Tracking issue

Hi Folks

My other car is a 67 plate Mazda 2. I absolutely love driving it, as the road holding is superb. Or at least it was until I had 2 new OEM front tyres fitted.

It was tracked up on the day, and 3 days later, I had to return to the tyre depot, as the steering was skittish, with a drift, requiring constant correction. In addition, the steering wheel was noticeably off Centre.

The depot manager took it out and confirmed there was an issue. The tracking was in tolerance, and after several re-tracking attempts, they managed to get the steering wheel centered again.

Long story short, I was still unconvinced that the steering was as it should be, and took it for a four wheel alignment to eliminate any doubt.

This was carried out, and the steering wheel is still annoyingly out when driving in a straight line.

My query is- do I have to accept, that whilst the steering geometry is correct, that the off centre steering wheel is unable to be corrected, or if it is, the geometry will be out?

No you don’t have to accept that. It should be easy to correct by adjusting both track rod ends to maintain the correct toe-in whilst having the steering wheel clamped at the straight ahead position. I personally hate it when the steering wheel is not true. A decent garage should be able to sort this. Have you checked the tyre pressures?

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Take it back. That is shoddy work.

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Tyre pressures checked and fine. Many thanks for the reply.

Did the garage give you a before and after print of the 4 wheel alignments? It is usual to get one and would show what they did. No excuse for the wheel being off centre, ask them to correct it for you.
:heart:

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Just had mine done after changing shocks, and freeing a castor bolt. It was almost bang on, except the wheel was not in the straight ahead position. They then fixed this by adjustment. Total cost £60.

I hesitate to say take it back because it sounds like they are muppets, so no amount of hitting it with a hammer will get it right.

Go elsewhere… make sure you get a hunter alignment with full before and after printouts.

Thanks for the reply. It is only minimally out, and the sort of thing that probably would not be picked up until a trial run had been made, on a fairly straight stretch of road.

The reason for my query was just to ensure it was achievable, and reasonable to expect a fully straight ahead position. It will be resolved, I am sure of that.

Roads have a camber, including on the straight bit. Usually this means that the car will run left if you let go while driving on the left, and maintaining course entails a constant small clockwise force to be applied to the steering wheel resulting in the top of the wheel being somewhat to the right of the 12 o’clock position.

Drive down the middle and check it. Just don’t spend too long looking at the steering wheel.

I find once I fixate on this, which is usually when I know somebody has been adjusting the toe, I can never feel convinced that it’s quite right. Not to say that it always is, of course.

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:grinning: I am just the same. If its not the aligned I also get fixated on it even if it is just a degree out. I can’t stand anything being out of alignment. Probably because I was an Engineer. I go around the house aligning pictures and vases etc. and NO I am not OCD!