Steering wheel off-center

[E34_BMW_525i]

My steering wheel seems to not be properly centered.

To go straight down the highway, the wheel has to be turned to the left slightly. Putting the wheel at "12 o'clock" would turn the X5 slightly to the right. I have tried it on different highway sections and it is not an issue with road surface or anything like that.

I had uneven wear on my front tires (outside fronts wore much more quickly), but I understand that can be common on this vehicle, likely due to the stock toe-in alignment settings. Where I am going with this is -- I don't think this is an alignment issue, but just mentioning in case.

Vehicle has 51k miles. Brand new tires within the last few weeks. Still need to follow up with alignment to hopefully reduce the toe-in, but again, I am thinking this steering issue is separate. OEM wheels, OEM size tires.

Control arms all in good shape when they were checked fairly recently. No weird noises coming from front suspension components.

Just wondering if anyone has thoughts on the cause of this and how it might be corrected. The steering otherwise functions fine, and when I am not paying attention, I hardly notice because I am sort of used to it. But I would prefer things to be aligned properly.

The picture shows wheel alignment to track straight down the highway.

Thanks in advance.

[sukhk527]

Alignment will fix that.

[BDO]

Alignment, however it could also be a road camber issue in your area/roads you typically travel. I’ve found my X6 to be particularly sensitive to this, whereas my other cars are not, with all having wheel alignment checked by the same shop.

[unluky]

Correction - alignment SHOULD fix that. I always make it a point to asking about a STRAIGHT steering wheel when I get an alignment. Seems the guys are getting lazier about "good enough" these days and 3-5 degrees off is acceptable to them.

If they think you are a whiner that will complain - they might give it that last double check just to make sure.

My Audi has a flat bottom wheel and it being off center drives me even more insane. Luckily it's easy to fix yourself if you don't mind getting your hands dirty, but takes a little trail and error. As much as it bugs me - it's worth it.

[Opie55]

It may or may not be an alignment issue, per se. You should have the alignment checked, although if your tires are unevenly worn, I'd wait until you get new tires probably. But the main point I wanted to make is that centering the steering wheel can be totally unrelated to whether your wheels are perfectly aligned. You could have a perfectly aligned car and a steering wheel at 90 degrees. Aligning the toe on a car requires rotation of the threaded tie rod ends in or out to get the specified toe. But doing that also changes the relationship of the steering wheel to the wheels. So, if after the toe is aligned the wheel is off center, then the tech has to rotate each tie rod end the exact same amount so that he does not alter the toe setting, but only changes the relationship to the steering wheel.

[lonestar22]

Alignment is most likely causing tire wear and steering wheel issues. It can become more pronounced with different tires. I'd recommend getting an alignment sooner than later. Basically what can happen is your tires get used to the drift and they can adopt that wear pattern even after the alignment. Be sure to mention the off center steering wheel to the alignment tech. Sometimes they can realign the vehicle based on toe settings and not steering wheel and you can have a vehicle that's aligned properly but a misaligned steering wheel. Make sure he knows your steering wheel is off center prior to alignment.

[E34_BMW_525i]

Got the X5 aligned today, since I had new tires mounted very recently.

It seems to have corrected the issue, so that is a relief.

Here are my alignment results. Apologies for the poor picture quality. Can anyone clue me in on what it means?

[unluky]

Originally Posted by E34_BMW_525i

Got the X5 aligned today, since I had new tires mounted very recently.

It seems to have corrected the issue, so that is a relief.

Here are my alignment results. Apologies for the poor picture quality. Can anyone clue me in on what it means?

Looks like maybe a little bit is cut off, but basically the first section "Nominal Values" are the correct settings for your car (make/model/spec specific), the next section "Diagnosis" is what your car measured when they hooked it all up (red indicating out of spec measurement) and the final section "Adjustment" is after they made all the adjustments and finalized your alignment.

So take the top line - that measurement should be above +0.03 but below +0.43 with +0.23 being ideal. You were at +0.58 which was out of spec (red) and they adjusted it back to +0.37 which is back inside spec.

We'd need to see the row titles to know if this is referencing Tow, Camber, Caster, thrust angle, etc. Probably off to the left in this picture.

If you wonder what those terms mean and how they affect drivability - here is a brief explanation.

https://www.mevotech.com/article/how...gnment-report/

Hope that is what you meant?

[E34_BMW_525i]

Yes, thanks for the feedback.

Took a highway trip over the weekend and the wheel is definitely dead straight when the car is going straight, so everything appears to be resolved.