hi got a question about the steering rack. to cut the story short i was told it was half hanging out on the nearside anyways 3 days later i have my car back but it didnt have wheel alignment done yet as i need 2 new tyres too. but when driving home i found that when the car was going straight the steering wheel was a half turn to the left before when going straight the airbag was right way up now its on its side.

when i have the wheel alignment done will this correct it or not its just ive paid £550.00 to have it fitted and lost 3 days work so i need to be sure. sorry its such a simple question but i dont know much about cars thanks for any info

Yes they will sort this out with the wheel allignment. They should have put it on fairly straight though if they were a quality garage.

well they told me two days 1 to order the part and 1 to fit it. but when i called up on the second day they told me it was missing a track end rod or something along them lines and had to get and bit ordered in...... just felt really wrong when driving it home not used to it sitting a 12-6 position in a straight line.

£550 for a steering rack omg they saw you coming lol

I personally would take it back to the garage that fitted the rack & get them to rectify the alignment problem,for a start they havent got the steering rack in the straight ahead position when they connected the steering column back up hence the wheel been out by 180 degrees! this could damage the air bag wiring & slip ring.To fit a new steering rack & not have the alignment checked & adjusted before giving it back to customer is un acceptable! When they roadtested your car they should of noticed the alignment problem & rectified it before giving car back to you! They should get the basic settings right when they fit the rack,e.g trackrod ends on equally etc! they sound like a bunch of cow boys to me....for £550 id expect better!

It's never gonna be perfect without alignment it's impossible no matter how good they are.

As Mikey says it sounds like they havn't got the colom in the right position too start with, I had a rack change recently and the wheel off centre at about 11 o clock a quick geo had it straight again, according to the fella nearside was 4mm out.

Heres acopy of the printout and I have circled the offending measurement.

I don't really know what a lot of it means to be honest lol

HTH