Steering Wheel Clocking Problem?

You people are making a mountain out of a mole hill thread out of this. If you have alignment done the chances are the steering wheel will have to be recentered as part of that alignment process. The problem here (my problem) is not how or what to align.

The problem is that changing out a set of normal tires to studded winter tires should not cause enough alignment error to cause the steering wheel to go noticeably off center one way or another. It didn't do this once with my 2007 Prius (~6 tire changeouts). But it has done this twice now with my 2010 Prius.

And if hitting the curb lightly enough to cause minor damage to wheel covers twice was enough to throw alignment off I WOULD HAVE NOTICED THAT IMMEDIATELY driving the car--I DIDN'T. I mentioned this only because I do not like the low profile tires & plastic wheel covers when I 'crunch' into certain curbs parking to close.

My purpose of this thread is to see if I can uncover wheel alignment issues with the new model 2010 Prius or not that other drivers may be having--not how steering works or how to do wheel alignment. Please stay on topic.

 

I just got off the phone with Toyota's Customer Input and learned something new... Toyota recommends that whenever tires are changed out that wheel alignment be checked. I was kind of dumbfounded to learn this recommendation now but frankly it would be very logical since I've said it again and again so many times that the only time the wheel clocking has gone off center (or not gone off center in the case of this last changeout) has been immediately after driving off after having the tires changed out.

So I talked to the alignment manager at my convenient tire store store and he was very suprised to learn of my predicament. He said they only recommend checking alignment when you install new tires. I asked him what the difference would be installing different sets of used tires to installing a new set of tires and he immediately suggested I talk to the actual expert alignment technician they have who has worked on Priuses. I'm going to do that when this person returns to work tomorrow--Saturday.

We both agreed that changing out tires/wheels wouldn't affect front or rear alignment as far as toe and camber are concerned but what about tracking? And tracking would be exactly where you would see a clocking difference--and maybe not every time you changed out the tires. If it is a slight change in tracking that goes on between how different sets of tires maybe set on their rims differently one time to the next time this could explain everything. Alignment isn't being affected but steering wheel may or may not be affected.

I wonder if there are different or special tire mounting/inflaction techniques that could result in tires setting up on a wheel rim differently--ever so slightly? Maybe immeasurably?

I have a clear plan of attack now... Stay tuned.

 

I'm thinking now that steering wheel clocking is unrelated to actual wheel alignment but is directly related to tracking. Alignment often can change tracking and tracking will change steering wheel clocking. Changing steering wheel clocking will not affect alignment.

 

Had the alignment check done today... Everything was within spec. Toe was adjusted to center the steering wheel. Driving with it centered now is great. I won't be re-clocking the wheel every time the tires are changed out. Not sure why switching to studs in the first place caused this problem. Well see what happens next time. In the mean time it looks like this issue is closed.

I did learn from Toyota that the Electrical Assist Power Steering is the only electrical system that relates to the steering wheel center. But it is unaffected by mechanical wheel alignment so long of course that the wheel isn't far off center.

 

Although I've never seen the wheel centering issue change much from tire inflation the tech today says it is possible. He found the pressure in my right tires several pounds lower then the left side. To eliminate the possible problem always use the same gauge when adjusting tire pressures. Maybe the shop that did the alignment didn't do that?

 

It's great when the alignment tech and myself can see the alignment error and the error in the wheel clocking, make a toe adjustment, give me a print out for the record and I go off with a perfectly aligned wheel. If your steering wheel centering behaves differently above 35 or whatever mph and you aren't picking up some sort of balance problem in a wheel or wheels then maybe you have a power steering assist issue unrelated to alignment?