my stearing wheel has gone squint.?

Question

the middle bar used to be horizontal whilst I was going straight. Now it is off line. What has caused this and is it serious?

to come clean, I might have ran up a kerb today which caused it to happen...

Answer 1

it sounds like it has been knocked out of alignment,,sometimes if you hit a bad bump it will knock the front end out of alignment,,i own a repair shop,,and its so easy to knock one out that you wouldn't think about,,until you noticed it,,you might want to take it,,and have the alignment checked,,because if it is off some it will cause unnecessary wear on your tires,,and it might pull a little bit to one side ,,or the other,,you can have it checked,,and if it isn't off they wont charge you anything for it,,that would be better than wearing some good tires out,,i hope this help,s.

Answer 2

There are a couple of things that can cause this. The easiest to check is the pressure in the front tires. If one is low it can cause this and also throw off the front end alignment, so the steering wheel should wobble at various speeds. To fix it, just go to a service station and add air. The other problem might be wheel alignment. It acts the same way as a low tire. A wobble at specific speeds, and if you let do of the wheel while you are driving in a straight line, it will wander off to one side.

Answer 3

If the steering wheel was centered before you hit the curb and is now off centered after hitting the curb then damage has been done. To avoid scuffing the tire tread, the front alignment and suspension need to be checked. After the correction and repairs, the steering wheel should now be in the correct centered position.

Answer 4

Assuming it was not caused by collision damage, it's not serious. Take it to the dealer or any reputable shop and ask them to realign the steering wheel. Shouldn't take more than a couple minutes. A good idependent shop will more likely to cut you a deal than a dealer, who will probably try to stick with a mandatory minimum of one hour of labor time at $90/hour for a 5 minute job.

Answer 5

You knocked the steering linkage out of alignment or bent something. Before you wear out tyres or tires you must put the car into a alignment shop or dealership. Have them give you an estimate of how much damage was done, those darn CURBS! they do jump out in front of you! Then decide do claim this on your collision insurance?

Answer 6

Two possibilities I can think of. Have you recently had your car realigned? Aligning the front wheels can change the angle of the steering wheel. The alignment shop should realign the steering wheel, as well. Second, your car may be SERIOUSLY out of alignment, which could be very dangerous.

Answer 7

Did you recently get your front end aligned? If so, take it back to the shop; they messed up!

If not, you have probably run over a curb or some such and bent something in your front end. Take it to a suspension shop. Sometimes it can be corrected by adjusting it if the damage is minimal. If not, you're going to need some front-end work.

Answer 8

It depends on they type of car you have and the type of steering design. It could haveb been caused by hitting a pothole or something. Since its the steering involved the safest thing would be to have a competent mechanic check it out. The hard part is finding an honest competent mechanic.

Answer 9

You need to have a mechanic check your wheel alignment. I had this happen to a vehicle after I had driven on some very pot hole filled roads. I did need to have my wheels and steering aligned. Good luck and have a good night!

Answer 10

You need a wheel alignment that's all it's not serious serious but you should take care of it because it only gets worse then you'll be leaning to drive.