Steering wheel off center

[musiclover2000]

My father has a 2008 grand prix with about 75000 miles and the steering wheel is crooked. Pulls to the right when steering wheel is straightened. His mechanic said the Front left tie rod has slight movement along with front left wheel bearing is bad and will probably start squeaking soon. He feels the wheel bearing is causing the crooked steering wheel.

Ive heard of bad tie rods causes steering wheel problems but never knew bad wheel bearings could also.

Is that common for wheel bearings to cause this?

Thank you

Topic

[Ingvar]

Never heard it myself, but considering hub bearing is a major structural component… I had “snaking” in one of my GM vehicles that was FINALLY cured by driver side HB replacement, along with a bunch of other parts in steering department.
I’d call it plausible, but would check on HB myself, it’s not that hard to do actually.

[zero]

Basically the alignment is out of whack. It is futile to attempt an alignment with worn out front end components as modern machines measure to .01 of a degree. It’s probably a combination of both parts causing the misalignment, correct the parts and get an alignment.

[Shannon]

I’m wondering if the tie rods are stripping…I’ve changed a whole bunch of wheel bearings on a bunch of different cars and I can see getting uneven tire wear, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever encountered one so bad that it was messing with the tie rod. I’m also kinda wondering if the steering box is on its way out. Is the steering wheel pretty sloppy when it’s centered?

[musiclover2000]

It will be fixed this week. My question was more curiosity than anything. I guess any loose front end component will affect alignment, never knew that.

@Shanazon If by the steering box you mean the steering rack that was replaced about 1 year ago.

[Bluesnut]

A loose tie rod, tie rod end, or loose wheel bearing can cause the steering wheel to be off-center.
It’s possible that considering the problems on the left front the car has been curbed hard or hit a large pothole at some point which can then lead to failures of suspension parts, wheel bearings, etc.

[Lorrin Barth]

I’d say more crooked steering wheels are caused by the alignment rack than anything else. Once toe is set you must drive the car at least around the block to know if the steering is straight. At some shops that is just too much trouble.

[Author]

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