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Coming home today on the highway I noticed that my steering wheel was tilted about an 1/8 turn to the right on a straight section of road going straight ahead. I was in the center lane. I turned it to dead center and held it there as the car veered to the left and into the next lane. I've heard about road crowning (angled down to allow for water runoff) but I don't think this is related. The car is an 04' EX coupe with only 120 mi on the odometer. She is bone stock by the way. Any ideas why this is happening?

 
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take it back to the dealer have it checked out...its warranty if theres something wrong

 
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Yep, take it in. It's not properly aligned.

 
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I had a problem like this and Honda replaced the top strut bearings. No problems since.

 
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Thanks guys - I'll make an appt. this week

 
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yeah, it could also be out of alignment because of how they shipped your car to the dealership.

 
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Your alignment is bad. You need to take it back to get it fixed. Did it come home like that? That will start premature tire wear.

 
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it could be a bad steering wheel aligment.

 
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is it just me or is it too easy to mess up the steering on cars?

my wheel started to tilt just a tiny bit when i put on my snow tires this year..i have 4 winter tires that i used for 2000km the previous year...

parent's corolla did the same thing but worse when the tires were rotated....the steering was fine before tires were moved..

 
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Tires are not all the same, thats why you should always have your car aligned when you buy new tires. When I was a mechanic we would get a lot of complaints after a new set of tires were put on, either they'd have a pull, or the steering wheel was crooked. It didn't happen all the time but it wasn't un-common, a lot of times people would accuse us of screwing something up so we could sell them a alignment lease: .

Tire pressure also plays a big part in a properly aligned car, tires that are under inflated cause un even tire wear, ride height is affected, plus a low tire can cause a pull.

 
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I agree - I made sure my psi was set at the reccomended pressure befrore posting this. Its not like its a safety issue - more annoying than anything. Why shouldn't the steering wheel be pointed straight as the car tracks straight...especially brand new

 
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my civic has only 8000km on it...so you're saying i should pay for an alignment every time i change the tires? cuz i run two sets of tires..one for winter and one for summer...wont that be two alignments a year?

 
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The Civic likely had perfect alignment when it left the factory. Problems arise when they are clamped down on car transporters. The rough ride they are subjected to in transit to your dealer likely caused any alignment problems.

 
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In all technical terms, yes you should have it aligned everytime you change tires, but switching from winter to summer tires would be over kill. What I was refering to was when you buy new tires, you should have it aligned. The part of the subject I was refering to was a crooked steering wheel after new tires were installed.

If you have a brand new car and the wheel is crooked, then take it back to the dealer and have it aligned, under warrenty.

CRV 16 is right about auto transporters, they strap those cars down so tight that they sometimes bend components that cause the alignment to go out.

 
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Thanks CRV and Solar!