Steering while alignment

[nickcowen]

Hi all

I’v recently had a broken spring replaced and my wheels tracked and aligned on a geo. Only problem is that my wheel is off to the right slightly. I only really notice it when traveling at speed. My cars going in for a service next week and I was thinking of asking the mechanic to take the steering wheel off and Just move it to the left 1 notice. Does anyone know approximately how many degrees a notch on the steering column is?? 2010 Audi A3 sport back by the why. Should have probably started with that haha

Cheers for any help

[cuprabob]

Sorry, I can't answer your question but when they do the alignment they are silupposed to clamp the wheel in the straight ahead centre position then adjust both track rods to get the correct toe in / toe out. Sometimes mechanics just adjust one track rod to bring it into spec which causes the steering wheel to be off centre.

To summarise, go back to who did the alignment and get them to fix it rather than resolve by repositioning the steering wheel.

[nickcowen]

It’s been to 3 places up to now and it’s definilty been clamped straight. I’m thinking there might just be a bit of play in the steering due to the mileage of the car 107,000. Not quite as tight as a virgin anymore.

[cuprabob]

On which case it might be worth checking the play on the track rod ends.

Also it's worth remembering that in the UK most roads have a slight camber to the verge for drainage so.the car naturally drifts to the left and as such requires a little steering input to the right to go straight.