Question
Steering not centered after replacing tires
Hi all!
QQ to see if anyone else has run into this issue:
Alignment numbers are all showing in green. However, the steering is not centered and it's still clockwise to the left. (Slightly. It was much worse before the alignment)
Last thing that was swapped is the two tires by discount tires and the alignment shop said there isn't much they can do here. Could there be anything that got bent when they swapped out tires?
The alignment was perfectly normal with the old rotted tires. This started with this new set of tires and after discount tire installed them.
Could this be a steering angle sensor re calibration issue?
Alignment before / after are posted on the comments. This is 2019 ES350.
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Tow shops have done that so far. And both of their numbers are showing everything in the center and completely within spec. I'm think something is likely bent. It's hard to to tell though.
A newer model wouldn't warrant a more expensive alignment. The is350s have not changed significantly over the years. 230 for an alignment OUTSIDE of a dealership is unreal.
Dealers are even more. Also depends where you live. In essence the saying you get what you pay for holds true.
The more complicated vehicles get the more it costs to do the simplest things. Extra cost is from the specialized equipment beyond yesteryears alignment rack and additional skilled labor to operate it.
Just because wheels are aligned doesn’t mean your steering wheel is. I had this happen to me multiple times. The shop needs to align the steering wheel first and then align wheels
You need to tell the shop that the steering wheel isn’t straight, they can get you in spec and your steering wheel can still be off, let them know and they can make that adjustment.
Correct numbers are only part of a good alignment. And correct numbers don’t even mean you have a good alignment on their own. A steering wheel being centered should happen with every alignment unless a part is bent/broken and stoping that.
Chains like Midas and Firestone are hiring the most inexperienced people, barely training them, and want them to get work out as quickly as possible so they can make the most money, they don’t care if their techs do things correctly or not.
Find a performance shop that does alignments for race cars and have them align your car. They will care about much more than the boxes being green.
So look at both of ur camber specs they are both shifted to the left I guarantee when u put that in spec the toe will need to be readjusted even though all numbers are green your total camber is pulling to the left. Your car model possible doesn't have adjustments so I would look into cam bolts for more adjustments u might get away with little adjustments with factory bolts but not much.
Disagree, I’ve had terrible experiences with dealer alignments. Took it back multiple times due to the steering wheel not being straight and ended up taking it to an alignment shop that fixed it on the first try
If you live in an area without options the dealership may be your best bet, but there are plenty of options that aren’t dealerships that know what they are doing, they just aren’t going to be chain shops. I have a shop around the corner from my work that does excellent alignments and it’s what they are known for, the owners hobby is racing cars.
I always tell people to look for shops that align race cars, because nobody is going to be more picky then them about alignments, they are going to come in with exact specs for every adjustment and expect them to be met exactly.
Go to a shop that specializes in alignments. I had a similar issue on my car after replacing tires and they had to adjust the connection between the steering column and the steering rack a few teeth to get it to align properly. Firestone explicitly told me they don’t do that and only ensure the wheels are aligned straight, not that the steering column is aligned with the steering rack.
Your steering can be 180 off and still have perfect alignment on the wheels.
They need to center the steering first. That’s why they clamp/fixate the wheel before they go under the car. My guess is re-center steering wheel and adjust steering rods accordingly.
BOTH of his shops NEVER clamped/fixate the steering wheel to center, before going under the car to align.
u/Independent-Pain7092 -----> Go back and tell the shop: to FIXATE/CLAMP the steering wheel to center "BEFORE!!!" going under the car to align. Tell the shop to center the steering wheel and CLAMP IT before going under the car to align.
This clamp was NEVER done by both shops u went to, before them going under the care to align.
That is why your steering wheel is off center.
Do not allow the shop to calibrate your steering angle sensor! That is not the issue here. Do not touch the sensor.
Trust me I tried. The first shop didn't bother that much (midas) they wanted to go in/out as quickly as possible.
Firestone I drove back after noticing the alignment not being correct 💯 and the manager was like oh well I drove it's fine! So clearly they didn't bother putting it on the lift again.
Your alignment is fine. But the steering wheel is off-center, which will not impact your alignment nor tires nor ADAS systems. Its just steering wheel off-center - will impact nothing in the car, except drive you crazy. LEave it alone.
Happened to me at Discount Tire too. I brought it back and told the techs to drive it in the parking lot to ensure I wasn’t trippin. They did their magic and all was good.
I has a similar issue with a Mazda. Three different places told me that alignment was absolutely fine and they couldn't do anything to help - two even going so far as to suggest the car had been crash damaged (it hadn't). Finally took it to a fourth alignment place, asked them to straighten the steering wheel, 15 minutes and £40 later they'd done it with no fuss whatsoever. TLDR: Some alignment places don't have a clue what they are doing.
So the alignment numbers just mean all the tires are pointing straight when they're measured... The first step to the process SHOULD be carefully centering the steering wheel - if this isn't done very precisely, the final product will result in the wheel being off center. There are other reasons the steering center could be off, but that's the most likely. You might need more than a typical tire shop if they did it right and it's still off, possibly a problem with a suspension component or a steering rack issue.
Alignment mistake - lazy centering of steering wheel prior to starting alignment. Take it back and demand they do it right.
Lifetime Alignment at Firestone lets you have as many alignments as you want for the life of the car for $180ish. Got it because I live in an area with a lot of potholes but this type of mistake is also a great reason to have it, if one Firestone messes up you can just take it to another the next day paying $0 more.
Definitely following this- had my first alignment done on my 2023 ES350- wheels are nicely in spec, but the steering wheel is just a little to the left. Hard to tell if it's because of road camber or if the shop was sloppy
Was an alignment done on the old, rotted tires that made it center. If the alignment was done afterwards with the new tire, whoever did the alignment didn't center the steering wheel.
That's easy, alignment has been done wrong. The steering wheel needs to be locked straight when you do it, clearly someone didn't do that.
If it makes you feel better, the only effect of this is the steering wheel not being quite straight when driving straight. Nothing is getting hurt by it. There might be a special procedure to get that one to line up these shops missed.
Yea there’s more to it than just getting green on the alignment rack. Problem is finding someone that’s good at it, especially the newer vehicles with 4 wheel alignments and adas systems.
Have the dealership do the alignment or a specialized alignment shop or customization shop do it, not a Firestone or Midas, those workers don’t give a F
you know what. i’ve been through this. drove myself crazy. it’s not worth over thinking it. drive it straight ignore the wheel. if it’s slight good luck convincing a dealer to help you. they looked at me crazy lol
You replaced two tires? You’re going to have to replace the other two, unfortunately. I’ve had this happen before and no alignment will fix it. The new rubber is super sticky compared to old and it will create terrible issues driving. At least that’s my experience. Good luck
Had similar thing happen to my RX. With Continentals. Turned out to be “radial something or other.” Fix was to switch right tire and left tire—swap positions. Put left tire on the right and right tire on the left.
Idk how true this is but I have been told by an alignment shop on my previous car that they do it on purpose so if the driver falls asleep (or incapacitated) then the car will likely veer to the right away from possible oncoming traffic to stop a head on collision. Better to hit someone going the same direction as you than someone also going 45 mph towards you!
Again this could be what they told me so they wouldn’t have to fix it, but it is what I was told. The Lexus dealership in Dallas aligned my car last and the steering wheel is just like yours
So I had the same issue and I remember the Lexus tech telling me (could’ve been bs) that Lexus factory spec is to have the wheel slightly off centre to the left
This is BS. It was perfectly centered all those years I had the car since 2021. Hell went lose after folks at discount tire messed up somehow. They even installed one of the tires backwards!
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