[KineticVolt]

Hi all,

I picked up a brand new 2017 volt about 3 weeks ago. Absolutely loving the vehicle and 2 of my friends literally went to the dealership right after I took them for a ride, to order one themselves! It's a terrific vehicle and the EV experience is like none other. However there is one thing that has bothered me. Right off the lot, I noticed that the steering was not centred. It seems to drive straight, but the steering sits slightly to the left. It is about a quarter to half an inch to the left, but it does bother me (ocd?? Or normal?) considering I spend about 3 hrs in the vehicle on my 200kms commute to work each day, looking at the tilted wheel. I am not happy that a brand new car has this issue. I haven't felt any specific pull to one side and feels like it drives straight. I took it to the dealer on day 2 itself, and they said the vehicle is too new and they will only look at these alignment issues after the tires have "worn and levelled a bit" (5000kms). I am currently at 3200kms and no change at all with the steering.
So is there an underlying slight alignment issue? I don't want to have uneven tire wear..
Or was the steering just not centralized properly from the factory?
Is it worth insisting the dealer to fix it?
Or would playing around with the steering/alignment cause more harm?

Thanks!

PS: reading about the vehicle on forums here is what motivated me to go for the volt! And the support on the forum here is incredible and very much appreciated, considering the volt is still a rather low volume vehicle.

Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk

 

[telveer]

You are definitely not OCD, and a steering wheel that rests off center is not normal, and it could be a safety hazard. It would drive me nuts as well. Explain this issue patiently to your service tech. Maybe the steering was installed incorrectly.

 

[16513]

For a 1/4" off-center?? You're kidding, I hope. Normal road crown may require some slight correction- like 1/4". Try driving in the left lane on a two-lane freeway and see what happens.

 

[KineticVolt]

You are definitely not OCD, and a steering wheel that rests off center is not normal, and it could be a safety hazard. It would drive me nuts as well. Explain this issue patiently to your service tech. Maybe the steering was installed incorrectly.

Thanks for the response. I will drop by the dealer to have the service tech have a look at it.

Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk

 

[KineticVolt]

For a 1/4" off-center?? You're kidding, I hope. Normal road crown may require some slight correction- like 1/4". Try driving in the left lane on a two-lane freeway and see what happens.

It's about 1/4" off the center, looking at the steering wheel spokes against the dash near the center of the steering wheel. At the point where you grip the wheel, is almost 1/2" off . So not sure what you meant by if I was kidding... try driving down a road just slightly tilting the wheel and see how the slightest adjustment can make a big difference... I've tried different lanes on a multiple highways and streets to make sure the camber of the road is not causing the issue. And I am very well aware the roads here have a camber to help water drain off, and I am sure it is not the camber of the road that's causing the steering wheel to be decentralized.


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[!arry4pyro]

I believe your steering wheel can be fixed with a simple alignment adjustment.

 

[Barry]

I agree it is probably fixable with an alignment adjustment. If it is a quarter inch off, I doubt most people would notice that. And it might be hard for a repair technician to get it closer than that. That may be why the service department put you off. Especially since there is no drive-ability problem like it is pulling to the side.

 

[caronjeff]

Your service department can fix this with simple adjustments. One tie rod end out 1/8 turn , the other one in an 1/8 turn for example. Just make a service appointment and insist it be a warranty item.

 

[voganni]

Yup, easy alignment fix. Also may require resetting of steering wheel position sensor. Which is another reason proper steering wheel centering is important. There is an allowable off-center of 3° I believe, but a good alignment shop will get it dead on. I hate off-center steering wheels too!

 

[KineticVolt]

Thankyou all for the replies! I will be taking the vehicle back to the dealer this weekend to have them align the wheels, center the steering and reset the position sensor.

Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk

 

[1612202]

While it is not a safety issue it drives me nuts when the wheel is slightly off center. I assume the mfg can give the dealer some resistance to paying for a 1 0r 2 degree adjustment.

 

[JD4JC]

in the '60s, I sold VW aftermarket parts, including steering wheels. The official way to center the wheel was to unscrew the nut that held the stock wheel on its splines, but not remove the wheel. Drive out to a level road, straddle the crown, stabilize the vehicle running straight, AND REMOVE THE STEERING WHEEL, REINSTALLING IT ON THE SPLINES WITH A CORRECT ORIENTATION!!

I'm wondering how modern-day automobile manufacturers legal departments would react to this recommendation!

 

[obermd]

This could be a thrust alignment issue (all four wheels aligned slightly to an angle) or it could simply be the steering wheel wasn't centered properly when installed. Either way this is a dealership issue.

 

[Guest]

If a car has an absolutely perfect alignment, it's not at all unusual for you to require a very light adjustment to the left (and your 1/4 inch is VERY slight . . . . most folks would never notice it, so OCD thoughts *may* apply here) to make up for the crown of the road - If the road was perfectly flat, your car would go straight with the steering wheel dead straight, but since the road is crowned, with the steering wheel held dead straight you will quickly end up in the right side ditch

Don't be surprised if you take it in for an alignment and they insist it's perfect as it is

As for removing the steering wheel and re-centering it on a different spline (a very bad idea as you'd be removing the airbag to do it) you would find that moving it over one spline would probably give you a 3/4 inch error the other way

Don

 

[24521]

Hi all,

I picked up a brand new 2017 volt about 3 weeks ago. Absolutely loving the vehicle and 2 of my friends literally went to the dealership right after I took them for a ride, to order one themselves! It's a terrific vehicle and the EV experience is like none other. However there is one thing that has bothered me. Right off the lot, I noticed that the steering was not centred. It seems to drive straight, but the steering sits slightly to the left. It is about a quarter to half an inch to the left, but it does bother me (ocd?? Or normal?) considering I spend about 3 hrs in the vehicle on my 200kms commute to work each day, looking at the tilted wheel. I am not happy that a brand new car has this issue. I haven't felt any specific pull to one side and feels like it drives straight. I took it to the dealer on day 2 itself, and they said the vehicle is too new and they will only look at these alignment issues after the tires have "worn and levelled a bit" (5000kms). I am currently at 3200kms and no change at all with the steering.
So is there an underlying slight alignment issue? I don't want to have uneven tire wear..
Or was the steering just not centralized properly from the factory?
Is it worth insisting the dealer to fix it?
Or would playing around with the steering/alignment cause more harm?

Thanks!

PS: reading about the vehicle on forums here is what motivated me to go for the volt! And the support on the forum here is incredible and very much appreciated, considering the volt is still a rather low volume vehicle.

Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk

Volts must aligned dead center in the alignment machine bubble not just with in the machines range of +- 1
like most cars. Volts are very picky about their alignment so do not pull or the steering wheel is off center.

I had my Volt at dealer for new Michelin Premier tires, for replacement of the original ECO tires after I got screws in them from truck
that dropped them from their load. I had 5 year dealer tire warranty, so lots of the cost of the tires was
paid by them.
My Volt had 50,000 KM on the clock and alignment was perfect with no pulling.
The dealer wanted a new alignment to warranty the tires.

I was at the dealership for 7 hours for the tire change, because the alignment person needed
four tries to get the car aligned correctly

I purchased a new 2002 GM truck and it pulled badly to the right, plus the wheel was off by 1/4 turn.
The vehicle got returned to dealer the day I picked it up, and got the told the garbage it was road crown.
When I purchased the vehicle, I had purchased 10 new cars over 30 years, so I knew it was not right !
It took me taking the service manager for a ride in the truck to get it fixed