The steering wheel on my '90 245 is off center just by a hair to the right, or clockwise, what can I do to fix this?

My tires are alright, suspensions in okay shape (back shocks are a bit old, lots of new stuff up front and year-old alignment). The car tracks straight perfectly fine.

Countless people suggest that you remove the steering wheel and re-install but thats not a method I personally agree with, it masks the problem more than solves it.

 

How did it get this way? It can be recentered either by a front end adjustment, better done by alignment shop, or pulling the steering wheel and moving it to where you want it--nothing wrong with that if the wheel alignment is fine...

 

before taking off the wheel, jack up the front of the car so both wheels are off the ground. turn the wheel all the way to one stop noting the final angle, then all the way to the other stop counting full turns, and noting the final angle relative to the start angle. now turn it half that number of turns back, plus half the difference in the start and end angle of the wheel.

is it centered? good, leave the steering wheel alone, take 1 turn out of both tie rod adjusters, such that one is more in and the other is exactly 1 turn more out.. now drive it, is it better or worse? if its worse, take two turns on both adjusters the other direction.

if it wasn't centered after doing what I said, then some idiot probably messed about with it before, so yeah, count turns and fractions of a turn to put the steering box rack center, and clamp the steering column, then remove and center the steering wheel.

a wheel alignment shop is supposed to do this.

 

When I brought the car the suspension was a joke, bad drivers strut, bad drivers tie rod, bad passenger control arm, missing stud on one of the front wheels, steering wheel was off center by 45 degrees, and the bearings were going out on one of the front wheels. Shockingly the rest of the car was in alright shape! I might take the car back into the shop that aligned it, I dunno if the warranties still good (if I even have one). The original owner may've fiddled with the wheel, this car had a few original owners that were really good with it, then one or two that treated it like a Toyota with some truly lousy DIY.

 

Well, yeah, take to the alignment shop and tell them your concerns. They should take care of that off center wheel for you. Obviously they missed it, probably didn't think it important...

 

UPDATE:

Turns out after having the alignment done I had the strut replaced, dumb order I know, but I though the alignment was independent of the struts.

Taking the car to the shop is not an option at this point, the road around that areas being worked on so traffics been backed up these past few weeks.

On the upside, I have these notes:

1. On some roads the steering wheel will be perfectly aligned with the front wheels, maybe the crowns goofing me up?

2. The tires are 4-5 years old with who knows how many miles on them and two winters. I briefly had them on my '92 240 Sedan back in about 2013 and I have vague memories of them causing abnormalities, vague steering and such. Perhaps they're the issue.

 

the adjustment at the tie rods, which affects steering wheel centering if its asymmetric, adjusts toe-in. too litttle or negative toe-in, and the car will not go straight unless you hold the wheel, too much toe-in and the car will have more resistance to turning the wheel and want to go straight too much (as well as wear the front tires excessively).

what centers the steering wheel is adjusting one side out and hte other side in by the same amount, which leaves the toe-in constant, but moves the steering rack back and forth a bit.

 

With the car parked, I put the steering wheel dead center and the front wheels line up, but some of my tires are low on air.

Maybe this weekend I can check the toe, I'll have to borrow some jack stands.

 

1. Well here's how to tell if that is happening: Since you have to compensate by turning the steering wheel towards the uphill of the crown, is that the way the wheel is pointing. What about when driving on a non-crowned (or reverse-crowned) road? 2. Yes faulty tires (esp. separating tread) can cause "pulling" problems. And this should be obvious, one of the first things to check, and remedy. Low tire pressure will also cause pulling to one side.

 

reading this again, I'm betting you have some loose joints and bushings, and you definitely need 4 balanced properly pressured tires before you even THINK of messing with wheel alignment.

on the 240 front end, the steering tie rod tips wear out... you can replace the INNER tie rods, those were never a factory part, but TRW and others sell them, catch-22, you need to inspect your old ones off to see which type you need. we had 1-2mm of play in each one, easily visible if you jacked up the car on stands or a lift, took off the tie rod boots, and had someone gently rock the wheel up/down and back/forth while inspecting joints. this is what they look like under the boot:




that skinny shaft on the right goes to the tie-rod end at the wheel, and that's a ball joint on the end of the steering rack, when worn there's a obvious play there. The two versions have inside and outside threads where they go onto the steering rack.

other wear things on the 240 front end include the lower control arm bushings, and the ball joints.

slop in any of these can make the steering and alignment funky, and they should be diagnosed and repaired before alignment.

 

The steering doesn't have much play, I've made a point to renew bushings and wear items when I can. As far as roads go the car will be okay on flat roads (parking lots, some older roads), but at crowned roads it'll go left a tiny bit with the wheel center (into the oncoming lane), its very strange. It'll drive straight on crowned roads with the steering wheel off center.