Steering not straight after alignment, am I being fobbed off?

[edward918]

Hi guys, so I had the following work done yesterday on my BlueGT:

.Offside Front Shock Absorber replaced
.Offside Front Anti Roll Bar link replaced
.Both Front Lower Arm Bushes replaced
.Brake Fluid Change

All of which cost around £450 (ouch).

Now, a new problem has arisen, my steering is off centre, so I have to turn the wheel about 3 degrees to the left in order to drive in a straight line.

I went back to the same garage earlier today to get a free wheel alignment done. I was told that the wheels are straight and there are no tracking issues, it's just the steering wheel isn't straight and may be the culprit here.

Not sure whether to believe this...perhaps the tracking equipment isn't calibrated correctly or the alignment wasn't done properly?

Was told to wait around 1 month for things to settle and then come back if the problem is still present. I don't see why a crooked steering wheel is considered normal...

[RUM4MO]

I think that there is scope when carrying out all that work, to end up with a slight error in the alignment of the wheels.

That is different from pure tracking which tends to be is it toed in or toed out too much, and that can easily be corrected and any side to error got rid of.

I'd think that you now need a full 4 wheel alignment carried out, which in itself is never a bad/wasteful activity to get done, did some or all of your issues come from driving on rough roads and potholes, I'd think that the lower wishbone rear bushes getting ripped/torn would be down to driving over extremely poor road surfaces including potholes and that in itself could have caused some movement in the geometry of the car's suspension - as well as removing and refitting parts.

Now, how to effect a correction, well the lower cross frame will have some clearance in its fixing bolts, both for right<>left movement/adjustment and front<>rear at both of either end.

I have replaced the front struts, mounting bushes, top bearings and springs - as well as the drop links on a late 2009 SEAT Ibiza 1.4 16V 86PS - the lower wishbone rear bushes were still okay, and that did not affect the steering wheel position one bit, though I did take great care to refit the lower swivels to exactly the same position on reassembly. The reason that I took a lot of care to do that was from having alignment issues with a 2002 Polo after it had its front cross member removed - and the VW dealership doing that job did not re-align it at all, that cost me lots of extra tyre wear until I got it sorted out.