Steering Wheel Clocking Problem?

The steering wheel mysteriously clocked itself slightly to the right after changing out the standard tires to same sized studded tires for winter. This has never happened before and I was unaware of any alignment/wheel clocking problems up to driving into the shop to swap out the tires on the wheels.

Air pressures were all good and even all around--but I don't know if they were even before the change-out. Also, the wheels were balanced and the drive afterwards revealed no pulling either way or vibrations. On top of that neither the tire store nor my Toyota dealer had any explanation(s).

I'm only guessing at this point that prior to studded tires there might have been a clocking error so slight it was not perceptible in over 5K miles and with the studded tires now it is perceptible.

Q: Is it possible under my circumstances for a different set of tires on the same wheels to make this sort of difference?

Thanks.

 

Clocking here is relative to the steering wheel position and a clock face. 12 o'clock means the steering wheel is centered. In this case when the car appears to be running straight the wheel is clocked at maybe 12:01.

Yes, the studded tires were mounted to the same rims as the stock Toyota tires were. And the studded tire rotation marks are correct--right side shows cw rotation--left side shows ccw rotation.

You used a term 'pull' that I purposefully did not use. There is no obvious pulling. When the car is tracking straight and the wheel is at around 12:01 and I take my hands off the wheel the car does not pull off in either direction. Of course something might have been almost 'imperceptible' at this point. I'm thinking that if there is no apparent pulling the chances of there being an out of tolerance alignment error is unlikely.

I used several different roads and different lanes where the slight banking for water runnoff was to the left and to the right--no difference. Of note where it was perceptible that the road was turning slightly to the left in one case the wheel appeared clocked to 12 (no minute after).

This was not on a whim after picking up the car but something I noticed immediately when I was on the first straight stretch of road. When I take the car in Tuesday I do hope there will be a good explanation but so far no one has any.

My best bet at this point is that the alignment may prove to be just within tolerance and/or the wheel clocked to 12:001 to be imperceptible before where the studded tires now offer a slight enough different friction to the road that the wheel clocks enough to become perceptible?

I'm having it checked at the Toyota dealer because if something is found out of tolerance or the wheel simply needs to be clocked to 12 it will be warranty...unless Toyota can clearly show/demonstrate some 'wear or tear' that caused the problem--even if initally impreceptible. They will also have an opportunity to chase down one or more front(?) passenger side vibrations/noises.

I've driven this Prius over 6K miles at all low and high speed limits and that's why I'm now concerned about seeing this clocking error for the first time. I find it very hard to believe the error was there all along--yet there is no explanation from anyone why changing to studded tires would change the wheels clock.

 

1/2"? Holy smoke...you need to find another dealer! My 2007 was off and the dealer clocked it properly under warranty. I expect the same now unless they can prove wear and tear caused an out of tolerance condition--in which case I will grumble and pay for it.

 

Status... Much to my surprise when the studded tires were installed the steering wheel clocking didn't change back to the neutral position. What is funny (ha-ha) is the 2007 Prius only need an initial re-clocking and then it was fine for three years of switching back and forth between normal and studded tires on the same rims. Now it looks like the initial clocking of the wheel was correct. Damn.

BTW, there is a curb in Portland that is just the right height that I have hit twice now very gently where the front and now (second time) the right side plastic wheel cover edges have been chewed and damaged by the curb cement. My thought is that the tire is too low a profile to keep the wheel away from the curb enough.

 

Unfortunately if touching a curb lightly enough to only damage the edge of the wheel cover only is enough to set off front toe alignment then the 2010 Prius has a serious alignment design problem. In both cases driving the car afterwards resulted in no detectable pulling in either direction. The car appears to track perfectly for long stretches. But, all the same, I'm coming up on the 15,000 mile check and will have the wheel clocked again. No doubt they will want to recheck the whole alignment before they clock the wheel. And for the record, I drive the car at high speeds sometime (70-75) and can detect no vibrations throughout the speed range and when I had the tires changed out to my studs there was no abnormal tire wear pattern. It strikes me as being overly sensitive and baffling as it has others regarding just what is going on.

 

Wow... Are you serious? I've never heard of this before. Are you saying that the steering wheel neutral point is an electrical adjustment and not strickly mechanical?

As to whether the 12 volt battery has been disconnected ever--I can't say. If routine maintenance doesn't require its disconnection then it shouldn't have been disconnected.

Does disconnection throw off the steering wheel centering if 'something' wasn't set properly to begin with?

Interesting...

 

So...if all mechanical alignment and wheel centering is done within tolerances would this 'electrical adjustment', if not properly done produce or cause the wheel to move off center slightly (or to any degree) when tracking straight down a road? If you maintain this straight track and come to a stop without touching the wheel would it actually center itself when the car stopped? What does the computer have to do with it at all if it is mechanical? We are not talking about steering by wire. Is this electrical centering just for the 'black box' record?

I know that centering the wheel is done by adjusting the tie rods and properly done does not affect wheel alignment but only the wheel's centering. So why, when I originally changed out the tires to studded tires on the same wheel rims, did the centering go off causing me to get alignment done including the steering wheel centered? Then I changed back to regular tires and the clocking was off slightly in the opposite direction from before. I drove it this way and recently changed back to studded tires expecting the steering wheel to clock on center again but it didn't change this time! And through these tire switches and plenty of driving I never felt any pulling, braking, or balance issues with the wheels.

 

Changing out tires does not require alignment but only rebalancing the wheels. That gets done every time I change them. If Les Schwab did a 'free alignment' they didn't tell me, document it, or do a good job and that was before the Toyota shop did a warranty alignment and centering.

 

Way too much general info on steering KBeck that I already know all about from past careers, and none of it sheds new light on problem--sorry. Let's just wait now and see what Toyota finds/does when I have the car serviced next week.