When you put the steering wheel back in place, the rack was centered but the steering was off. So when guys at the garage do a front wheel alignment (geometry), they have to make sure the steering wheel stays centered when the wheels are centered. So they adjusted the tie rods to have the steering wheel centered which means now the rack is not more centered. At full lock, you should see the steering wheel is turned more on one side than the other one.98v70dad wrote:When I took the car in the steering wheel was off of center by one or two splines (about 3 degrees- I measured it). I never bothered to fix it because it never bothered me. The steering wheel had been removed by me and wasn't put back on quite straight. When I got the car back after the two new front tires were installed the steering wheel was magically straight and the turning signal didn't shut off on its own any more. I know the guy didn't mess with the steering wheel because the car was up on the rack the whole time. So I'm wondering if his tweaking involved bending something or disconnecting the clamp at the steering wheel shaft/steering rack connection and not getting it properly tightened...just guessing. The wobble first showed up right after he worked on the car(drive home) so that's why I wonder about it.
I'm throwing this here but it's just a 'last' option scenario. I had a front wheel and steering vibration from around 50mph and it was due to stuck piston rings which caused the engine to be unbalanced. Once the piston rings got free, the car was perfect smooth at that speed.
But as others say, if tires, make sure the wheels are balanced and wheel lugs are properly tightened and feel smooth while being tightened (they tend to 'grip' causing uneven torque across the lugs which deforms the brake disc.
Not sure if yours is manual, but I also once had a manual car, did a few 360 on a slippery highway. Ever since the steering wheel vibrated at 60mph, someone told me it may be a damaged gear where the axles engage.
