On my way to Dallas I noticed that the steering wheel is about 5 degrees to the right when the car drives straight. The car doesn't drift, and the tire pressures are all the same.

Could there be anything else wrong besides a bad alignment? I had the car aligned about 1000 miles ago and it was fine then.

 

It might be aligned correctly but they didn't have the steering wheel centered when they did the alignment. Now, when the wheels point straight ahead, the steering wheel is not in the centered position.

 

Agree. The steering wheel is aligned using the coupler in the linkage. A do-it-yourself fix takes a bit of trial and error.

 

So I shouldn't have to worry about my tires/car on the 200mi drive back home?

 

No, if the car is tracking straight down the road without a lot of pull to the right, then you have nothing to worry about. It's mainly a psycological thing - you KNOW the steering wheel should be straight when you're going straight down the road.

 

This is the steering linkage coupler. A mechanic will remove the coupler. Straighten the steering wheel. Put the coupler back on.

 

Thanks guys.