I have to drive my car with my steering wheel turned a little to the right, in order for the car to go straight. But after the wheel is turned to the right a little, I can take my hands off the wheel and the car will go straight by itself for a ways. Is this the alignment thats off or is something wrong with my steering?

 

Mine used to do this really bad and it still does a bit. i got rid most of it when i changed all the steering parts and adjusted the box. now the steering is thight when i am turning but its still a lilslopy going strait. what i think i am feelin and it sounds like what your feeling to. i think mine is play in the steering collum. have you changed anything yet? i changed the rag joint and that made a huge difference.

Other possible causes are tire pressures are off, bad steering components, worn bushings, strut mounts, balljoints. esentially just about anything could be causig the pull your feeling. does it get worse under braking?

 

Like a week or so ago, the car would pull pretty hard to the left when i would brake, but that for some reason only lasted a few days. Now it goes straight when i brake. I just bought the car in June and the suspension parts were all new, but I havnt replaced any steering components since then. And the tire pressure is good.

 

well the temporary hard pull could have been a slightly sticky caliper or something. on the other origional question i would lean towards the steering collum having some slop in it. my cars steering feels like brand new once i turn the wheel the 5* or 6* to where it starts to take affect but in that dead zone it has a kinda floppy feeling. i changed the rag joint and that helped it a lot cause it was at like 30* of 40* of play when that was worn out. i think mine has play in the tilt joint. that would also be why the car would stay going strait one the wheel has been turned a bit. If there was an alighnment problem or something loose the steering would return to strait and the car would begin to turn again.

 

I would have the alignment checked, the toe is most likely out if the steering wheel is off center. It would be odd for the tech who did the last alignment to leave the wheel off center and nobody complained

 

I had the same problem...I had to turn to the left to go straight. Changed tie-rods, got it aligned and its almost perfect. Still a little pull but the mechanic said it was because my steering box was old.