:) I like your method the best. In other vids on this matter they suggest making sure steering wheel is straight before making adjustments. Did you leave yours off center before adjusting? If I leave steering wheel off center(at 2oclock when driving straight) will steering start moving to center as I make adjustments? Provided I’m going in correct direction:)
Thanks Anna! I prefer to start the adjustment with the steering in the off-centred position if I was driving straight down the road so that I can observe and know when it has centred and thus I can stop adjusting. If you're starting at 2 o'clock, as long as you keep the engine idling you'll observe the steering wheel moving to centre as you're making adjustments.
Hi everyone, thank you for watching my video, it's the most viewed one I've made so far😁. I wanted though to help further by addressing some questions about the direction in which I turned the tierods in relation to my rudimentary diagram and the off-centred steering wheel. Firstly, this is a right hand drive car (Australia) and the adjustment was based on the steering wheel being off centre to the left (so I needed for the steering wheel to be turned to the right until centred). When I was filming beneath the car, I was the left wheel looking towards the front of the car. So in this case, the left tierod needed to be turned anti or counter clockwise (as filmed from 6:30) and the right hand side tierod turned clockwise (not filmed).
So put simply:
If steering wheel off-centre to the left
Left wheel tierod - adjust tie rod anti (counter) clockwise
Right wheel tie rod - adjust tierod clockwise
If steering wheel off-centre to the right
Left wheel tie rod - adjust tierod clockwise
Right wheel tie rod - adjust tierod anti (counter) clockwise
If your car is RHD or LHD it doesn't matter; what matters is how your steering wheel is off-centre.
I hope this clarifies and I apologise for any confusion I may have caused by not explaining it well enough in my video.
So the spanner turns upwards towards the floor of the car on both left and right tierods (if steering wheel is out to the Left a bit)
@@jt6945 Hi JT
Looking at the car from behind:
- If the steering wheel is tilted left then the right tierod needs to be turned clockwise and the left tierod counter/anti-clockwise.
- If the steering wheel is titled right then the right tierod needs to be turned counter/anti-clockwwise and the left tierod clockwise.
Importantly, the turns needs to be in equal amounts on other side to maintain the alignment.
@@billymasonpi that doesnt make sense, on your video your doing the front left tie rod, and your turning the Spanner up towards the floor of the car...... Or the end of the spanner in your hand i should say.
@@jt6945 Very sorry about that, I’ve edited my previous comment to remove reference to spanner turning direction. If steering wheel tilted left, on the right wheel the tierod is turned clockwise upward and on the left wheel anticlockwise upward to the floor of the car.
@@jt6945 yep, sorry for earlier post confusing things.
If your wheel alignment is ok and just the steering wheel is not and you r using an EPS system just adjust your steering coupling under the dashboard.
Great video. I am trying to learn to correct my steering wheel
but it looked like you were turning your driver side tierod CW and in the diagram you showed CCW , which was making sense
Hi Lesio333, thanks for watching and please see my pinned comment. This is a right hand drive car and I only filmed the adjustment on the left hand side.
Hi cesar, i attempted this method. However i forgot to loosen the nut before rotating the tie rod. I took a wrench and rotated the same place as shown in the video. The entire assembly rotated, and the ball joint at the end started pivoting. Did i mess up my alignment?
@@bens6674 okay, thanks so much!!
Use a paint marker or white out to mark a reference line on the inner and outer tie rods. That way you can count the turns. It only took me 1/4 turn on each tie to correct 5 degrees on my Volvo steering wheel.
Excellent idea.
Do you have to have the front wheels on the ground to do this?
Ive just done my car but i had to jack it up to get to the tie rods
My steering wheel was out to the left the same amount as yours.
Ive done half a turn on each side, exactly as your guide. But steering wheel hasnt moved at all. Still in the same place..
Thx
Hi JT, the wheels don't need to be touching the ground and the amount of adjustment required will depend on the car as the threads are different. On my Magna it only requires a small turn of each tierod (perhaps 20-25 degrees) to recentre a slightly off steering wheel whereas on the Cerato and an Audi A1 we one had, it felt like it required almost a complete revolution.
I know it's imprecise to say, but you just need to get a feel for it by making small adjustments, checking, more small adjustments, rechecking until you get it where you want.
@@billymasonpi thx for that.
So basically, you’re going to off-center the rack to straighten your steering wheel which means you’re gonna have to turn the outer tie rods to one side of the rack in more on one side and out more on the other
Exactly.
@@billymasonpi that’s what the alignment shop did with mine. I had the rack straight, but my steering wheel was off about 30°, so they move the tie rods to one side of the rack. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing they’re about a half inch off of equal distance but I don’t know how the inside of a rack works. I don’t know if there’s more pressure on a left-hand turn then a right hand turn now, or vice versa as far as a good firm return to center, it feels like coming out of a left-hand turn the wheel wants to center lot better than coming out of a right hand turn where I end up having to help it get straight, I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not regardless, it feels good going straight, I wish they would’ve centered it, and then pulled the steering joint off of the spline, straighten my steering wheel out and then dropped it back down on the spine and tighten the clamp
Hi @stopher1971, given the significant off centre positioning of your steering wheel, my recommendation would have been to initially remove and reposition the steering wheel. Adjusting the tie rods to such an extent is likely to impact steering resistance and the return to centre feel. In my video, I demonstrate a minor off centre adjustment that I've performed for many years that have minimal to no effect on steering turn and feel, but it does require precision. Ideally, the shop handling the alignment should ensure the steering wheel is precisely centred before proceeding, eliminating the necessity to adjust the tie rods.
The steering rack itself is off-center so it doesn't really matter. The right side is usually way longer than the left on almost all racks. Also ball joint angle during installation impacts alignment a lot
I changed my clock spring and now the wheel is off center cause I think I turned it by accident when I was tightening the center bolt that holds the wheel on , should I go back and make adjustments in there or should the tierod be how I recenter it as shown here ?
I changed mines too. Put the angle sensor back in after driving without it and no stability control for a while. Don’t think this affects the steering position. Yeah the angle sensor gives it positioning but it usual can only connect in at 6 or 12 o’clock. The sensor is just for the traction control to make predictions by getting position data. It’s weird that you have this issue because I used an aftermarket wheel that had teeth that didn’t align perfectly, but stock wheel should fit in like it came off. Did you drive it with wheels straight and try to re-align it on the teeth?
Have you solved this? How did you? (Guessing you went to an alignment shop)
@@Rob165x hey glad I got a reply on this and very interesting situation you have ,but for me I simple took the wheel back off ,made sure the tires where straight and replaced the wheel making sure it was straight this time ( or where straight should be ) an now it's perfectly fine, still slightly off but I think it's because I kept missing which teeth it's supposed to sit in by like 1 or two teeth lmao but this is now damn near perfect and next alignment should put it back dead center ... To give an idea of how well it is on point now I'd say it's only 2 percent off straight or less than 3 centimeters
If you do it this way your steering rack/box will be not centered. You will have more steering lock one way than the other. You need to first mark the steering center of the rack on the steering shaft and sleeve/housing, then get your wheel alignment done with your steering rack as close to the center point as possible. Then adjust the steering wheel to suit. Hope that makes sense
isnt this how toe is adjusted anyway by most shops? usually they just lock the steering wheel down and mess with the tie rods until the toe in/out is correct while the wheel is straight.
do i have to adjust it differently if my tie rod ends are infront of the hub instead of behind like yours
Hi Ken0-nu8cr, I wouldn't think so as the principal design and function would be the same. What car do you have?
@@billymasonpi i have a smart car 453
Be careful doing this. I believe the horn mechanism in my steering wheel was broken due to a messed up adjustment on the steering rack after work was done on the steering/suspension. The horn on my Hyundai Terracan has a clock spring like ribbon cable, which feeds the horn and probably the airbag. After the work was done on the steering stabilisers, the garage managed to get the steering so I didn't have enough steering lock to make a tight right turn out of my driveway. Some time after they corrected this issue, I realised the horn didn't work. Back to the garage, said it was the horn connection mechanism in the steering wheel. I asked for the old broken one on collecting the car, and having an interest in all things electro mechanical, I took it apart. It contains a coil spring like ribbon cable, which clearly tightens up when the steering wheel is turned one way, and loosens when turned the other. The ribbon cable had clearly been stressed, as it had cracked near one end, probably one turn too much ?
Hi tonymak9213, that's for letting us know and definitely something to be mindful of you're replacing tie rod ends or needing to make a significant correction to the steering wheel.
if the car is driving straight, what do you think about adjusting just steering wheel coupling without touching any alignment components?
Interesting, it’s news to me this method so I’ll need to look into it. Sounds like it might be easier than adjusting the tie rods.👍
Or adjust the steering shaft
@@billymasonpi its not trust me lol
@@stevenhuber3288 Yep probably best to stay well clear of that coupling :)
What would you suggest if my steering wheel is centered when the car is in park or in a complete stop? But as soon as I start to roll it, the steering wheel likes to go the 11’ o’clock position? It annoys the crap out of me. I already swapped the two front tyres & it’s still doing the same thing.
It sounds like you need a wheel alignment.
@@billymasonpi I got several ones, after a few hundred miles. The steering wheel starts staying in the 11 o’ clock position . I been checking for anything bent & can’t find anything. Someone mentioned I need a new rack & pinion but want to see the proof that mine is bad.
Exact issue with mine, how did you get it fixed?
Same problem with my Focus Mk1 after mechanic changed tie rods and wheel alignment it all started
@@paradoxbrothers1635 they’re telling me to replace inner & outer tie rods
Will this method also stop vibration on steering wheels?. After pilot lift 3 inch?
Sorry Darel, this only adjusts the steering wheel position.
If tyres are unbalanced so you could feel vibration on the steering wheel if tyre has bubble also same
@@TechnicalRajguru Most certainly, unbalanced wheels is one of the common contributors to vibration through the steering wheel.
@@billymasonpi bro i m from India keep uploading videos regarding wheel alignment m new in this field 🥰
@@TechnicalRajguru will do for sure, thanks for watching them :)
good job......have gas blow torch to heat up that jam nut.......it can be very jamned in !
It certainly can take some elbow grease to loosen those nuts.
Hey Cesar! You kinda threw me off there. Weren’t you suppose to go anti-clockwise on the left side? Seems to me you went clockwise maybe it’s just the angle of the camera
Just depends on how your thinking about it from the out side of the car it's counter from the passenger side of the car its clockwise I assume he said it the way he did because if your working on the left side your going to be on the out side looking in.
Would you need an alignment after doing this? Or would it still be in spec if this happened after getting an alignment?
Hi E, as long as the adjustment to both sides is precisely equal you shouldn't need an alignment. I've generally done this to fix an alignment where the technican failed to centre the steering wheel.
I can tell you that even the steering wheel is straight and the car moving straight, you can have both wheels toe in or toe out equally and the tyres will wear out very fast. You need to check the toe setting again to factory settings. Strange that a new car like yours is off by so much. Its also very hard to get a good wheel alignment technician
Bro how do i know at which direction that nut goes open
Hi Technical Rajguru, the nut of the left needs to be turned anti clockwise to loosen so that the tie rod can be adjusted, and the one on the right clockwise.
Easy way for me to remember is when beneath the car beside the left wheel, push the spanner to the front of the car, and when beneath beside the right wheel pull it back.
be very careful . if the rear wheels are out of alignment they will cause the vehicle to crab siseways slightly. the driver will have to turn the steering wheel slightly to keep the vehicle traveling in a straight line. the driver will think the steering wheel is off centre, but its not. centering the steering wheel will not fix the problem, the vehicle will still "crab" slightly, a d all the time you will be scrubbing out all 4 tyres. the relationship between steering and suspension is complex. take your car to a reputable suspension shop and in the long run save money and drive safely
Agreed, I would normally only suggest this adjustment if you’ve already had an alignment and the technician failed to centre the steering wheel.
👍🇬🇧🔧 thanks
Most welcome, glad it helped.🙂
Your car is right hand drive? I confuse
Yes it's RHD Christopher, please see my pinned comment where I try to explain the adjustment in more detail..
Anti clockwise 😆 never heard that before just counter clockwise
I hate doing this. It’s something so easy but can melt your brain lol.
do you work in tow side ( front left and right ) or one side ( front left)
I know, it's a real pain but done it so many times on my Magna it's pretty easy to get a sense of how far to turn each side to get the wheel centred. Early on I'd make a note on paper of which side I've adjusted in which direction and how far because it's easy to lose track. It definitely helped.
Wouldn’t doing this throw off the alignment?
@@bens6674 thanks for the info
@@TheBonbagay by doing the opposite on the other side, your toe stays the same
I just replaced my passenger tie rod, lost count of the turns and now my steering wheel is pointed to the left slightly like in this video. Can I just adjust the passenger and leave the drivers side alone since I haven’t touched it. Also am I extending it or retracting it. There’s literally UA-cam videos that say the exact opposite but I think they’re wrong
Hi bombfirst157, in principle you should be able to recentre the steering wheel by adjusting the left tie rod only, turning it anti-clockwise (extending out). However, for this I'd probably take it into a tyre shop, tell them I replaced the left tie rod and let them look after it just in case I misalign something else.
Thinking more about it, you can probably recentre the wheel yourself. However, I'd do it by positioning the steering wheel where it sits off centre currently (slightly to the left as you said), switch the car on so it's running and then turn the left tierod anti-clockwise (extending out) until you observe the steering wheel returned to centre.