My wife's steering wheel covering was peeling away. I found a replacement online and replaced it but its not centered. When driving in a strange direction, the steering wheel is ever so slightly turning to the left. I disassembled everything and repositioned the steering wheel one tooth to the right. Now, the steering wheel is ever so slightly turning to the right. How can I fix this?
This sounds a whole lot like an ongoing problem I've had with my Gen IV. Purchased the vehicle new and I think everything was lined up originally. Then, with time and miles, the steering wheel was centering about 3 to 4 degrees to the left in relation to road travel. Had the alignment set by my Toyota dealer service and within a week it was back to that 3 to 4 degrees left. Difficult to get work done on my car because of my schedule, so some time went by before I was able to have it checked again. And I think in that time period the service department upgraded their vehicle alignment procedure and equipment from a system that measured tire wear to determine alignment back to a typical rack system. The second alignment was successful. Time goes by and it's time for a new set of tires. I had those put on (not at my Toyota dealer) and broke in a little bit before getting a free courtesy alignment check at my Toyota dealer. You guessed it, my steering wheel lines up 3 to 4 degrees to the left again. There shouldn't be anything magical about getting a vehicle aligned. Square up everything and tighten it down. I was wondering if the steering wheel attached to a splined shaft, so I have that answer. I will admit I don't know squat about the alignment process. I sure do know when things are out of alignment though. Bugs me to no end.
Famous last words. The post linked in #2 above links a TSB that is 23 pages long. Here's one of the pages:
Oh, very nice. The diagnostic for steering wheel off-center would certainly result in some adjustments being made, and hopefully get things lined back up. It doesn't pull. The steering wheel just settles on a neutral input point slightly left of center. I should only have to bring the T-SB number and date to the dealer for them to do the checking. Thanks!
