Greetings,

A few months ago I took my wife's 2002 Rav in to get two new front tyres - on driving home I noticed that the steering wheel was slightly offset from centre - i.e, when the steering wheel was straight ahead the car was moving to the right and when the car was driving straight on a road with no camber the steering wheel would be tilted slightly to the left.

I meant to take it back and complain but never got round to it - we are now thinking of selling the car and this is probably something a prospective buyer would notice, although I assume it is no big deal.

Can anyone offer any advice on what the problem might be and how much it should cost to get it sorted? I'm assuming they knocked the tracking out while fitting the wheels?

Cheers,

Ali

Tracking needs adjusting, should get change from £20.

Most tyre centres check and adjust the tracking and balance etc when fitting the tyres. When adjusting the tracking they should always turn both track rod ends by equal amounts but seldom do.

By adjusting one track rod they alter the relative position of the steering rack and the column. In other words they turn the steering slightly to one side and you have to correct it by turning the wheel slightly in the opposite direction. They also make a mess of the position of the indicator cancel switch which relies on the column being correctly aligned. If it were say quarter of a turn out, the indicators would cancell in three quarters of a turn in one direction and one and a quater turn in the other! That is also why the fault should not be corrected by turning the steering wheel on its spline.

It is why I hate anybody touching my car for any reason, even servicing.

To put it right BOTH track rod ends need to be turned by equal amounts in the opposite direction.

You can explain the fault to someone with the right equipment. I would prefer to use a local garage with fully qualified mechanics rather than a fast fit centre who tend to employ the kind of semi-skilled erk that messed it up in the first place.

If you are reasonably competent, have the tools and want me to explain how to do it yourself, let me know which way the wheel is out and I will go through it for you.

Good luck

thanks for the help chaps.

I'm not remotely competent at anything mechanical so will leave it to the experts - the tyre place I go to is pretty good normally so will get them to sort it. Hopefully they'll do it for free if I explain they caused it even if it was a while back.

Cheers,

Ali