Why Is It Bad To Turn The Steering Wheel While The Car Is Stationary?

There are a few things that you should never do while your car is stationary. For starters, you should never turn the steering wheel. This can damage the suspension, the drivetrain, and even the engine. If you’re not sure why this is such a bad idea, read on to learn more, this will be explained in the next paragraph.

Steering

Dry steering is the term for turning the steering wheel while the car is not moving. Additionally, dry steering is exceedingly difficult on the car’s tyres, the ground it is on, and the vehicle itself.

Tyres

The tyres simply “grind” as they are turned when they are not rolling. Try turning your foot on the ground while standing on one foot to see how this will affect you. Do you hear the grinding and sense the torque? Imagine this with the car’s weight on the tyres and the force it applies to the ground. You can see how quickly the tyre will degrade in this situation.

Ground

If you take a look at the ground where cars do a lot of hard turning you will notice black ‘Skid Marks’ (many of them ‘circular’) and some of them have actually toren up the asphalt or broken the ground. That clearly shows the effect of dry steering on the ground as well.

Vehicle

There are many moving parts underneath the vehicle that are put under severe stress when you turn the steering wheel. A steering system is made up of the gearbox, the axles, and the hydraulics. It allows you to turn the wheels in order to move your vehicle forward or backward but all these parts are designed to function properly when the car is in motion. Turning the steering wheel when the car is stationary will wear out these parts very quickly.

Although some people may find the habit of turning the steering wheel when a car is stationary acceptable, others would definitely not approve it. One way you can avoid turning the steering wheel while your car is parked, is to regularly check your fluid levels and tyre treads. Running low on steering fluids can cause unexpected problems like wobble and jerks in steering and give you a false sense of confidence behind the wheel! Make sure that everything is good but also be prepared to check again if something feels off during regular driving activities.