[G87DRVR]

So, after delivery of my car, I noticed that my steering wheel is a tad off to the left, not much, but noticable. I mentioned this to my dealer at the break in service last week. He said they re-aligned my front wheels and it was all good. On the way back I saw no difference, so this issue was not resolved...

Are there others here with the same problem, and what did you do to fix this?

Thanks!

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by G87DRVR

So, after delivery of my car, I noticed that my steering wheel is a tad off to the left, not much, but noticable. I mentioned this to my dealer at the break in service last week. He said they re-aligned my front wheels and it was all good. On the way back I saw no difference, so this issue was not resolved...

Are there others here with the same problem, and what did you do to fix this?

Thanks!

With a RHD car I would expect a slight input to the left due to the crown of the road when in the right-hand lane. If you are on a dual carriageway in the left lane with the crown sloping to the left, does it also require slight steering to the left, or is it to the right now?

[Montaver]

My car (and a lot of others) the alignment was off from factory. You need to differentiate between the car pulling actively in one direction, or with it just following the topography of the road surface. The more toe in on the front, the less it will be bothered by road surface/camber but also less keen to move off center and turn.

[fangelov]

Originally Posted by G87DRVR

So, after delivery of my car, I noticed that my steering wheel is a tad off to the left, not much, but noticable. I mentioned this to my dealer at the break in service last week. He said they re-aligned my front wheels and it was all good. On the way back I saw no difference, so this issue was not resolved...

Are there others here with the same problem, and what did you do to fix this?

Thanks!

I had the same issue. The dealer did a wheel alignment at the break-in service and corrected the issue. Supposedly the alignment is covered for the first 2000 miles in the USA. I would say that you need to take it back for another alignment.

[LCDRJohn]

yup, there was a lot of buzz about the alignment issue about 6 months ago. I took mine back 3 times to dealer and they just could not seem to center the wheel.

I even noticed many of the Youtube guys had their car's steering wheel off to the left. I agree with M2siast. You have to just keep pushing to get the whole alignment done. AND remember that the car can be within BMW specs and still have the wheel off. They need to actually do the job to fix it, like a good aftermarket shop will.

With mine, I just gave up and am dealing with the dang wheel being off. Makes my OCD ping tho..... haha.

[Carefree]

There’s absolutely no reason for the steering wheel to be off center.
My dealer corrected it along with realignment necessary from the port HAS lowering.
Insist it be fixed by the dealer. Go higher up the food chain if you must.

[apez]

Dealer also fixed mine no questions asked, although it took two trips because the first time they didn't have the alignment specs.

[BroDoze]

Just wait til we all have a red stripe on the center top of the wheel.

[JABCAT]

Is there not a way for us to center the wheel ourselves? I'm sure my alignment is slightly off, but the car tracks straight. Like many others my wheel is off to the left just slightly. It appears the wheel in my wife's X3MC is the same.

I scheduled an appointment, not with my usual dealer, to have this fixed. When I got there, they argued alignment wasn't covered at all, then for only 1,200 mi. I pulled up the warranty info and showed them it says 2,000.

"Well if you're claiming it's 2k mi, we've never heard that before" as they're looking at the 2023 M warranty booklet. They then proceeded to tell me if I wanted it covered under warranty I would have to leave my car for at least 4 days & no loaner. However, if I wanted to pay for the alignment at $250+tax, they could fix it that day.

[BroDoze]

Yes, you can center it yourself. Done it on various prior vehicles, to satisfy my OCD. All pre-E-steering, though. I’ve heard it can be extremely easy with E-steering if you’ve got all the dealer gear.

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by M2siast

Your car is out of alignment. Unless you have an alignment rack at home, you need a pro to align it.

I also suggest you go to another dealer if possible as this one should be out of business. A complaint to BMW wouldn’t hurt, but it won’t have an immediate effect.

Yeah, I'll have my regular dealer check it when I bring it in for my next service. It'll be on my dime as I now have 9k mi. When I brought it to the other dealer the car had 1,800 mi but I was taking a 400 mi trip that week. I was 250 mi away from my regular dealer.

[RPM33]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

Is there not a way for us to center the wheel ourselves? I'm sure my alignment is slightly off, but the car tracks straight. Like many others my wheel is off to the left just slightly. It appears the wheel in my wife's X3MC is the same.

I scheduled an appointment, not with my usual dealer, to have this fixed. When I got there, they argued alignment wasn't covered at all, then for only 1,200 mi. I pulled up the warranty info and showed them it says 2,000.

"Well if you're claiming it's 2k mi, we've never heard that before" as they're looking at the 2023 M warranty booklet. They then proceeded to tell me if I wanted it covered under warranty I would have to leave my car for at least 4 days & no loaner. However, if I wanted to pay for the alignment at $250+tax, they could fix it that day.

Terrible. There is something wrong with the alignment and your dealer acts like it’s your fault. Terrible.

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by M2siast

This really sucks. I wonder why my dealer said in the service note “car has to have less than 10k km”, when I fixed mine I was well above the 2,000 miles you indicated. But of course I’m in Canada. I just didn’t expect it to be different (better).

Any chance you can call the other dealer and talk to a service advisor and say “hey, my car has been out of alignment from factory, can I bring it in to be fixed under warranty?” And see what they say. They might take you in, regardless of what the paper says. Worth a shot too.

But email customer service at BMW too.

At the end of the day, it’s not the end of the world, just think you’d have done another one after a year or so, and it’s not super expensive.

Reason why I recommend it is so that you don’t wear your tires more unnecessarily.

Oh for sure. My problem is I have 2 residences and work 250 mi away at my secondary. My preferred dealer is near my primary residence. So I put a lot of miles on the car going back & forth (2,500 or so/month). That's how the miles accumulated so quickly.
I'll ask my SA when I drop off my wife's X3MC Monday morning to get some warranty work done.

[G87DRVR]

Originally Posted by BroDoze

Just wait til we all have a red stripe on the center top of the wheel.

Well, while I was at the dealer, they installed the M performance wheel with the blue stripe 😂. So like you said, it is even more visible now lol. Guess I need to go back for a proper alignment. I read the electric steering wheels are even more easy to center, so I don’t know why it didn’t work out last week 😢. It’s a 2 hour drive to my dealer.

[G87DRVR]

Originally Posted by BroDoze

Yes, you can center it yourself. Done it on various prior vehicles, to satisfy my OCD. All pre-E-steering, though. I’ve heard it can be extremely easy with E-steering if you’ve got all the dealer gear.

Can you give us more info, is there something I can tell the dealer they should do?

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by G87DRVR

Can you give us more info, is there something I can tell the dealer they should do?

Only way I know of to center a steering wheel -- did this years ago on my driveway -- is to adjust the tie rod lengths.

You shouldn't have to tell your dealer anything.

Take the car back and ask that the steering wheel be centered. Well, yeah, you have to tell the dealer that...

My M2's steering wheel was fine but the new 230ix I bought some months later its steering wheel was not centered. I mentioned it to the salesman and while we were talking then I moved to finance guy's office to complete the purchase the car was in a service bay. When I got back in the car and on the road the wheel was centered.

Furthermore, my experience when having a car in for an alignment it is best to specifically ask the steering wheel be centered. My experience is unless this is asked for it is not likely to be done.

[BroDoze]

So wheel alignment and steering wheels being straight are 2 separate things.
A car can be perfectly aligned and still have an off-center steering wheel.
While it sucks to do, your can precision-adjust the steering / tie-rods equally under the car to straighten the steering wheel. Done it many times.
I’ve have heard with e-steering, the techs can do this easier and faster with equipment. I don’t think it means they get to skip adjusting the steering rods on the alignment rack though.

It’s a very common part of aligning any car and the dealer should be extremely proficient at re-centering the steering wheel. Push back on your dealer.

EDIT: Rockcrusher beat me to it.

[G87DRVR]

Originally Posted by maxwell smart

I do my own alignment work in my garage . You do not need a rack to get excellent results. ive had to straighten out my x5, Porsche Caymen, m6, m2 ,2024 stingray and in every case the problem was with rear toe not being absolutely equal . when one side is different than the other the car will slightly crab down the road, Its not perceptible following it from the rear when driving, but the steering wheel will be off center. the rear wheels have to be scrutinized to find the side that's toe out more than the other, make the adjustment on toe to that side rear to be the same as the other. If you can get the rear toe to be perfectly equal the car suddenly takes on a new personality with the steering wheel straight and a car that feels much lighter. Home alignment is not difficult but does take some practice and research to find the methods to get the information of how the wheels are sitting. Remember the exact numbers that an alignment machine uses are not as important as squaring up the vehicle to perfection on your own, because most of the settings would already be green on a machine, the goal is to find the one wheel that's not correct and get it the same as the other side, then how far off could everything possibly be. Normally one or two small adjustments will perfect a car . I know this is not going to be interesting for everyone, but surely some of the younger gentleman that have the energy and curiosity to learn a black art could benefit from learning how to get the results I've been able to attain, and save some money and frustration.
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Thanks for your view/explanation on this topic 👍🏻

[rabbitsmell]

Originally Posted by G87DRVR

So, after delivery of my car, I noticed that my steering wheel is a tad off to the left, not much, but noticable. I mentioned this to my dealer at the break in service last week. He said they re-aligned my front wheels and it was all good. On the way back I saw no difference, so this issue was not resolved...

Are there others here with the same problem, and what did you do to fix this?

Thanks!

2000 mile alignment is included in the stated bmwusa warranty…make it work for youhttps://www.bmwusa.com/content/dam/b...-07-09_ADA.pdf

[G87DRVR]

After aligned by a shop (not the dealer), my steering wheel is back to normal position. Strange that my dealer did not resolve this issue 🫤.

[SpaceGhost]

My 740 steering wheel was a bit off but alignment was in spec. They simply pulled the steering wheel and corrected its position.

[ourlee]

I may get this on the purchase paperwork