How do I straighten the steering wheel?

[BrentRN]

My MK7 Golf came with the steering wheel pointed to 10 o'clock. The dealer aligned it and the wheel was at 11 o'clock. I tried them again and they got it to 11:30, just enough to drive me a little crazy. Is there another way to straighten out a steering wheel without an alignment?

 

[35 Yr Dsl Veteran]

If you ignore it, then no worries. Might be your best bet, as it really does not matter.

 

[CrazyMonkey]

Do you have an actual alignment shop in your town? My dealership was able to straighten mine out after the Phase 2 fix (the subframe must not have bolted back on quite straight), but if they didn't get it right, I was going to go to our local alignment shop.

 

[hskrdu]

If your alignment is good, but the steering wheel is off center when driving straight, you could remove it, and put it back on in the correct position. For a MkIV, this means: Disconnect battery, remove airbag and wired connections (2 minutes, once you know how to do it), remove one bolt, steering wheel off and back on at your preferred orientation, bolt back on, airbag back on. I have not yet done it for Mk7, but there's a how-to at the vortex. Those guys swap steering wheels like....

 

[Nuje]

Yep - same process on the Mk7. I swapped my steering wheel to get one with paddles shifters (wasn't an option on Canadian TDIs).
And either I'm much better at it now, or the retaining spring wires are much easier to get at to release the airbag. Took maybe 5min. to get the airbag off.

Torque spec on the centre bolt is 50Nm (~37ft.lb) if I recall correctly.

 

[ATR]

If your alignment is good, but the steering wheel is off center when driving straight, you could remove it, and put it back on in the correct position. For a MkIV, this means: Disconnect battery, remove airbag and wired connections (2 minutes, once you know how to do it), remove one bolt, steering wheel off and back on at your preferred orientation, bolt back on, airbag back on. I have not yet done it for Mk7, but there's a how-to at the vortex. Those guys swap steering wheels like....

That is NOT the correct way of fixing a alignment issue!!

The proper way is to get the dealership or a alignment shop to get everything in spec with the steering wheel at dead center. If it's a tiny bit off and the shop aligns the car like that then that will be "center". If they can't fix it or refuse to fix it get a full refund and go some place else that actually knows what they are doing.

 

[1854sailor]

That is NOT the correct way of fixing a alignment issue!!
The proper way is to get the dealership or a alignment shop to get everything in spec with the steering wheel at dead center. If it's a tiny bit off and the shop aligns the car like that then that will be "center". If they can't fix it or refuse to fix it get a full refund and go some place else that actually knows what they are doing.

 

[Vince Waldon]

3X... they need to loosen one tie rod, tighten the other, lather rinse repeat, till both the alignment is perfect and the steering wheel is perfectly centered.

 

[hskrdu]

That is NOT the correct way of fixing a alignment issue!! The proper way is to get the dealership or a alignment shop to get everything in spec with the steering wheel at dead center. If it's a tiny bit off and the shop aligns the car like that then that will be "center". If they can't fix it or refuse to fix it get a full refund and go some place else that actually knows what they are doing.

Thank you ATR. Now read what I said:

If your alignment is good...

OP posted "...the dealer aligned it..."

I said nothing about the proper way to do an alignment because the OP posted that the steering wheel was off center. The alignment and the physical "centering" of the steering wheel are only partially linked, and it is entirely possible to have a car properly aligned, yet have a steering wheel off center. I've test driven new VWs with less than 100 miles that have the steering wheel slightly off center, straight from Puebla. If you choose to live with it, that's fine, but it's not necessary. IF the OP's car is correctly aligned, but has an off-center steering wheel, an inspection may even reveal that the centering mark on the splines isn't centered- I've seen this before, too. And, no, I don't believe (nor do I believe anyone reading this thread believes) that centering a steering wheel fixes an improper alignment. The proper way to do an alignment is to have a proper alignment done.

 

[ATR]

Thank you ATR. Now read what I said:

If your alignment is good...

OP posted "...the dealer aligned it..."

I said nothing about the proper way to do an alignment because the OP posted that the steering wheel was off center. The alignment and the physical "centering" of the steering wheel are only partially linked, and it is entirely possible to have a car properly aligned, yet have a steering wheel off center. I've test driven new VWs with less than 100 miles that have the steering wheel slightly off center, straight from Puebla. If you choose to live with it, that's fine, but it's not necessary. IF the OP's car is correctly aligned, but has an off-center steering wheel, an inspection may even reveal that the centering mark on the splines isn't centered- I've seen this before, too. And, no, I don't believe (nor do I believe anyone reading this thread believes) that centering a steering wheel fixes an improper alignment. The proper way to do an alignment is to have a proper alignment done.

If the steering wheel is indeed installed incorrectly then when you go lock to lock it will seem to turn more in one direction vs the other. This is very rarely the case. And I was going by what you wrote in your last post...

If your alignment is good, but the steering wheel is off center when driving straight, you could remove it, and put it back on in the correct position.

I actually had done a steering wheel swap on my mk6 and fudged the install by one spline
I even had it aligned at a tire shop. they got it driving straight, and the steering wheel was mostly straight... But I later noticed that the wheel seemed to turn a bit more in one direction then the other. *DOH!!!!!*

Again, this is quite rare to find in a factory car and when it does happen is caught early at the factory quality check or at the dealership during the pre-delivery check.

 

[oilhammer]

If the steering wheel is off, your alignment was not done correctly. Period.

 

[740GLE]

how is this still an at topic to question in 2019?