A blog for ADIs and PDIs who teach for life, not just for test day
As driving instructors, we often hear the phrase,
Dry steering — turning the wheel while the car is stationary — falls neatly into that category. It’s not penalised on the driving test, and for manoeuvres like bay parking or turns in the road, it might even help a pupil achieve a better angle.
But here’s the question:
Are we helping them learn to drive — or just learn to pass?
This blog explores why dry steering should be used with caution, even though it’s not technically incorrect. Because when we teach learners to skip fundamental skills, we’re often planting the seed of future problems — both in terms of vehicle wear and driving confidence.
🔄 1. Dry Steering Bypasses Coordination Skills
At the heart of good driver training is building coordination: the ability to move the car and steer at the same time. This is a foundational skill that separates confident, adaptable drivers from hesitant, robotic ones.
Dry steering breaks this link.
Instead of learning to manage speed and steering together, the pupil stops, turns the wheel, then moves — forming a disconnected habit loop.
The result? Learners who:
- Struggle with tight angles unless they have time to stop and think
- Develop clunky, mechanical manoeuvres
- Lose the feel for how much steering input to apply in motion
As instructors, we know that in real-world driving, the ability to adapt your steering while the vehicle is moving is critical — and dry steering doesn’t teach that.
🧠2. It Undermines Reverse Manoeuvre Understanding
One of the most common struggles for learners is knowing which way to turn the wheel when reversing.
When they move forward, most learners quickly develop an instinct for steering direction. But reversing often throws them — especially in bay parks and tight spaces.
Here’s what we see:
- They begin looking at the steering wheel to work out direction
- They try to ‘calculate’ the turn visually rather than feeling it
- They fall for the “false straight” — where the steering wheel looks centred but isn’t, due to previous rotations
Dry steering makes this worse.
When the car is stationary, the learner has no feedback from vehicle movement to help them understand which way it’s turning. It’s purely abstract. And for many learners, abstraction = confusion.
On the other hand, moving while steering helps learners build a physical intuition about how steering inputs affect car direction — forwards and in reverse.
That’s a skill that stays with them far beyond the test.
⚙️ 3. Most Learners Drive Older Cars After They Pass
Here’s something we often overlook in our nearly-new tuition cars: after they pass.
These cars might have:
- Weak or worn-out power steering
- Poor wheel alignment
- Balding tyres
- Worn suspension components
In those vehicles, dry steering places greater stress on already fragile systems. It can cause:
- Premature tyre wear (especially at the edges)
- Steering rack and tie rod damage
- Extra heat in electric power steering motors
- Noisy or clunky steering performance
What seems harmless in your dual-control Fiesta could be the tipping point for mechanical failure in their 15-year-old Vauxhall Corsa.
So when we say,
🎯 4. We Should Teach for Life, Not Just for the Mark Sheet
It’s tempting to use dry steering as a shortcut. It works. It avoids hassle. It helps them “get it in the bay.”
But as professionals, we have a bigger responsibility.
We don’t just prepare people to pass a test — we prepare them to drive safely, confidently, and mechanically sympathetically for the rest of their lives.
Dry steering may not be penalised on the test. But it’s:
- Bad for habit formation
- Bad for mechanical sympathy
- Bad for learning how a car behaves
That’s enough reason to phase it out of our teaching, or at the very least, reserve it for only those situations where no other option exists.
✅ What You Can Say to Pupils
Here’s a clear way to frame it
This isn’t about making learners’ lives harder. It’s about giving them skills that will make everything easier later.
Final Thought
Teaching someone to drive is like teaching them a language. You can train them to repeat phrases — or you can teach them to speak fluently.
Dry steering may get the phrase right. But it’s not fluent driving.
Let’s keep our focus on the bigger picture — building drivers who don’t just pass the test, but master the road.
