Steering wheel not centered...
 

OK, so I had my BRZ on the alignment rack for the 4th time this weekend, lol. Each time it has been for valid reasons, btw. This time I was getting my toe where I wanted it after my RCE spring install. I had 0 toe set in the front and 1/32 toe-in per side in the rear.

But I noticed that my steering wheel is off center while driving straight. Not very far off center, it's very very slight. Maybe 1/4" or so, if that.

I have two questions: 1. Does this matter? I have to wonder if it affects the yaw sensors that effectively control the power steering. 2. Can I center it myself without throwing off the alignment?

Might be a good idea to take it back to where you had it aligned and make sure the wheel centered during the alignment. I had a similar issue and it was driving me crazy because I swapped steering wheels to one with a slightly smaller diameter.

Our cars have a steering angle sensor so if it was an issue the abs light would trigger. If you need to do a zero point calibration and see if that helps. Alignment sounds good but if you are having trouble sleeping over a very sligh off center problem I would just take it somewhere else. Keep in mind you can't always get a steering wheel to be exactly perfectly centered. Best bet is to do the zero point.

If it's not pulling and it doesn't bother you too much, don't worry about it. Do you have a printout from your last alignment that you can post so that I can verify that you have no thrust that might cause wear from scrub?

-Mike

I didn't get a printout this time. I was standing at the machine while it was being done and just letting him know when the toe was where I wanted it. My last alignment felt great, but I figured the toe was probably off since I did the springs. Nothing was really that far out. Had the pull the toe out a bit on one back wheel (it was at 5/32 in) and one front had a pinch of toe-in, the other front was already at 0.

how do you do the zero point?

If you have uneven toe on the axle, it should be pulling to one side.

I think by zero point, he means where the ECU reads steering angle to be zero. You can get the reading via OBD2.

It wasn't pulling before and it's not pulling now either. I looked up the zero point thing, not sure if our pin out is the same as the other Toyotas I see guides for though.

If my wheel was off-center it would bug the living piss out of me.

The wheel on the CSG BRZ always ends up "not straight" after a track day on a fresh alignment and set of tires, but it never pulls. I'm usually OCD about stuff like this, but I recommend that we leave it alone to see if it causes any issues (strictly informational), and it hasn't.

Not sure on pinout, but we're reading steering angle via OBD2 reader on a datalogger.

Good to know. :thumbsup:

I haven't had my wheel end up this way after hard AutoXes. I did, however, have to get two wheels rebalanced after the last AutoX because I wore them funny enough and/or threw some weights.

You need to take it into a dealership or anyone that has a scan tool with that capability

I've seen a handful of guides that just require shorting a few pins on the OBD2 port. I might just have to investigate this direction...for the good of us all.

if you come up to OC, I can help you find it (although it wouldn't really do any good...)

well, I went the appropriate route and took the car back to the alignment shop. They fixed the steering wheel centering and all is well.

They also seemed to think that our cars auto-zero point during startup. But I'd take their advice about that with a grain of salt since our cars don't even show up in their computer.

i thought id chime in on this part. I seem to recall the car jerking the wheel a bit during a start up, maybe thats the auto zero point? My wheel is off centerd a tiny bit but not pulling. All of this just happened to occur right after I got an alignment, and it was my theory that during the tiny wheel jerk is when it went off center.

it could all be a coincidence and my wheel could just be off center haha, just a thought.

They just did your alignment slightly off. I know it's trivial, but my car feels a lot better with the wheel centered.

Here's a tip:

Center the wheel to the point where you are happy with, and align 2 pieces of tape, one on top of the steering wheel, and the other on top of teh column.

When you go to the alignment shop, specifically ask the tech to align the 2 pieces of tape before making adjustments.