wompx3

So a few weeks ago it was snowing hard. I was finishing a right turn, but car skidded and i hit a dividing curb with my front left wheel and then the back left wheel. Ended up blowing the rear tire and bending my front left suspension arm.

I got those taken care of. Replaced wheel, suspension arm and got my wheels aligned.

Now the car is apparently fine, except the steering wheel is tilted about 10 degrees to the right in order for me to drive straight. The mechanics are telling me that it's probably a "chip" in the Steering Rack but they can't tell for sure. They are telling me replacing the Steering Rack will "most likely" fix the issue...... and this is going to cost me ~$850 (with a 20% discount)

Could this be the reason why my steering wheel is not straight? What do you think about the price? What should i do?

FYI i don't know much about cars, and i drive a 2005 honda civic si, 4 door sedan (canadian version)


Thanks!

ezone

Sounds like whoever aligned it didn't get the steering wheel straight, and doesn't want to man up and admit fault and take care of it.
They need to finish their alignment.
Problem is, they don't want to do it again for free even though by all rights they should. Shows you what sort you are dealing with.

"Chip in the steering rack"? Sounds like a BS excuse to me. Replacing the rack would include another alignment that will fix your complaint, and you will pay for it.

But I have seen all sorts of damage from curbing.
Expect a wheel bearing to get loud soon, too.

wompx3

i took it back to the same place, and they spent an hour trying to figure out what's wrong.

they said if the steering wheel is straight, the wheels aren't, and vice versa

edwin3211

tell them to redo the alignment and make sure steering wheels is straight or they can pull steering wheel off and realign it steering rack thats bs is it leaking or making any noises?

ezone

You need a better mechanic.

wompx3

So when i was there today, they said they did the alignment 3 times and the problem is still there. They also said steering rack looks fine. They said the problem is something they can't see and is most likely a chip and that it's probably not serious. They said that's the only reason they can think of why the steering would be tilted.

So are you saying that once the wheels are aligned, the steering wheel can be manually adjusted so that it's straight with the wheels?

ezone

The implication was that someone is too lazy or incompetent to do a proper job.


Are the front tires identical? Same size, same brand, same style, same type, same tread, same tread depth? Identical?

Swap the 2 front tires side to side, see if the steering wheel changes.

wompx3

my front tires are identical. except they swapped the front left with the rear right tire because the front rim has a slight dent from the curbing.

ezone

Again: Swap the 2 front tires side to side, see if the steering wheel changes.