Steering Wheel Turned 20° Left???

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KennyKaraoke

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My steering wheel is suddenly turned about 20° to the left while driving straight. I'm not the only one who drives the LS and nobody will fess up to hitting the railroad tracks too fast going to school (son), or hitting the curb of the driveway too hard after shopping (wife). The car still drives straight and turns good, though it does seem different on a 40mph curved road, sort of loose I guess. Something bent perhaps? Any ideas what to look at first? It a 2001 LS V8.
Thanks in advance.
 
My guess would maybe be tie rod but I suppose a control arm could be bent also. Anyone is just going to be taking one of a few guesses based on the limited info you can provide. If you don't know what you're looking at under the car your best bet is to take it to a mechanic to check it out in person.
 
I haven't looked at it yet, and I'm comfortable with front end work. I redid the entire front end including wheel bearings, struts, ball joints, sway bar links, inner/outer tie rods on my Envoy and have done plenty of other tie rods over the years. Though after doing the brakes a couple weeks ago on the LS and seeing the rear suspension, I wasn't sure if there were some other crazy components in the front I have not seen yet.
 
I'd do something fast. The odds are good that you are wearing out the thread on your tires prematurely. A good alignment shop should be able to spot it pretty quickly.
 
You had to include that quickly part, did ya, lol.
I hate my alignment shop (franchise and too many misdiagnosed/unneeded repairs).
I hate my secondary alignment shop (franchise, he simply got too busy, lost the I care about my customer part, 15 years ago, great guy).
I dislike my newest mechanic (private shop just moved to area, then he charged me 4X cost for O2 sensors).
And now my new, newest mechanic is off the list already (franchise, did not repair problem, I don't think he even read the codes).
I could try the guy my neighbor dislikes, but at least he still uses him.
I live in a good area for poor mechanics and the good mechanics are way overpriced.

I'll take a look first, I need to remove the front drivers wheel anyhow as the brand new front brake has a small squeal. If I can see the steering problem I can repair before alignment, if not, I'll head over to mechanic #3, he's high on parts, but the work was good and the rate is good too.
 
Some more info from the drive home.
The car is parked now and I be digging into it tomorrow.
But on those 30-40mph left curves, the advancetrak actually turned on after straightening out and on a right curve it almost didn't want to straighten back out with a slight noise. I'll check everything, but sway bar links maybe? Maybe broken?
 
You may or may not have sway bar problems, but it's not causing your offset steering or turning problems. AdvanceTrac has a sensor that tells it which way the steering wheel is turned and another one to tell it which way you are going. If the two don't match, it tries to correct it. In your case, the car is going straight, but you are pointing the steering wheel to the left. AdvanceTrac is going to want to try and make the car go left. I suggest you disable it till you problem is corrected.
 
Actually disabled for the last couple miles home. I did the brakes in low 30° weather, didn't think I'd be messin' with the front end in single digit temps. Hopefully something simple will show itself. If not I got 30's coming Monday.
 
I'm astonished that the problem happened quickly, the wheel is turned that much, and other wise the car still drives straight... I would think that something that far off would show itself with the car pulling.
 
Just did all new brakes the week before and yes, the car drove and braked perfectly straight. Even heavy acceleration and hard braking, straight.
Then Wed. morning I left for work (after the wife took the kid to school), wheel was turned, maybe even closer to 30°. About an hour ago, I just did a simple grab the tire and shake top to bottom and side to side, there's not a single noise, and it is tight. I know that don't mean much being the car is on the ground, but you're right, being it happened that quickly, I would have expected to hear something.

And it does still drive straight. Turning is when I see and feel the problem
 
1LoudLS said:
I'm astonished that the problem happened quickly, the wheel is turned that much, and other wise the car still drives straight... I would think that something that far off would show itself with the car pulling.
Click to expand...

Maybe he's actually driving at an angle and someone adjusted the rear toe links in the same direction (one toe in, one toe out). All it takes is a wrench and a jerk

Anyway, the car still really needs to go on a lift...
 
Nah, the car has driven perfectly straight since we owned it, this was a result of an impact to the front suspension. Unless of course said jerk crawled under there overnight and adjusted those rear toe links, while the car was in my garage.
I crawled under yesterday morning, nothing was loose or broken couldn't really tell if anything was bent. Anyway, it's at the shop now, I'll find out tomorrow morning.
 
Front ball joints (check the left one first), rear lateral links or front tie rods in that order. Is there any suspension noise when driving?
 
I was just under mine to check rear end fluid. I noticed that the front suspension upper A-frames looked like they might easily bend. don-ohio :)^)
 
the wife brought the ls home two days ago with this very same issue. she said nothing happened out of the ordinary,
but the wheel is cocked about the same to the right. it still drives fine, and most of the suspension is new. getting it
on the lift this afternoon to check out what may have happened.

funny this happened to you as well... i'll post up what i find.
 
In my case its possible nothing too much "out of the ordinary" actually could be true.
My mechanic asked who did the front end work, and I know the PO did quite a bit. Turns out the ball joints were not fully installed properly and loose. So LSFrank was correct that is was a wrench and a jerk, lol. I'm surprised it took 15 months and a curb (or railroad tracks or pothole) to finally give.
Anyway, $78! Problem solved and mechanic #2 back to the top of my list.
:cool:
 
hmm.. okay. i didnt get to check on the issue this afternoon, so i'll sure check the ball joints tomorrow. thanks for the info.
 
don-ohio said:
I was just under mine to check rear end fluid. I noticed that the front suspension upper A-frames looked like they might easily bend. don-ohio :)^)
Click to expand...

Yeah, the A arms on the LS get weak when the cooling system isn't properly pressurized. It's all connected, you know.
 
I myself have also been having a slow responding thermostat issue, could that be connected to the ball joint as well
:lol:
 
its far more likely that its related to a failing coil you have coming...
 
can't happen, all new coils and plugs two weeks ago, unless of course the failed coil already caused the problem, is the number 1 coil the original culprit?
 
okay, i must have needed some blinker fluid. just checked the car over and what do you know...
passenger side lower ball joint bolt was VERY loose, which was the cause of the issue. tightened
it back up with some locktite and no more problems. never seen that before. we torqued them
down when we did the suspension refresh.. anyway....
 
elephantrider said:
... just checked the car over and what do you know...
passenger side lower ball joint bolt was VERY loose, which was the cause of the issue. tightened
it back up with some locktite and no more problems. never seen that before. we torqued them
down when we did the suspension refresh.. anyway....
Click to expand...

This is one of the problems with aluminum parts. That's why the service manual insists on replacing the nuts each time instead of reusing them. The nuts have a one time use nyloc. If you don't replace the nut, then at least put some strong loctite on it. The aluminum expands and contracts at a different rate than the steel studs/nuts, and this can allow them to loosen if there isn't something there to resist turning.
 
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