steering wheel

I have just picked the car back from the garage for its alignment, and
notice something unusual:

If I put my hand on the top of the steering wheel and turn it to
either 2 o'clock or 10 o'clock, and release the steering wheel, it will
roll-back to 12 o'clock automatically. But if I turn it to 3 o'clock,
and release the steering wheel, I find it never roll-back
automatically. It just keeps that position until I push the steering
wheel backward myself.

Any ideas why this happened ?

BTW, This is a 1996 volvo 850 wagon of 89K.



thank a lot


Chun Ji

 

The short answer is the car needs to go back to the aligner to get that
fixed. Several things can do that, but this time it is safe to say it was
because of something they did.

Mike

 

Possibly one of the steering shaft universal joints is going bad. You
can usually feel this in the steering as you're driving along - as they
seize up, the steering feels crappy.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

The way a steering wheel returns to center on its own is a function of
the caster. On an 850, it is not adjustable. Just as the caster on a
bicyle lets the wheel return in normal riding there is a point where the
wheel will continue to turn increasingly more sharply in the direction
it is pointed until the rider either corrects it back towards straight
or crashes.

Bob