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crooked steering wheel

9K views 15 replies 14 participants last post by  jcantanixon 
#1 ·
picked up my new 04 today. shortly after leaving noticed that when driving straight the steering wheel is crooked. to explain: the "H" is not upright, rather slightly slanted-or-if you were able to put a level on the line above "srs airbag" it would not show level when driving straight. needed to get home with my grandaughter or might have gone back to the dealer.

thought at first it was no big deal but for the rest of the trip whenever i took my eyes off the road to view dash they went immediately to the crooked "H"!

might this problem indicate the front end is out of alignment? or something else? i noticed no driving problem. has anyone else had this problem or know what the fix might be?

otherwise, everything else is great. wish the rear window opened seperately but was amazed at how easy the whole hatch opens.
 
#2 ·
Don't have this problem with my Pilot but it does not mean the front end is out of line. It means the steering wheel needs to be lined up. If it is like most vehicles, the steering wheel will need to be pulled and re-aleigned with the wheels.

At least the would be the simplest reason. I'd get the dealer to check it out soon.
 
#3 ·
grumpy said:

might this problem indicate the front end is out of alignment? or something else? i noticed no driving problem. has anyone else had this problem or know what the fix might be?
On a straight and level road, if you let go of the wheel momentarily, the car should continue straight and not pull to one side or the other. Some gradual drift is to be expected.

I won't claim to know much about steering wheel installation or steering columns. But it might be a simple matter of loosening the hub bolt and aligning the wheel better. I don't know if there is a "key" that ensures the wheel can only be attached at one position. If it's really off by a lot, could the column be off by one cog in the rack and pinion?

Even if it's only a visual annoyance, if it really bothers you, I'd take it back and have it corrected.

Oh yeah, congratulations and good luck.:D
 
#4 ·
The wheel is mounted on a toothed "ring". It's probably off by 1 tooth. They need to pull the wheel and remount. (FWIW it isn't a safety issue but it is annoying to look at).

(sounds from your description that the car is tracking straight, so there is no alignment issue)
 
#5 ·
On the Gen I CR-Vs the steering wheel was not actually parallel to the plane or axis of the dash, i.e., the left part of the wheel was a few mm closer to the dash than the right side. Users at a CR-V site actually made fun of this little eccentricity. If one looks closely, the pilot's steering wheel is also "angled", although imperceptibly.
 
#6 ·
grumpy said:
picked up my new 04 today. shortly after leaving noticed that when driving straight the steering wheel is crooked. to explain: the "H" is not upright, rather slightly slanted-or-if you were able to put a level on the line above "srs airbag" it would not show level when driving straight. needed to get home with my grandaughter or might have gone back to the dealer.

thought at first it was no big deal but for the rest of the trip whenever i took my eyes off the road to view dash they went immediately to the crooked "H"!

might this problem indicate the front end is out of alignment? or something else? i noticed no driving problem. has anyone else had this problem or know what the fix might be?

otherwise, everything else is great. wish the rear window opened seperately but was amazed at how easy the whole hatch opens.
I just recently had this same problem fixed on my 03 Pilot. I thought it was the steering wheel being off by one tooth since nothing 'felt' out of alignment. The dealer checked the alignment and found the Toe angle was off. After alignment, the steering wheel and the H were perfectly level while driving straight ahead.

-Pete
 
#7 ·
Re: Re: crooked steering wheel

01r1 said:
I just recently had this same problem fixed on my 03 Pilot. I thought it was the steering wheel being off by one tooth since nothing 'felt' out of alignment. The dealer checked the alignment and found the Toe angle was off. After alignment, the steering wheel and the H were perfectly level while driving straight ahead.

-Pete
Exactly what is a "toe angle"? For what it's worth, the H on our steering wheel is slightly tilted to the right when driving straight ahead.
 
#8 ·
Re: Re: Re: crooked steering wheel

Cajun Pilot said:
Exactly what is a "toe angle"? For what it's worth, the H on our steering wheel is slightly tilted to the right when driving straight ahead.
Toe-in is the difference in the rolling direction of each of the wheels. A zero toe means that the wheels are perfectly parallel; positive toe means that the lines the wheel intersect ahead of the car (fronts of the tires point a little bit toward each other) and negative toe means that the fronts point away and those lines intersect behind the car.

Most cars, including the Pilot, have a slight toe-in to help with straight-line stability. Too-little toe-in or toe-out causes the car to wander; too much makes it sluggish to respond and causes outside edges of the tires to 'feather'.

Toe-in is adjusted on the Pilot by loosening the lock-nuts and rotating the inner tie rod ends. You must have some specialized tools (like an alignment rack) to correctly set it, although you could get 'close enough' with a yardstick and a straight rod.
 
#9 ·
Bump.

Anyone else have the same experience? We are taking the Pilot in tomorrow for the SRS correction and thought we'd mention it. Even though it irks me to not have the "H" pointing up perfectly, I'm not sure I want them fiddling with it, or the alignment. Any recommendations?
 
#10 ·
Cajun Pilot said:
Bump.

Anyone else have the same experience? We are taking the Pilot in tomorrow for the SRS correction and thought we'd mention it. Even though it irks me to not have the "H" pointing up perfectly, I'm not sure I want them fiddling with it, or the alignment. Any recommendations?
With my 2002 S2000 and now my new 2004 Pilot EXL, the top of the H points slightly to the left. I believe this is normal.
 
#11 ·
Cajun Pilot said:
Bump.

Anyone else have the same experience? We are taking the Pilot in tomorrow for the SRS correction and thought we'd mention it. Even though it irks me to not have the "H" pointing up perfectly, I'm not sure I want them fiddling with it, or the alignment. Any recommendations?
Have them fix it if it bugs you. It's a simply fix. The "H" should be vertical while driving straight ahead on level ground with no cross wind.
 
#13 ·
dustino8 said:
I was told by Honda service that the wheel itself cannot be adjusted. If your wheel is not sitting straight, I was told you must have a bad wheel alignment, and the only way to correct it is to perform another wheel alignment.
That appears to be true. The wheel is oriented on the shaft by two tabs:
Install Instructions which does not allow for angular fine tuning. My experience has been this is always a bad alignment.
 
#14 ·
PLEASE Note!

I had this same problem with my Pilot at about 10K miles. They moved the wheel 1 or 2 teeth over and all seemed fine, BUT, it turns out that it was out of alignment and my tires were below safety recs. at 33K. Have the alignment checked... Or buy new Michelins at 33K like I did
 
#15 ·
The steering wheel off does not mean the alignment IS off. Doesn't mean it isn't. Doesn't mean anything except the steering wheel is off.
However, this is a good indication that the alignment should be done. Sometimes after doing an alignment and going out for the road test I'll find the wheel off a little. Doesn't happen very often. The fix is to shift both tie rod ends over the correct amount. If you paid for an align & the wheel is off a little, he was too lazy to finish the job.
DO NOT mess with that steering wheel.
 
#16 ·
Mine has been like that since day 1. I'm waiting until the first oil change to have them fix it...
 
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