Got a question ? After taking a turn,when i let the st wheel go,it does not straighten up ?

Let's see if i can get this across ? Say i want to make a right turn,after making the turn,if i let the steering wheel go,it would make may be 1-2 turns towards left but not enough where the car would straighten up ? The car still kinda goes towards the curb on the right. Same thing with the left hand turns too.

I was told by a mechanic,that once you make a turn,steering wheel should straighten up on it's own ?

Please advice .

 

Possibly no toe in the the front end alingment. That is what straightens out the wheel. Does the car wander right and left going down a straight road? When I run no toe in my race car it wants to wander up the long straights that have slope side to side.

 

Caster (not toe) is the major factor driving the "self centering" of front wheels. Do you know what yours is set at? In my experience tire width has a significant effect on how the steering feels in turning. Going from a the stock 205' to 245/18's is dramatic (much heavier).

 

The stroy goes like this...

5 weeks ago had an alignment done by a pretty reputable shop. Few days later noticed that the car had a floating feelings esp when taking turns.

Brought the car back to the shop,owner takes the car out and with out addressing my concerns tells me the steering wheel is not centering up and that he would have to take the entire front suspension off to look into it estimate would be around $700-$900

He went on to tell me that there's something sticking in the suspension that's not letting the wheel center up,could be the top strut mount or could be the control arms or something like that ? The steering feels smooth and has no creaks or any unwanted noises.

Any body care to explain how a strut assembly not let the wheel center out ?

This is the same guy that several years ago when i first bought the car told me the car needed the steering rack assembly as it's leaking .... 9 years later the car is still going strong with out any signs of rack needing ?

Is he just rying to give me a big one

 

This is the one thing I disliked about my 964 turbo. The steering felt overboosted on mine and always too light and it did not have that "progressive" feel from center onwards. In other words it felt the same all the way through the travel unlike my dads BMW's which have just incredible steering feel. I put new suspension on and had it all aligned and moved the caster settings to max hoping it would solve that but it never changed anything.

 

Take the suspension apart? Why? Everything's right there to see without dis-assembly.
The guy's a crook. Run, don't walk, in the other direction.
I agree with Jeff. Have the caster checked by someone else.

 

A strut bearing could slow the entire system down but you would most likely hear the bearing eating itself when turning and the steering in general would be very stiff. Same for the lower ball joint, you would know you had a big problem most times. Does not sound like this is your problem. Did you get the print out from when he aligned it?

 

I had a similar issue after putting new front struts in my BMW M3. It turned out that I had inadvertantly left out the strut bearing/spacer from one side and it was binding although I did not hear any noise.

If it started right after them doing the alignment, then they've done something to cause it. You could remove the tie rod end and then see how easily the strut rotates by hand. That should at least identify or eliminate any binding that may be occurring.

Again, if it started after the alignment, they've done something. At a minimum, I'd ask for your money back and then take it to a different shop. And, I would certainly be weary of having them do anything more on the car as if they are telling you you need to drop the complete suspension, something doesn't add up.

Just my opinion.