Hi All

I have a 1997 964 with about 56K miles. The steering wheel is not straight when I am driving straight. It tends to the right a little. If I hold it straight, the car goes to the left, just a little.

I thought this was becoz of wheel alignment and got the alignment done. It was OK for a few days but the problem is back. That did not fix the problem. I got the wheels balanced also at the same time. The tires do not seem to have any uneven wear.

Also, the steering feels heavier when making left turns than right turns. The right wheels have more brake dust than the left ones. I am wondering if all these are related and there is a much bigger problem.

Has anybody seen this before ? Any ideas what could be causing this problem and how it can be fixed ?

Thanks in advance

balaji

Try swapping your wheels front to back and left to right. This can cause pulling and differences in wear/make/type/age of tyre can afect steering quite radically. Failing that, unbolt the steering wheel and turn it one notch on the splines. Its easier to set the alignment at the track rod ends and then align the wheel on the splies than adjust both front wheel alignment AND steering wheel alignment at track rod ends. It's an incredibly fine adjustment and often a compromise between road wheel and steering wheen alaignment (cos adjusting one at this point affects the other) so nothing is ever quite right again.

There is a procedure to determine a faulty inner tie-rod. Turn the wheels hard to the left and see if the position changes, run the same test to the right. If the position changes then you need an/both inner tie-rod(s). If there is no change, then the last alignment you had failed to "center" the wheel.