Adjusting steering for the camber of the road

maurice28

On the couple of cars that I own/lease (a 13 year old Vauxhall Astra with 75,000 miles and a new Hyundai Tucson with 2,000 miles) I've noticed that when I'm driving along a straight road, I have to hold the steering wheel perhaps a couple of degrees to the right to keep the car straight. It's more pronounced on fast A roads and motorways, although sometimes noticeable on slower roads too.

It's a bit more obvious on the Astra than the Tucson. The wheel alignment has be done at various points on the Astra, and is never really much out, and if I let go off the wheel while driving along, both cars will keep going mostly straight with the wheel tilted slightly to the right, there's not a dramatic pull to the left.

I assume then, that it's just a case of slightly compensating for the camber of the road and the speed meaning this is more necessary. But I wondered, how much do you find this in your car. Is your steering wheel always absolutely central as you are driving along straight, or is this slight compensation for road camber just perfectly normal?

venomx

maurice28 said:

On the couple of cars that I own/lease (a 13 year old Vauxhall Astra with 75,000 miles and a new Hyundai Tucson with 2,000 miles) I've noticed that when I'm driving along a straight road, I have to hold the steering wheel perhaps a couple of degrees to the right to keep the car straight. It's more pronounced on fast A roads and motorways, although sometimes noticeable on slower roads too.

It's a bit more obvious on the Astra than the Tucson. The wheel alignment has be done at various points on the Astra, and is never really much out, and if I let go off the wheel while driving along, both cars will keep going mostly straight with the wheel tilted slightly to the right, there's not a dramatic pull to the left.

I assume then, that it's just a case of slightly compensating for the camber of the road and the speed meaning this is more necessary. But I wondered, how much do you find this in your car. Is your steering wheel always absolutely central as you are driving along straight, or is this slight compensation for road camber just perfectly normal?

Interesting point that I was thinking about earlier.
It's less pronounced after getting the tracking/alignment done - by that I don't have to keep moving left right left right to stay straight on fast roads.

But yes. On most roads I find to keep " straight " the steering wheel can sometimes be ever so slightly to the left/

maurice28

That's interesting, so you tend to have to hold the wheel to the left? For me it's holding it to the right, i.e. towards the middle of the road.

JGB1955

If I were to take both hands off the wheel (obviously I wouldn't....hmm) I would drift to the left, so would expect to have to hold the wheel at (say) 5 degrees to the right in order to keep a straight line.  (Unless, of course, you're in one of those 'other' countries where they drive on the wrong (right)  side of the road, rather than the right (left)!)

Ebe_Scrooge

In a perfect world, your car should steer straight ahead if you let go of the steering wheel on a flat road - that's the intention, and why the camber/caster/toe settings are important.  It's what makes the steering self-centre.

In reality, the steering geometry gets knocked about and worn over a number of years.  If you have the tracking done properly, it should put it back to factory settings.  And as things get more worn, then you can find that the steering wheel isn't "straight" when the car is going straight ahead.

The camber of the road - unless it's extreme - usually has a negligible effect.  It's far more likely to be uneven wear on the tyres (one has more tread than the other, causing a small difference in overall diameter), or just as simple as a difference in tyre pressures.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Ebe_Scrooge said:

In a perfect world, your car should steer straight ahead if you let go of the steering wheel on a flat road - that's the intention, and why the camber/caster/toe settings are important.  It's what makes the steering self-centre.

In reality, the steering geometry gets knocked about and worn over a number of years.  If you have the tracking done properly, it should put it back to factory settings.  And as things get more worn, then you can find that the steering wheel isn't "straight" when the car is going straight ahead.

The camber of the road - unless it's extreme - usually has a negligible effect.  It's far more likely to be uneven wear on the tyres (one has more tread than the other, causing a small difference in overall diameter), or just as simple as a difference in tyre pressures.

It also seems to vary quite a lot from car to car.  My current one tracks dead straight, but others I have owned required a slight tweak of the wheel to compensate for camber.  I'd imagine it can be affected by almost anything from free-play in the steering gear to the state of the suspension and wheels and even really esoteric stuff like whether the body or subframe was made true in the first place or has been damaged or twisted over time.  

maurice28

Thanks all! So for peace of mind I'm going to have the wheel alignment checked. I spoke to the local Kwik Fit, who have always been good, and they said they wouldn't be able to do it because of the ADAS potentially needing calibrating and it would have to go back to the dealer.

There are other places locally that seem to ADAS recalibration but, with this being a new (lease) car, would it have to go back to Hyundai? Or can independent places do the job to manufacturer standard?

Ebe_Scrooge

maurice28 said:

Thanks all! So for peace of mind I'm going to have the wheel alignment checked. I spoke to the local Kwik Fit, who have always been good, and they said they wouldn't be able to do it because of the ADAS potentially needing calibrating and it would have to go back to the dealer.

There are other places locally that seem to ADAS recalibration but, with this being a new (lease) car, would it have to go back to Hyundai? Or can independent places do the job to manufacturer standard?

That's why I much prefer older cars with none of this fancy electro-wizardry to go wrong :-)   

As far as it goes then any suitably-qualified mechanic can do the work, there's no need to use a Hyundai dealer (the same as the old chestnut about using an independent mechanic for servicing won't invalidate the warranty as long as they're vat-registered, use genuine parts and follow the manufacturers schedule).  However, check the terms of the lease - there may be something that says you must use a main dealer (as a separate issue from any warranty implications).

maurice28

Ha I know what you mean! Much simpler on my 13 year old Astra!

I've managed to get it into the dealer for the same price as other places locally were charging, so at least they'll be peace of mind that it shouldn't cause any issues for the lease company. Thanks!

Norman_Castle

maurice28 said:

 But I wondered, how much do you find this in your car. Is your steering wheel always absolutely central as you are driving along straight, or is this slight compensation for road camber just perfectly normal?

I've never looked at the position of the steering wheel when driving. It being slightly off centre when driving straight ahead is irrelevant and normally due to the exact position of the track rod ends on the steering rack. The steering wheel being centred is only relevant for appearance. The wheel could be fitted upside down and still point the car in the right direction.

mksysb

It's by design.  If you pass out at the wheel, you want to gently pull to the left rather than into oncoming traffic.