I got a 94 civic and over the last 6 months have replaced all 4 struts (tein coils), all 4 tires, all front suspension components including ball joints, tie rods and control arms as well as wheel bearings and hubs. My problem is today after getting my tires mounted my cars steering wheel doesn't return to center after making a turn and feels kinda loose/sloppy, I've had this problem before but it went away after replacing the tie rods a couple months ago but now it's back. I got an alignment after replacing the tie rods abut since then have gotten the tires and coilovers on the car on the account of no more snow. I've read caster or toe being off in the alignment can cause this but I wanna know if there's maybe something else I should check before forking the 80$ to get it lined up

Cheers

 

Extreme toe out will cause this feeling. Increasing caster will increase the self centering effect - think of shopping cart wheels or a bicycle fork. Your car does not have adjustable caster unless you modified it as such (I think you would be aware!). What did the alignment printout have to say?

 

What car?

Were the tie rod castle nuts torqued to spec as detailed in the service manual? If they are over-torqued, it could cause the problem you are having.

 

it's a 94 civic, I'll make sure they're torqued when I get off of work tonight and see what happens

 

Swap your front upper control arms from side to side. This will increase your caster about 2 degrees.

 

That’s a good point, but a bad band-aid if there’s something else wrong. Caster shouldn’t be so off that the front end is not centering.