After removing both wishbones at the weekend and fitting Audi TT bushes the alignment was miles out. I can't see how this should be but never mind. Anyway, its tracked up now, no pulling off straight and true but the steering wheel is a little off centre. So as it looks like its tracked properly I was considering moving the steering wheel on the splines. I shouldn't really have to do this but it does seem the only option. So I was just wanting to know if its a good or bad idea in the first place and if it is OK to do it, how easy is it to do and tools required. And what size nut holds the wheel on.

12mm spline.

 

My car gets tracked (with the steering wheel centred), but always drives with it turn a bit to the left.  It has been tracked numerous times by various garages over the years and is always like that :-(

Yes that's the same as mine with the wheel off to the left. So is the airbag easy to remove?

airbag is easy once you have done it once.... watch a few videos on youtube and that will really help.  I disconnected the battery the night before and then removed it the next morning.  I used a medium sized flat bladed screwdriver to release the spring clips,

 

Only downside is that my airbag light came on 200 miles later.  Not had a chance to vagcom it yet though :-(

OK buddy thanks for the info. I did watch a couple of videos on YouTube it doesn't look too bad. I'm not really sure why your airbag light should come on though. If its all wired back in right that shouldn't happen. Just disturbing things after years of being fitted obviously sets things off!!

In the instructions I got for my cruise kit it says to reconnect the battery with the ignition switched on to avoid the airbag light coming on.

This is the complete opposite to what I've always been told on other manufactures. However I followed the instructions and my airbag light didn't come on so must be right.

Was pretty scary reconnecting the battery with the ignition on but done it a couple of times now and all ok.

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Good bit of knowledge there buddy. So it should go, refit wheel, reconnect the airbag, turn on ignition, reconnect battery? Typically, it doesn't mention this in the Haynes manual.

That's what it says on the instructions i got with the cruise kit. It was a gen kit from skoda.

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I must say I take no responsibility for any issues. I can have a look on elsawin tomorrow I'll copy & paste the instructions. What year and model is your octy.

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2001 vrs. Its getting an old classic!!

You really do not want to be taking the steering wheel off to correct an issue which has been introduced as a result of poor alignment. Currently the straight ahead position is the centre of the rack (when steering wheel is straight), if you move the wheel on the spline then this will no longer be the case and you could have other issues further down the line.

 

If it were me, then I would take the car back and get them to check the alignment again and correct the fault using the track rod end adjustments. At least this way the rack centre is still correct and the handling will not be affected. Even though the rear axle is non adjustable, get the alignment done on a proper 4 wheel machine, so you can at least see that all 4 wheels are pointing the right way.

I do know from the previous alignment that was done that the rear wheels are out of alignment. I don't how or by how much. Just doing a quick search does seem like the rear beams have a little bit of adjustment. Like mentioned above, your right I don't want to start moving the steering wheel around because if it was tracked correctly this shouldn't be needed. However, its driving straight, no pulling off and after taking the car to three different places to get an alignment done and still having the wheel off centre it does seem to be the next thing to do. It also mentions in the Haynes manual about moving the wheel a little on the splines so it does seem like an acceptable thing. It would be interesting to hear from owners with wonky steering wheels after having an alignment done I suspect it may be a fairly common problem.

Mine always hangs ... I mean points to the left !!!

Numerous alignments done over the years too always the same.

I vaguely remember something on here years ago about cars being set slightly to pull left as a safety feature.

Although as always I may have dreamt that !!!

At this time of a morning yes that might have been a dream! But my car is sound, never been knocked. But I think with the solid non adjustable rear axle, these cars are gonna have alignment issues.

I heeard the same thing about a little left hand pull as standard for safety...

if you fall asleep or die, you'll ditch it rather than wander down the other side of the road into a head on.

My 04 diesel also drives straight, with a little left hand on the wheel...

never really thought about it due to the being told about it years ago.

In the instructions I got for my cruise kit it says to reconnect the battery with the ignition switched on to avoid the airbag light coming on.

This is the complete opposite to what I've always been told on other manufactures. However I followed the instructions and my airbag light didn't come on so must be right.

Was pretty scary reconnecting the battery with the ignition on but done it a couple of times now and all ok.

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The reason you reconnect battery with the ignition is really quite logical when it's explained. If there is a fault with your airbag system that causes airbag detonation, then when you reconnect the system you aren't in the vehicle if there is a fault and you use ignition to turn everything on then a severe earache may follow.

This is also slightly different now on the newer models. The mk7 platform octavia 3 uses a permanent battery live rather than an ignition live to power airbag module.

My advise would always be leave ignition on, and disable system using battery negative lead removal.

Dale

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The reason you reconnect battery with the ignition is really quite logical when it's explained. If there is a fault with your airbag system that causes airbag detonation, then when you reconnect the system you aren't in the vehicle if there is a fault and you use ignition to turn everything on then a severe earache may follow.

This is also slightly different now on the newer models. The mk7 platform octavia 3 uses a permanent battery live rather than an ignition live to power airbag module.

My advise would always be leave ignition on, and disable system using battery negative lead removal.

Dale

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So doing it that way is probably more for safety rather than preventing the airbag light to come on. I've just looked again in the steering wheel removal section of the manual. Right at the top it says :

Warning: During the airbag removal and

refitting procedures, avoid sitting in the

front seats.

So it seems more for safety. It then just says reconnect the airbag wiring then reconnect battery lead.