Car tracking straight but wheel off centre

[andymach23]

I've got a Touran, owned from new and just over a year old now. The wife drives it mostly. The car has been tracking arrow straight with the steering wheel also perfectly straight. I drove it a while back for the first time in ages and the steering wheel was off centre with the car driving straight ahead. The car still tracks very straight.

I got the tracking done at a local tyre fitter and sat in the car to keep the wheel straight as the adjustment was made. The car is still doing the same, tracking really straight with the wheel off centre.

The VW dealer says that the car must have hit something for the alignment to be off, but would the car continue to track dead straight if that was the case?

Is there any chance that there could be someting else going on with the steering to cause this?

cheers, Andy

[uk_vette]

When the car is driving strait, with wheels in strait ahead. stop, and

Take the steering wheel off, and refit it in the correct position ?

'vette

[jeoff82]

Are you fighting against the steering wheel to keep the car straight?

[andymach23]

uk_vette said:

When the car is driving strait, with wheels in strait ahead. stop, and

Take the steering wheel off, and refit it in the correct position ?

'vette

Hmmm, sounds like a good idea, except would there not be all sorts of shenanigans with the air bag to do this?

[andymach23]

jeoff82 said:

Are you fighting against the steering wheel to keep the car straight?

Not at all. If you let go of the wheel on a straight the car keeps going dead straight with the wheel in the same offset position.

I'd say the tracking & steering is excellent. Just as it has been from new. The car feels totally normal. Just this off set wheel.

Appreciate the input so far.

[Egg Chaser]

andymach23 said:

I got the tracking done at a local tyre fitter and sat in the car to keep the wheel straight as the adjustment was made. The car is still doing the same, tracking really straight with the wheel off centre.

Sounds like the tracking has been adjusted more on one side than the other.

That would give the effect of the steering pointing slightly in one direction when the steering wheel is straight, but the wheels straighten up whilst moving (due to castor angle etc) which turns the steering wheel off centre. Hope that makes sense.

Shouldn't be a problem I don't think other than looking a bit strange. My dad drove his old car for a few years like this, never caused any problems.

Edit- If its been like that for a while, check the tyres. If there was a real problem with the tracking it would cause unever tyre wear.

Edited by Egg Chaser on Friday 29th October 20:46

[LaurenceFrost]

If the tracking was set and the steering wheel was set dead straight, but when you drive it the wheel is off-set, I'd be looking at the rear of the car.

Have the rear toe checked and set. I'm not sure if many typical garages are equipped to do this accurately, but there are plenty of places who have digital equipment to do it.

Even a small amount of error in the rear toe can cause the problems you are describing.

[jeoff82]

Id say if the car is not pulling to one side then the tracking/camber/castor is correct. I think the steering wheel just needs to be set straight.

[spend]

andymach23 said:

I got the tracking done at a local tyre fitter and sat in the car to keep the wheel straight as the adjustment was made. The car is still doing the same, tracking really straight with the wheel off centre.

His tracking gauges probably set the front wheels relative to each other, and took no reference to the car centreline.. Holding the steering wheel straight would make no difference.

Just have it redone on a 4 wheel alignment that takes reference to the rear wheels to show the thrust angle. The graphical display on one of the 4 wheel laser alignment rigs is likely to answer all you questions - it becomes quite clear when you see it yourself.

[Morgan Man]

Hi, All good advice and I too have had issues since new tyres fitted at Quik Fit, it went like this:-

(I have had the car since it was ex demo v low mileage) - 2015 Peugeot Teepee 20k on clock, fixed rear axle so no rear alignment without component changes
1. Original front tyres changed at QF, balanced and tracked (despite the fact that I had made clear the car was as straight as an arrow before I took it to them, so I was a little suspicious!)
2. Drove car over weekend, car drifts to left in about 100mtrs on flat straight road and needs pressure on RH side of steering wheel to keep straight.
3. I checked tyre pressures and they were not even pressures, I set to 34psi.
4. Drove car again and still drifting to RH side.
5. Back to QF, they said tracking was spot on (produced a fancy read out to show me, which strangely enough was different from previous one after tyres fitted).
6. Drove car, better but not right, drifting less but steering wheel not central.
7. Put up on my own ramps, had a shuftie and it was clear that the Nearside track rod/end had been adjusted as there were stilson marks on the rod and no marks on the Offside nut, rod or rod end at all.
8. Took to a different (but established chain) tyre company, told the story so far and they said the tracking was out by 4 degrees one side and 3 degrees the other. (paid them to adjust)
9. Drove car away, no drifting at all, car feels fine but the steering wheel is slightly offset.
Thought about removing the wheel but it hasn't been off ever so why the heck should I compensate by doing that now?

Conclusions:
a. Most tyre bays sell tracking even if not needed - then muck it up.
b. Most tyre bays do not do that good a job when tracking
c. Thinking of buying my own tracking alignment gear, I do everything else on the car.

Any thoughts guys?
Morgan Man

[Fastpedeller]

Morgan Man said:

c. Thinking of buying my own tracking alignment gear, I do everything else on the car.

Any thoughts guys?
Morgan Man

I've checked tracking with 2 laser levels - It's surprisingly accurate (as evidenced below see (8)).
1.Car as level as possible, drive straight into position allowing wheels to 'steer themselves'
2.Set up 2 laser levels on bricks to wheel centre height one either side of car at the rear. In the distance (maybe 3 car lengths in front of car - the longer the better) set up a 'target board' at wheel centre height. 3) Measure distance between your 2 laser levels (cheep ones will do, the 'level' function per se isn't critical).4) Turn on levels so a dot appears on each target board. 5) adjust the levels using shims and moving angle slightly to get the 2 dots at same height as wheel centre and same distance apart as levels. This will take some time (probably less than taking to garage though), is fiddly but satisfying. Once this is done you have a 'rectangle' with the 2 long sides created by the laser beams. 6)With a steel rule or Vernier measure from edge of front of each front wheel rim (assuming no dents etc) and note where the dot appears on rule. Add both measurements call them FR and FL 7) Do the same on rear of both front wheels, lets call them RR and RL. Tow in equals (FR +FL) - (RR +RL) all divided by 2.
8)Having done this for my kit car, I thought I'd see what happened when I checked my Wife's production car (Fiat). Figures for the front tow-in were easily available, but nobody mentioned the track difference (front wider than rear by 33mm IIRC) which is often the case on FWD cars (I measured this manually). There seemed to be an anomaly, but I ascertained a tow-in (or was it out?, I can't remember, but probably in) for the rear wheels. Much internet searching came up (eventually) with the same figure, so I was (even more) confident this method was sound.

[pfnsht]

The car is supposed to drift to left (i.e follows the camber of the road). Depending on how camber'd the road is will dictate how much input into the steering wheel you have to put in to keep it going straight. All my cars behave this way and those with wider tyres are the worst.