My steering wheel isn't straight.

[Max Archer]

This is driving me nuts. When driving straight, my steering wheel is is 10 or 15 degrees to the right. It's not a huge amount but it's enough to be really annoying. I've had it into the dealer, and everything was in spec on the alignment machine, and it was driven by a tech, the service manager, and a Mazda rep who happened to be in, and they all said it was within spec and there wasn't much they could do about it.

Any ideas? Having to hold the wheel crooked really sucks on long drives and it's gonna be a major problem when I track the car.

 

[MidnightRush09]

Sooooo is mine brother

 

[UnZipHer15]

Disconnect the battery
Remove the two M10 bolts that hold the air bag in place. One on each side below your turn signal and wipers, you cant miss them.

Disconnect the wires holding the air bag in. It's tough, use a flat head screwdriver

You will see the steering wheel is held on by a bolt. It's M21, loosen that and straighten your wheel to where you want want it.

Reverse the steps and you're golden!

 

[Racebrewer]

2 thoughts.

What happens when you drive in the far left lane? Where does the wheel end up? It may be the crown of the road.

Also, a proper alignment includes straightening of the steering wheel. The wheel gets held straight ahead and the front wheels are then aligned. Idiots.

John

 

[Max Archer]

Disconnect the battery
Remove the two M10 bolts that hold the air bag in place. One on each side below your turn signal and wipers, you cant miss them.

Disconnect the wires holding the air bag in. It's tough, use a flat head screwdriver

You will see the steering wheel is held on by a bolt. It's M21, loosen that and straighten your wheel to where you want want it.

Reverse the steps and you're golden!

It's a bolt with splines like most other steering wheels, isn't it? It's not off by enough to do it that way, it'd just be off in the other direction if I did that.

Unless it works some other way and the dealer didn't know WTF they were talking about when they said the same thing.

 

[UnZipHer15]

i had to remove my steering wheel to get the plastic pieces off so i could wrap them in vinyl... it's just a M21 bolt...

 

[Racebrewer]

"Unless it works some other way and the dealer didn't know WTF they were talking about when they said the same thing."

Please see my post above. In the steering rack there are two adjustments for toe. One in each end of the rack. The steering wheel is centered than each side of the rack (at the tie rods) gets adjusted to get the proper amount of toe on each side. Voila. Steering wheel centered and toe adjusted properly.

As I said above, dealerships can be idiots. And lazy. Adjusting toe can be done by only adjusting one side and letting the suspension self-center, but that is the sloppy, lazy way and shows no quality or work-ethic or pride in results (oh, that's good enough). It also results in minor variations in how the front wheels steer from side to side. And it causes the steering wheel to be off center.

The front end should also be aligned in relationship to the rear so it all tracks straight.

Look up "string alignment" or "stringing your car" for a good visual explanation of how it all works. I do my own alignments and string the car. I use lasers to align racing karts, but that is different.

Find a small alignment shop run by an old guy and ask him why your wheel isn't straight. If he tries not to laugh you are in the right place.

John

 

[DrWebster]

Find a small alignment shop run by an old guy and ask him why your wheel isn't straight. If he tries not to laugh you are in the right place.

This. Take the car to someone who knows what they're doing. They'll get you straightened out (ha!).

 

[arcxer]

I'd also steer clear of that dealership service department, while letting them know the reason.

 

[Max Archer]

Yeah, I understand how toe relates to the alignment. I suppose the trick is, as you say, to find a place that will actually fix it.

 

[bpkp]

Guys, I saw this thread and had to chime in...the same thing happened to me, and i googled and found the following service bulletin:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tsb/02-005-10.pdf

I'd take it back to the dealer and show them this...if it's really off 10-15 degrees, then it's clearly out of spec and should be fixed by the dealer.

FYI, my local dealer fixed mine with no push-back and it's now perfect.

Failing that, you should be able to follow this on your own for the fix.

Hope this helps - good luck.

 

[Max Archer]

Guys, I saw this thread and had to chime in...the same thing happened to me, and i googled and found the following service bulletin:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tsb/02-005-10.pdf

I'd take it back to the dealer and show them this...if it's really off 10-15 degrees, then it's clearly out of spec and should be fixed by the dealer.

FYI, my local dealer fixed mine with no push-back and it's now perfect.

Failing that, you should be able to follow this on your own for the fix.

Hope this helps - good luck.

Oh, awesome, thanks for posting this.

I'm taking the car into an independent alignment place that's actually run by one of the local Mazda Owners Club of CA members after I install my new springs next week but maybe I should bring this along in case they're unclear on how to correct it.

 

[kcdirtbro54]

Wow, that's a really old trick for when the car drives straight but the steering wheel is not. I can't believe Mazda put out a TSB for that. Hopefully it works for you

 

[Max Archer]

Yeah, I've only ever done ghetto alignments to get race cars to the shop or to tweak stuff like camber with camber plates, but I thought you could just adjust the tie rods, and didn't understand why the dealer was insisting there was nothing they could do without taking the wheel off and remounting it or ruining the alignment.

I'm almost tempted to just fix this myself. The TSB even says how much to turn the tie rods for the given steering wheel angle. I already went out and tested mine and it's somewhere between 4 and 6 degrees off, I need to mark it better before I actually do it for real. Maybe I'll just go to the dealer tomorrow though.