I have a question for all Impreza owners. I just bought a 2006 wrx wagon and recently noticed that the steering column is a little crooked. As a result, the right side of my steering wheel is closer to my body than the left. In other words, the face of the steering wheel is not parallel to the back of the drivers sea. Does anyone have this problem or is this normal. The reason I ask is because when you drive on a long straight road, it feels like the car is drifting to the left eventhough it is going straight. I had all 4 wheels aligned and the steering wheel centered. The Dealer said the crookedness was normal. What say you guys?

 

I've never noticed anything like that on any of my subies.

Is the whole column crooked (i.e.: more gap between the left side of the column and the dash than the right, or vice versa) or is it just the steering wheel itself?

If it's just the steering wheel, look at where it mates to the column to see if there are any obvious gaps from one side versus the other.

Unless someone can verify this is normal, take it back to the dealer and tell them it is a safety defect. If they refuse to fix it, call Subaru directly.

 

It normal. In fact, most cars are off set a little. I fixed mine in the race car, but as a result, the bushing in the fire wall isn't lined up anymore. So cold air blows through the firewall. But its a racecar so its ok.

Try leaning your arm on the center armrest. This should correct your drifting problem.

 

The steering column is crooked, therefore the steering wheel is also since it sits on top of it. I brought it to two dealerships and both said that it was normal and they could not do anything for me. I called SOA and they said they have to follow the judgments of the two dealerships. To me, this is ludicrous. How could a crooked steering column be normal? This so called normal design makes the driver's position to be slightly angled to the right and not straight. That seems very odd to me and I cannot see any rhyme or reason to it.
Help me out guys!!! What should I do now?

 

Maybe you could take some pics to better describe the situation.

 

You know, I heard of one guy like two years ago who had a similar issue with his car. I can't remember what year it was though. Let me try to find it. I've got a conference call in a minute so I'm not doing anything anyway :rotfl:

 

Found that pretty quick http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...column+crooked

 

Thanks for the link. It was very helpful. It seems like most Sub owners have the same steering column problem but no one has any solution to address it. This really sucks and makes me feel ill inside. This experience has left a really bad taste in my mouth and has me thinking twice about buying another Subaru in the future. If anyone from SOA is reading this, you should look into it immediately!!!

 

Can you take your car to your dealer and compare yours with another one on the lot and show them it is in fact NOT normal?

 

Kinda sucks. If you want, you can take your dash off and weld a new bracket into place. We used the dash bar to remount the wheel and build a new angle iron mount thats adjustable. I can slid the wheel to the left or right about 2". However, if you don't have a roll cage in there, its rather pointless.

 

I took it to two dealers and they both showed me several wrx cars on their lot. They said all of the cars had that so it was normal. However, when I checked for myself, some cars did have a slight crookedness problem like mine but not as severe. The majority of the cars I checked were normal.

 

i just checked my 05 STi and it's steering column is angled to the left as well.
maybe there is a technical reason subarus have this- left hand drive clearance issues? the steering column mounting jig was set up at 8am on a monday morning?
is this angled steering wheel only found on imprezas or do legacys have it as well?

 

Has it occurred to you that the slight leftward tilt of the steering column/wheel is in fact a feature, designed to align the wheel with the driver, rather than a flaw?

 

i went back to the garage and measured stuff. the steering column is angled to the left, however, the steering wheel is also off-center (to the right) from the seat. while seated, everything feels correct and the steering wheel is centered with the guage cluster.
this leads me to think this is done on purpose.

 

I read a similar concern in a 2004 thread, and checked my '04 WRX. Of course, I discovered its steering wheel had the same lateral tilt appearance, but I had the suspiscion that this was a "calculated" design so that the steering wheel can be aligned in relationship to the driver and not necessarily to the dash immediately in front of it.

Now that I have an '06 WRX, I noted the same lateral tilt in the steering wheel/column. I'm definitely not worried about it as being a design flaw. Lots of very intelligent engineers worked on this car, and although not infallible they certainly wouldn't ignore such blatant issues.

Don't make hasty conclusions about not being loyal to Subaru... we'll come and kill you.

j/k

-