Steering Wheel Position and Uneven Height Across Wheels

[jpmc86]

Hi all,

Interesting behavior observed over the weekend. Long story short, had Rivian align the car from the typical car is pulling to the right behavior. Spent about 2-4 hours with them adjusting til they got it right. This is all while we went on drives and put it back on the alignment rack until I was content.

It was pretty dead on in standard height all purpose mode.

Fast forward to the weekend, I went on a trip down to the beach and had some highway time. Lock in conserve mode and the low setting and notice that the steering wheel is slightly off to the left as the car steers straight. This is the opposite of the previous behavior prior to alignment. I said… hmm, let me try high height mode and see what the steering wheel does then. Now the steering wheel is slightly to the right as the car steers straight.

So on the low setting the steering wheel is to the left as the car tracks straight, and on the high height setting the steering wheel is to the right as the car tracks straight… weird.

I then go off to check measurements of heights as it came to me that each wheel at a previous time had different heights at each corner measuring from the center of the wheel. One thing I noticed is that each corner can be off by about an inch.

It then dawned to me, that maybe this is why the car has this weird tracking straight and steering position behavior as the movement of the suspension is off at each corner.

Thoughts on this? From what I have read the height issue can be either air springs, height adjusters, or pure old calibration.

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[Sevn86]

My steering wheel sits a bit to the left when I it tracks straight. If I let go of the wheel, the car starts to move to the right. Are you noticing a constant adjustment from the air suspension? I have noticed the car adjusting even though I have it on all purpose standard height. Maybe a leak somewhere?

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I believe there was another thread on this. Same issue - car pulling different ways depending on ride height. Don't recall if they ever "solved" it. Mine drifts ever-so-slightly to the right, but based on the horror stories of trying to get these things aligned I may just leave it as is. ??

 

[jpmc86]

I believe there was another thread on this. Same issue - car pulling different ways depending on ride height. Don't recall if they ever "solved" it. Mine drifts ever-so-slightly to the right, but based on the horror stories of trying to get these things aligned I may just leave it as is. ??

Could you point me to that thread? I tried looking for it but not sure I could point to it.

 

[jpmc86]

My steering wheel sits a bit to the left when I it tracks straight. If I let go of the wheel, the car starts to move to the right. Are you noticing a constant adjustment from the air suspension? I have noticed the car adjusting even though I have it on all purpose standard height. Maybe a leak somewhere?

Hmm… I’m not sure if it’s a constant adjustment or not. Service center says they’ve ordered air springs, level sensor and I forgot what else ahead of the service call.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

My steering was off to the left and pulled slightly right when I let go of the wheel. Rivian service did an alignment and the truck is dead on straight now.

 

[Rob O]

Could you point me to that thread? I tried looking for it but not sure I could point to it.

Here are a couple

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...ng-bumps-and-off-center-steering-wheel.13861/

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...-satisfaction-campaign-rca-10-23-002-1.15493/

Note that the second thread started with a TSB for steering wheel alignment (literally the steering wheel, not the chassis) but evolved into discussion about vehicle alignment and steering wheel centering.

FWIW, I had mine aligned by a motorsports shop (vs Rivian SC). My R1T had about 400 miles on it at the time it now has 7k miles and is still perfectly aligned (steering wheel straight as an arrow, vehicle tracks straight, tire wear even, etc).

 

[jpmc86]

I might go the alignment route outside of Rivian, however, I don’t think I should do that until they figure out the height discrepancy.

 

[jpmc86]

Some measurements from center of wheel to bottom of fender.

 

[jpmc86]

Well - here at service already. Not too encouraged as service is already saying “it’s okay to have an inch difference in height side to side” ?

 

[jpmc86]

Alright, so essentially the way they calibrate the height is to measure heights between floor (on an even surface) at specific points of the front and rear subframe. These check out in my case within the tolerances. Even though those are in spec, the heights between center of wheel to bottom fenders there is a clear pattern that the drivers side is lower than the passenger side by half an inch.

Also measuring from the ground to the bottom of the wheel wells where the plastic shields are, also measure half an inch lower than the passenger side.

Essentially what I am finding is that the subframes are measuring within spec, however the body of the car has a slight tilt. If you also put a level at the roof of the car it is between 0.5 to 0.7 degree tilt from passenger to driver side.

According to the techs this is all they have to measure against (the subframes). They are saying there is no spec to measure heights of the vehicle itself.

Not sure where to go from here.

 

[jpmc86]

Update - dropped the truck off yesterday. We shall see. I will keep you updated. Not looking promising as they said we are going to start “loosening and tightening” control arms and taking measurements, etc…

 

[shap]

My steering wheel sits a bit to the left when I it tracks straight. If I let go of the wheel, the car starts to move to the right. Are you noticing a constant adjustment from the air suspension? I have noticed the car adjusting even though I have it on all-purpose standard height. Maybe a leak somewhere?

Welcome to the club - you are probably in 99% of the drivers that have this problem with the steering wheel. Depending on how much the steering wheel is to the left, you may want to go and ask for alignment (log a problem asap as they tend to charge if you do this after thousands of miles).

btw, the car pulling to the right is also very subjective - Rivian is very sensitive to the road crown and most roads here will pull a bit to the right.

I did an alignment in SC and it is almost perfect for the steering wheel. The steering control of Rivian is not the best IMHO, and fails short of BMW. BMW does not pull to any side, regardless of the road crown.

As for suspension height change - you may be in Auto mode (see in driving modes) - this will tell Rivian to adjust the height based on the speed. The car will also make small adjustments from time to time when you stop at traffic lights, this is normal.

 

[jpmc86]

Update:

Got a call from the regional service manager (he’s been very involved with my case) and has ordered a rear subframe. They believe this is the reason the car is leaning to one side. They were not able to find any leaks in the air suspension system. The manager mentioned some measurement being out of spec by about 10mm.

I have a technical call with them tomorrow. Will update more if relevant.

I would’ve never thought the subframe could be the culprit for this.

 

[jpmc86]

Update: rear subframe replaced. We are now seeing a bit less of a delta, but that front drivers side corner continues to be lower by about half an inch. It’s an improvement as before it was about an inch to an inch and a half.

they are looking into potentially replacing the driver front side air spring and leveling sensor.

fingers crossed!

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