Steering Wheel Replacement + Alignment?

Imcrazy · December 30, 2017

My 2016 Silverado has almost 34k miles on it now and I noticed a month or so ago that some of the stitching on the steering wheel was broken and the leather had separated. On my last oil change I asked the dealer to take a look and they said, no problem we will put a new steering wheel in for you under warranty... Today (Saturday) they installed said steering wheel and now I have to hold the wheel slightly to the right to make the truck go straight, maybe 3-5 minutes to the right of 12 o-clock to be exact. Took the truck back 20 mins after and while the service rep seemed to agree with me that the wheel needed to be aligned or indexed via some alignment work, he said the tech's on staff on Saturday didn't seem to understand the problem and that I needed to come back during the week when more experienced tech's were on staff..... I am kinda torqued off because I've replaced steering wheels on other cars in the past DIYing it in my garage and even I knew the truck would need some kind of alignment work to get the steering wheel perfectly in line with the front wheels... They made an appointment for me to bring it back on Tuesday... I am wishing I had just bought some thread and stitched the damn thing back up myself ugh.... Anyone agree or disagree that it's SOP to do some alignment work when replacing a steering wheel in a vehicle?

steelcity · December 31, 2017

As long as their doing it and doing it for free, why complain?

tbarn · December 31, 2017

Should never need alignment with steering wheel change. GM's are keyed. I suppose one might get it off 1 spline maybe but not usually.

Imcrazy · December 31, 2017

3 hours ago, steelcity said:

As long as their doing it and doing it for free, why complain?

It wasn't free I paid them 43k for the truck....

Imcrazy · December 31, 2017

1 hour ago, tbarn said:

Should never need alignment with steering wheel change. GM's are keyed. I suppose one might get it off 1 spline maybe but not usually.

Interesting.... It's for sure off by maybe 2-3*, all brands are keyed as far as I know but, from what I understand no two are exactly the same and hence why they need to be indexed....

steve76t · December 31, 2017

From my experience with previous vehicles, aligning the steering wheel is usually simple. There's a threaded sleeve that connects the steering box pitman arm to the tie rods. Just loosen the nuts, turn the sleeve to align the steering wheel & tighten back up. HOWEVER!!! I haven't had to do this with with my new GMC yet & the process may be a little different compared to my solid axled Jeep.

steelcity · December 31, 2017

14 hours ago, Imcrazy said:

It wasn't free I paid them 43k for the truck....

The fix is free, is it not? Sorry, I thought you were asking for opinions.

Imcrazy · December 31, 2017

48 minutes ago, steelcity said:

The fix is free, is it not? Sorry, I thought you were asking for opinions.

No it was included in the warranty that I paid for when I bought the truck lol! A 'free' fix would be if the truck was out of warranty and they agreed to provide a wheel at no cost to me, when you buy a truck with a warranty you're entitled to have it repaired under said warranty to your complete satisfaction IMO.

The opinion I was after is if SOP for replacing steering wheels was to index or align the wheel to the steering wheels..... No hard feelings, I am just making a point that GM charges us all big bucks for these trucks and they owe it to their customers to honor the warranties we shell out 10's of 1000's of our hard earned $$ for..

dna9656 · December 31, 2017

I never heard of a steering wheel that wasn't 'clocked" or indexed with a wide spline on the steering shaft, It could be a production variance and you need to rotate the shaft down at the gear box as talked about previously. I bet it's a case of the dealer thinking it would be just fine, but maybe there is a production variance that is making all the trouble.

Imcrazy · December 31, 2017

1 hour ago, dna9656 said:

I never heard of a steering wheel that wasn't 'clocked" or indexed with a wide spline on the steering shaft, It could be a production variance and you need to rotate the shaft down at the gear box as talked about previously. I bet it's a case of the dealer thinking it would be just fine, but there is a production variance that is making all the trouble.

Yeah I would imagine the dealer doesn't install a ton of steering wheels so maybe they didn't realize it was required...

tbarn · January 1, 2018

Not "required". I've replaced a lot of steering wheel in my 35 years at the dealer. I have never seen an issue with it being off center.

Imcrazy · January 1, 2018

30 minutes ago, tbarn said:

Not "required". I've replaced a lot of steering wheel in my 35 years at the dealer. I have never seen an issue with it being off center.

Hrm... Maybe I am crazy I guess i'll take it out for a drive again tomorrow and try to confirm that it's off center, it's not like it's a three spoke wheel easy to tell... I upgraded to a leather wrapped steering wheel on one of my ford cars about 10 years ago and it was way off after I installed it so maybe I am biased. I'll take a level with me and check it against center...