Is your steering wheel centered?

[Quagmire]

Just curious because mine is slightly off to the left. Anyone else have this and can it be centered?

[jwight]

Ours is off center also - right in front of the driver's seat.

[Smart Bob]

You need to have your toe-in adjusted so that the steering wheel is centered. This should be under warranty. It will not hurt anything as long as you are not experiencing irregular tire wear. The real issue is that the air-bag will not deploy correctly because the steering wheel is not centered.

[Godfather]

Oh that's cruel....... Quagmire, you need to get that fixed. Quite a few here are talking about abnormal tire wear.

[mdfortwoguy]

Originally Posted by Smart Bob

You need to have your toe-in adjusted so that the steering wheel is centered. This should be under warranty. It will not hurt anything as long as you are not experiencing irregular tire wear. The real issue is that the air-bag will not deploy correctly because the steering wheel is not centered.

The airbag is designed to deploy with the wheel in any position...

My wheel is off 1 to 2 degrees to the right. It annoys me, but not enough to take it in right now.

[CruzinSusan]

Originally Posted by jwight

Ours is off center also - right in front of the driver's seat.

Diabolic.

Kidding aside, I watch for that centering too - it started with my first Volksie; always something about toes. I want it purrfect...just like the headlight adjustment - that splendid line of light on the night road. I probably got it from my late, great huzband. 'Wheelman,' they called him, Lordy could he drive.

I just had the warmest flashback: I'm watching him work, music's wafting around the shop, and TJ, after replacing a big buick hood, takes a cigarette out of his shirt pocket, and runs it down the left and right sides - he tweaks a tad - until it's exactly a cig's width, all around. The consumate bodyman.

He blew some minds with some glasswork too.

God, he would have loved my smart. Sigh.

......................

[NeWave]

Mine seems off sometimes.. and other times it seems perfectly centered. Like I'll hold it center one time, and it'll go off to the right. Do it again later, it stays straight. Odd.. or I'm just looking for problems :P

[4GAZM]

Originally Posted by NeWave

Mine seems off sometimes.. and other times it seems perfectly centered. Like I'll hold it center one time, and it'll go off to the right. Do it again later, it stays straight. Odd.. or I'm just looking for problems :P

this is because your car may be tracking with the lean of the street, the front tires are very thin and dont have the side wall rigidity as say a low profile so you have more tire flex, like on super windy days my steering wheel is darn near turned a quarter turn to keep straight but thats when its like 40 to 50 mph gusts. wider front tires may solve the issue, i to thought it was off center but after watching the wheel changeg with the street i found it not to be the wheel at all and just the spongy front tires

[2micro4u]

Mine is off to the left...could it be that are cars need an alignment?

[wrumbarger]

Alignment needs to be done with proper weight in the seat?
This means that if you normally drive ALONE in your smart (and especially if you are larger than average), the shop should put your weight in the driver seat (or footwell). (If you normally drive with a passenger, then weights are not needed.)
In my case, I used to weigh in at over 400lbs, my cars steering wheel would always be off center and "drift" when I let go of the wheel. I mentioned the "off center" wheel status to my mechanic, and he told me about putting weight in the seat when aligning.