Off centre steering?

[Andy_S]

Hi All,

When I got my car new a few weeks back I noticed immediately that the steering wheel was off centre when driving on a straight road. So I took it straight back so I couldn't get accused of hitting a pot hole etc...

The supplying dealer had it back in for a day to check the alignment, they couldn't fix it. Claiming something about not wanting to put the lane assist out of calibration???

So they've just had the car in for 2 days, and sent it back to their main prep centre and specialist body shop. Got it back today, and the steering is exactly as it was when they took it in!


The picture below is how my steering wheel sits when driving straight, it's not far off, but enough to be annoying. Questions are; are they all like this, am I just being too picky? Is this normal and the steering angle is just adjusting for the road camber?



TIA

Andy

[Graeme4130]

No, they're not all like that
Throw it back at them and tell them to sort it
That would annoy the crap out if me

[Revolution]

......Or find a pro align dealer who used Hunter alignment
Equipment and they will fix it.
We have the same equipment and often have similar
problems to fix on new Porsches etc.

Agree in advance and they should pay the bill for you


Rgds
Glenn

[Andy_S]

Thankyou, I'm glad that they are 'not all like that', it is annoying the crap of me, and spoiling an otherwise great car.

The reason it was sent back to their main prep centre was that the supplying dealer didn't have the specialist alignment equipment. I'm not sure I believe the line about putting the lane assist out of calibration.

They are going to be told tomorrow to get it sorted, or I will reject the car. To be fair to them, the steering feels much better now, albeit not straight, so something was clearly wrong when I collected it.

To give the dealer their due, they have been very helpful and apologetic about the whole thing, and my little petrol head 20 month old son has his first Audi as a freebie!...

[Jezzer]

The steering wheel doesn't look straight on that one either

[Revolution]

Give them the opportunity to fix it or let them take it to a Pro Align centre at their cost maybe?

But just bare in mind that it may feel better at the moment but if they forced the steering wheel dead straight then your alignment would be out.

It might need someone in the car to sit and hold the steering wheel very firmly while its getting adjusted as sometimes it does move, then you go out for a test drive and it settles after a few miles.
Happened on our RS3 when we lowered it as it was just on the final nip up of the track rod ends that the steering wheel moved - never noticed it until you were on out on the road and its all settled down again.
Frustrating but doubt there's anything wrong with your car that cant be fixed, but do it sooner rather than later to avoid incorrect tyre wear.

Hope that helps
big Glenn

[BMW2RS4]

Coincidence that this topic should crop up but I've just had a set of KW coilover springs fitted to the B8 RS4 at Demon Tweeks and, following the alignment, the technician mentioned that the steering wheel was off centre and adjusted it accordingly. Hopefully, he hasn't messed up the lane assist

[RS6chris!]

Give them the opportunity to fix it or let them take it to a Pro Align centre at their cost maybe?

But just bare in mind that it may feel better at the moment but if they forced the steering wheel dead straight then your alignment would be out.

It might need someone in the car to sit and hold the steering wheel very firmly while its getting adjusted as sometimes it does move, then you go out for a test drive and it settles after a few miles.
Happened on our RS3 when we lowered it as it was just on the final nip up of the track rod ends that the steering wheel moved - never noticed it until you were on out on the road and its all settled down again.
Frustrating but doubt there's anything wrong with your car that cant be fixed, but do it sooner rather than later to avoid incorrect tyre wear.

Hope that helps
big Glen

Glen

Do you do four wheel alignment etc??

Chris

[Revolution]

Yes indeed.....we have the full Hunter set up here Chris

Give Keith or little Glen or a call to book it in...

Tel: 0191 4619200

Glenn

[RS6chris!]

Ok great

I'm getting new tyres fitted soon.

I'm getting slight uneven wear on front inners.

Il get tyres on and book the old girl in.

Regards

Chris

[Revolution]

No problem, look forward to sorting it for you

[Andy_S]

Just a quick update on this.

My car is booked in next week for a few days while the dealer get theirs heads together with Audi UK. Apparently, they are sure that the alignment is correct, so it's not that. They think there's another issue, and it's electronics throwing the steering wheel off centre. Something about steering angle sensor?

Anyway, I'll see next week what they come up with. And the courtesy car while they sort it had better not be crap!

[Graeme4130]

Just a quick update on this.

My car is booked in next week for a few days while the dealer get theirs heads together with Audi UK. Apparently, they are sure that the alignment is correct, so it's not that. They think there's another issue, and it's electronics throwing the steering wheel off centre. Something about steering angle sensor?

Anyway, I'll see next week what they come up with. And the courtesy car while they sort it had better not be crap!

Get your complaint into Audi uk quickly, as they're generally better placed to loan you a decent car than the dealer service dept, who'll have a nice fleet of diesel a4's
Unless they think you're buying, the sales side won't be keen to have you tie up one of their RS demos, and I'd hazard a guess that if audi uk are involved in the investigation, it won't be a quick turnaround

[MK2Golf24v]

Mine is fractionally out too.

A quick scan with VAG-COM shows that when the steering rack is reporting zero degrees, the steering wheel is reading about 1.2 degrees.

Searching the web, it appears that its not nearly as simple as just tweaking the track rods to square it up, or running basic settings on the Steering modules. You can potentially make all the cruise, Steering and Lane assist etc all throw fault codes.

It woudl appear Audi themselves place a bit of tolerance on the steering, but do note that if its too far the likelyhood of custom complaints increases

[Andy_S]

Get your complaint into Audi uk quickly, as they're generally better placed to loan you a decent car than the dealer service dept, who'll have a nice fleet of diesel a4's
Unless they think you're buying, the sales side won't be keen to have you tie up one of their RS demos, and I'd hazard a guess that if audi uk are involved in the investigation, it won't be a quick turnaround

I wish I'd took this advice! I currently have a diesel A4 S-Line for an undetermined amount of time while they work out what's up with mine.

If it's going to be a while I think they will have to be told to get on to Audi UK and try harder, I can't cope with this car very long. My wife says I'm being ungrateful and I should be happy to have any 14 plate Audi!