steering wheel off center - suddenly

[keba]

Howdy people,

When I bought my car the steering wheel was off center.So I removed the airbag.Removed the lock nut and centered it.

A few days back,I hit a curb when I did a U-turn on not-so-wide road.just backed up and continued ok.didnt notice anything off that time.

The next day my steering seems off by about 10 degrees.Any thoughts?I dont see any visible damage...

I can re-align it but I want to fix the underlying problem.


thanks,
keba

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Update
My steering started making popping noises,in addition to being on and off center.Took it to our local Ken Towery and they explained it was the strut Mounts that were popping and offered to replace the front supension for a paltry sum of $1050 + $69 alignment.

Although this may be a mount issue I would assume that the popping would happen all the time instead of just one end.
So I went and looked at the tie rod ends (with the standard lug wrench).there was no play .
I could not remove the rubber bushings of the inner tie rod ends(without removing the rack)

So I made these videos .They are fairly big files (10 meg each),but they show what's going on.Im hoping this is not the rack tooth wearing out.(If you see the first video ,it happens once when the wheels are almost straight and when the wheels are left locked).Also when turning the steering right,near the extreme lock the car dips a little.

http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.ph...ers_Side_1.mpg



http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.ph...enger_Side.mpg


Will put up other (camry related) videos if needed.

Thanks,
keba

[bigbird]

are u sure its ur steering wheel and not ur front end alignment? that would cause a similar problem.

[keba]

Is it possible to look at it figure that out or is it a shop-only thing?

is there a rough way to check alignment?

[bigbird]

yeah...go for a drive, let go of the wheel and if the car drifts to one side or the other its out of alignment. however the only real way to know for sure is to shop check it. the only reason i suggest this is because its really hard and in some cases impossible to have the steering wheel out of alignment.

oh and im not respossible if u hit anything

[davemac2]

you probably bent a tie rod. It may be best to remove each wheel and have a looke to see. It may not be a major bend, so a re-alignment might bring it back. Just have the tech center the wheel when he does the alignment.

dave mc

[Novice_cardude]

Sounds like an alignment issue to me. I don't think you should have taken the steering wheel off to correct the problem in the first place.

If you bump a curb on one side, it can put a slight bend in a tie rod (usually not noticable if you just look at the part) or damage a seal in a strut just enough to cause it to lean a couple thousanths of a degree, changing camber and thus influencing toe, making your steering wheel go off-center... Bottom line, if, say, your left-front wheel is facing in, that brings your total toe positive out of spec, but most noticably makes your steer ahead to the right, thus when both wheels are facing as close to the same angle as they can get, your steering wheel is off-center to the left.

it's hard to explain without pictures...

Bottom line, i'd say get your alignment checked before taking your steering wheel off again.

[keba]

ok yes. it does wander ,but it doesnt do it consistently to one side (maybe both sides are bent .

Actually I did this test yesterday and although it holds straight (going 30) for about a hundred feet.it slowly starts to drift.Maybe I should try this in a flat parking lot.

thanks for the replies .I will get an alignment done.

[Eye8Pussies]

sounds more like something is loose if you ask me....if something is bent, it's consistent and won't get worse and worse

[parimento1]

Definitely sounds like an alignment problem to me, have a reputable shop align it, the tech will check the relevant suspension components before he aligns it including tie rods, ball joints, control arms, etc. Usually an off center wheel is due to bad toe alignment.

[keba]

Update
My steering started making popping noises,in addition to being on and off center.Took it to our local Ken Towery and they explained it was the strut Mounts that were popping and offered to replace the front supension for a paltry sum of $1050 + $69 alignment.

Although this may be a mount issue I would assume that the popping would happen all the time instead of just one end.
So I went and looked at the tie rod ends (with the standard lug wrench).there was no play .
I could not remove the rubber bushings of the inner tie rod ends(without removing the rack)

So I made these videos .They are fairly big files (10 meg each),but they show what's going on.Im hoping this is not the rack tooth wearing out.(If you see the first video ,it happens once when the wheels are almost straight and when the wheels are left locked).Also when turning the steering right,near the extreme lock the car dips a little.

http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.ph...ers_Side_1.mpg



http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.ph...enger_Side.mpg


Will put up other (camry related) videos if needed.

Thanks,
keba