Steering Wheel Off Center!

MT Groove · March 27, 2017

Anyone else's truck has a steering wheel off center? Mine is off center to the right. The Truck tracks straight, just the steering wheel is degree of 2 to the right. I know this probably don't bother most people, but it bugs the hell out of me. I have taken it in to the dealer 3 times (along with transmission issues). All 3 times, they have attempted to re-align. All 3 times, it is still off center to the right. They have rotated the tires as well. Yes I am aware of uneven roads and some roads slopes etc. When I had a loaner, a Sierra SLE, and a Canyon SLE, the steering wheels were dead straight. When I test drove other Sierra Denali's their steering wheels were dead straight.

A little back info. When I first test drove my truck, it was off center. I told dealer I won't take delivery until I steering wheel was centered. After second attempt, they got it straight. About 650 miles into it, steering wheels off center to the right again......that's when I took it back in 3 more times! Any advice is appreciated.

Sierra706 · March 27, 2017

Mine is slightly off to the right. Not enough for me to really notice on a daily basis, and not enough to justify the dealer messing with it potentially screwing something up

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JimCost2014 · March 27, 2017

My steering wheel is slightly off to the left. Truck goes down the road straight, no strange tire wear, and I agree with not wanting to take it to the dealer. I will probably will just pay and take it to a tire shop to get it straightened.

Towerhog · March 27, 2017

Sometimes after alignments they dont have the wheel centered. In that case I climb under the front end and tweak the tie rod adjustment (equally) and get the wheel centered. My adjustments may not be to the tenth of a degree, but Ive had no adverse effects from doing so. Steering, tires all good.

MT Groove · April 4, 2017

Ok it seem I may need to take it to another alignment place. My dealer has just had the 4th attempt at getting the steering wheel centered. Now it is even more offset to the right.

dc1515 · April 5, 2017

After driving over a 1000 miles to New York and back over this past weekend I too have noticed mine is off to the left now. Not sure how. I was thinking I would take it to the dealer but I don't like dealing with them at all so I will probably just continue to drive it until it becomes a serious issue. It bugs the hell out of me as well.

MT Groove · April 14, 2017

Took my truck to a local alignment shop. This shop has a reputation for doing alignments on race cars, and specialty vehicles. The 2 alignment techs there has been "married" to that alignment machine since the 80's at the location! 1 attempt, got it tracking perfectly straight, with the steering wheel perfectly center. It did costed me $89, but was well worth it.

sk · April 17, 2017

Mine was perfect until a shop recently did some work for me. As part of the warranty work involving some "shimmy" they did a RoadForce balance and alignment. It helped with the shimmy and the truck tracked straight but the steering wheel was off a few degrees to the left. I tried to live with it but after a few weeks it bugged me so I took it back to them. They told me they had set the toe wrong and adjusted it. Now the steering wheel is off to the right a few degrees

A buddy of mine runs a tire shop. I may just pay him to align it since he'll probably work with me to get it right.

JimCost2014 · April 18, 2017

Took my truck to a local alignment shop. This shop has a reputation for doing alignments on race cars, and specialty vehicles. The 2 alignment techs there has been "married" to that alignment machine since the 80's at the location! 1 attempt, got it tracking perfectly straight, with the steering wheel perfectly center. It did costed me $89, but was well worth it.

That is my plan also. Great looking Denali!!!!!

MT Groove · April 19, 2017

That is my plan also. Great looking Denali!!!!!

Thanks.

It will be worth it. The alignment shop said that factory specs has so much tolerance that even when the alignment is in spec, it could still be causing issues. This shop does alignment the old fashioned way by manually aligning, test driving and re-aligning till they get it right. They had an old school alignment machine.

JimCost2014 · April 19, 2017

Thanks.

It will be worth it. The alignment shop said that factory specs has so much tolerance that even when the alignment is in spec, it could still be causing issues. This shop does alignment the old fashioned way by manually aligning, test driving and re-aligning till they get it right. They had an old school alignment machine.

You are very welcome. Where are you located?

TRG · October 11, 2018

On 3/27/2017 at 11:16 AM, Towerhog said:

Sometimes after alignments they dont have the wheel centered. In that case I climb under the front end and tweak the tie rod adjustment (equally) and get the wheel centered. My adjustments may not be to the tenth of a degree, but Ive had no adverse effects from doing so. Steering, tires all good.

I've never had an alignment done where they got the wheel straight. I've taken my current truck to two different places with no luck. If this was an older truck it wouldn't bug me so bad, but it's a 2018 and it's annoying as hell. I don't understand why this is so difficult to get right.

Anyway, do you (or anyone) have any tips or tutorials that you could share that explain how to do this on a newer truck? I'm going to just take care of this myself, but have never tried it before, so don't want to mess up the alignment in the process. Thanks in advance!

Edit: So I went ahead and just did it based on what I've viewed for vids on youtube, etc... The most difficult part was getting the the lock bolts loose on each tie rod in order to make the adjustments. I made marks on the inner and outer tie rods so that I could get each side as close to the same amount of turn as possible, but I'm sure it's not 100% exact, but it's real close. I guess I'll just monitor my tire wear and determine if being off a small amount causes any adverse affect.

Edited October 12, 2018 by TRG

Silv18 · February 22, 2019

Ik I'm digging up an old thread but I just bought a leftover 18 and mine is off to the right also. I'm a Toyota tech and worked on his years ago. I put it on our brand new last week alignment machine 2 times. And it's still off.

FUChina · December 27, 2023

If the steering wheel is not securely locked in place with a stabilizer or held in place by a 2nd pair of hands it will shift slightly during the tie rod adjustment. Some guys wrap the steering in place with the seat belt, which puts tension on the wheel but Ive never seen anyone firmly lock it in place with this method. The vehicle has to be driven afterwards, meaning the shop is well aware the wheel is off center before they give it back they just dont care because most mechanics are flat rate and in their minds theyre getting paid to do a wheel alignment, not a steering wheel alignment. The shop itself should compensate their mechanaics for the final adjustment or require it as part of the service but many dont as a general policy because jt often provides them an opportunity to file an additional service claim on the return visit, especially when its a warranty or insurance claim. If they try to claim a steering wheel alignment in addition to the wheel alignment at the time of service it is likely to be denied by the manufacturer or insurance adjuster because their policy requires it as part of the alignment service. Its shady but so is the stuff that insurance companies and manufacturers pull by nickel and diming these shops. Unfortunately when you get as big as these manufacturers or insurance companies get its too easy to bully these shops into going along with whatever you say because if they say no you'll just find somebody else who is hungry enough to say yes..... long story short... everybody gets screwed except the filthy stinkin rich guy