Hey guys, I have a 1994 Honda del Sol S, and for a while it has bothered me that my steering wheel is off by one or two degrees to the left. My guess is that it was aligned by someone who didn't know what they were doing, or when I put the OEM wheels on (14" Si wheels) from the PO's 15" Enkei wheels that some alignment has gone off.

That being said, I most likely will have to adjust the tie rods. Will this only be in the front? Does anyone have pics of what to adjust? Can I use standard hand tools? Any help is greatly appreciated!

-Chris

 

<p>It'll only be in the front, yes, but you can't be precise enough to properly do the job. &nbsp;Half a degree off, and your alignment is boned, which will rip up your tires. &nbsp;Take it to an alignment shop. &nbsp;Have them do the work.</p>

 

@NotARaCist

I've heard it isn't that difficult on most cars, just put it on ramps and do small adjustments.

How much for realignment?

 

<p>Price depends entirely on the shop, but for a simple alignment, usually $60-$100. &nbsp;Yes, the job itself is easy, but without the proper tools, you have no way of being precise. &nbsp;The proper tools range anywhere from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars.</p>

 

the easiest way is to measure the tie rod end threads. From the lock nut back to where the threads begin on the inner tie rod. Measure those, if they're within 1mm (yes I would use a metric ruler, easier to measure) then your steering wheel is not installed onto the steering hub evenly/correctly. I had this problem with my civic and the dealer set the tie rods even. See every chassis/frame is not perfect so you're going to have a slight difference in tie rod thread length showing, but not a huge difference. When they put it on the alignment rack, set the threads to the same length, then adjusted it to make the alignment correct. That's when they saw that the steering wheel was not level.. Easy fix, take off the steering wheel, move it over one tooth.. problem solved!

So try that.. that should fix the problem.

 

I do my own alignments at home. I can tell you that as little as a quarter (or even a sixth) turn of the tie rod will make a measurable difference at the wheel rim. If you don't know what you're doing, then don't mess with it. Go to Sears and get a 4-WHEEL alignment (toe). In my experience they are always friendly to lowered Hondas.

As for the steering wheel being off center, YES IT CAN be caused by the rear end. If your rear toe is uneven, it will cause the rear to crab slightly to one side relative to the front. To compensate for this, you will have to turn the wheel slightly to that direction to drive straight. The crabbing will be un-noticable, but you will have a very difficult time getting the wheel straightened because the front toe may already be dead-straight.

My wife's Pilot has this problem in the right-rear because that toe-adjusting-bolt is frozen with that wheel slightly toed in. I can still zero out the rear total-toe (for tire longevity) by slightly toeing out the Left rear, but this causes the slight crabbing. I could dial out the steering wheel angle if I wanted, but it would be MUCH more trouble than it's worth. Essentially I would have to re-adjust the front toe with the steering wheel cocked perfectly in the opposite direction. Compensating for crabbing in your steering wheel angle would be a band-aid fix when I SHOULD just fix the frozen bolt problem......but since my wife doesn't complain about the tiny offset, I'm not going to worry about it. lol