Technical Align Steering Wheel

[Bondidan]

Hi,
last week bought 2013 Fiat 500 Pop

When the car drives straight the steering wheel is out of 'alignment'.

Is there an easy DIY for this ?

 

[rallycinq]

No, is the short answer.

In city mode make sure you have the same turns left and right.

My guess is a suspension alignment issue rather then the wheel in the wrong place.

Don't just move the wheel or the Ackerman angles will be all over the place.

D

 

[John202020]

Hi,
last week bought 2013 Fiat 500 Pop

When the car drives straight the steering wheel is out of 'alignment'.

Is there an easy DIY for this ?

Have the car looked at in terms of suspension components(many parts of which fail VERY early) and have the tracking aligned this should sort it out.
Also look for any accident damage/repair indication, out of interest the steering wheel is just a plain normal one, no buttons, yes?

 

[306maxi]

Either the tracking needs to be done, or you’ve got something more substantial wrong with the suspension of the car. Get the tracking checked and go from there.

 

[typecastboy]

My Nissan Juke has this issue and I had a folded up bottom suspension arm. Changed it but the steering was off and just didn’t feel right. Took it for some new tyres and asked them to put it on the ramps and have a look. It ended up being one of the two steering rack mounting brackets sheered off. It going to the garage tomorrow to be done and then mot’d. Definitely take it to be looked at.

 

[Bondidan]

Thanks for all the replies.

It was my feel from the start maybe there was previous damage that was poorly corrected. I looked on YouTube and saw people adjusting linkages to sort the steering wheel alignment problem on different makes of cars. Sure . . . if the fate of Earth depended on me I would get under the bonnet and correct it . . . but I think I will go to the Dealer today and get their advice.

I found a rusty 1/2, 6/16 ring spanner with the tools so think previous owner was DIY. I checked the oil and he/she put too much oil in the motor and I am going to get 1 to 1.5l taken out on Friday to get back to Standard Level.

I'll report back my findings from the Dealer re Steering Wheel Alignment.

 

[rallycinq]

Are you taking it to the dealer you bought it from?

D

 

[Ralf S.]

Dump (into the back of the garage - they could come in handy sometime) the Imperial sized spanners... they're no use to you at all (other than they could come in handy sometime).

The wheel not aligned could be a simple tracking issue. Get a tyre place to check and adjust it. It's a half hour job and it'll cost £90, if they don't have an offer on.

Don't tell them you think there might be/have been suspension damage, or they'll find some, if they're a bit sharp.. Just a tracking adjustment and Robert is your mother's brother.

Re. the oil, are you really, really sure there's too much oil? Check the oil in the morning or when the engine has been "off" for a few hours, so it's had an hour or two to drain back to the sump. The level should be 80% of the way to MAX and then keep an eye on it until you worked out its consumption habits. It should use practically none (maybe half a litre between services).

If the beast has really been overfilled by that much, take the airbox off and clean it out. Excess oil will have been blown out of the crankcase breather into the airbox, so it could have oil pooling in it. Any other oil you see in the inlet system, mop it up and give it a squirt of carb cleaner for good measure.


Ralf S.

 

[chris3234]

£90 to get the tracking done remind me not to go to your local garage

 

[Bondidan]

I bought the car Privately.

Went to Local Dealer and he said before looking for complex problems, get the TRACKING checked. They did not have equipment so went to local Tyre Store. Technical Report showed TRACKING was out of tolerance, and they corrected values.

The steering wheel is now in perfect alignment

While the car was up on the hoist I had a good look underneath - all in very good condition with no leaks or wear visible

Further to the Oil Overfill - was told the car had a Service before recent annual NCT (MOT) and DIYer put in extra oil then. This car only has 26,000Km after 5 years and has only light (none) use recently before I bought it, I do not think the air cleaner would be compromised. My Mechanic will be draining overfill tomorrow.

Thanks for all of your valuable advice !

 

[John202020]

Makes me suspicious that it was that far out with such low mileage? Unless some elderly gent liked to hit the curb, you might look at replacing all the tyres too check the date of manufacture on the side?

 

[jrkitching]

Makes me suspicious that it was that far out with such low mileage?

My Panda was at least 4mm out when delivered new from the factory :bang:. The 500 was, however, spot on. It's worth checking any new Fiat (and probably any new car, period) on first delivery. It's supposed to be part of the PDI, but it's often skipped.

Neither have needed retracking since, with almost 120000 miles between them.

Steerng wheel out of centre is commonly down to some eejit having set the front toe by adjusting one track rod only. This was (and probably still is) common on the Astra, since the threaded portions of the track rods are positioned right in the path of all the road spray and, unless kept greased, are often corroded to the point of being immovable. Many tyre centres won't even attempt to track them, for this reason.

A more serious and quite common problem on both 500 and Panda is that the rear tracking is out; the factory tolerances are stupidly wide and quality control of the rear beams is not of the best; it's also not designed to be adjustible. Both are, in consequence, prone to rear tyre wear; something that's not generally an issue with other small FWD cars.

 

[DaveMcT]

My Panda 1200 (same axle near enough) tracked better with its new axle than it ever did with the old one. I fitted a 500 axle so maybe the build tolerances improved between 2007 and 2015.