The car wants to wander all over the road like you constantly need to have your hands on the wheel to keep it going straight.

 

Ok so it's an ea82 car but it has a Legacy 2.2 the Power steering rack has been replaced with a known good one even put new boots on it then refilled with fluid the lower ball joint are good on both sides and tie rods are good on both sides.

 

The only other thing i can think of is the front wheel bearings are going bad but when the front end is off the ground i cannot get any movement out of either side the wheels spin ok but other than that nothing feels loose.

 

What could it be?

 

Any info helps thanks Rob.

What's the alignment like?

 

GD

Does it consitatly pull to on side or the other?

When was the alignment done last?

Hit any potholes lately?

 

Could be a bad strut, toe is most likely out.

The car wants to wander all over the road like you constantly need to have your hands on the wheel to keep it going straight...the Power steering rack has been replaced with a known good one

Even a good rack can have some backlash, which can make the steering wander both left and right. It's nice to take out the backlash anyway, even if that's not the true problem. It's something to eliminate as a possibility anyway.

you might not get much wheel play on a subaru with bad bearings. when i had a bearing go out on my ea82, i replaced the wrong side at first, there was virtually no slop with the double bearing setup, even though the inner bearing was disentegrated(by this time the wheel bearing was louder then the radio). just an idea.

 

you should go on your wheel bearing suspicions...vague steering is the first clue before any noise or slop

How about the tires? A shifted belt in a tire can make a car pull like the brake on that side was stuck!

wouldn't that be funny if your directional tread was mixed up...

 

geez if your pretty happy with everything else, +1 on the tires themselves

 

*** oh hey, have you tried the rotation game? where you move a tire from front to back to see if it changes anything? ***

Front tires are brand new and balanced its not pulling to one side more than the other it wanders ~~~~ <like that if i dont keep it straight. the chevy dealership does a free alignment check i think i will have it looked at.

 

ugg Rob.

My guess is that you have a bit of toe out. Throw a tape across it and see.

yeah i have been out on the GL500 doing most of my running around i will check it out with the tape mesure when im free.

 

Rob

if the car has a ton of miles the suspension bushings could be shot too. My old GL front suspension would move front and back when getting on the brakes (I watched les schwab pull it in the shop for tires once and saw a TON of movement) So ya my GL had some wander to it once it got over 275K. Wouldn't even hold an alignment.

One other thing to be aware of if the outer CV joint is lacking grease they can give just those symptoms as they bind and yet not give the dreaded dead CV noise on tight turns,Maybe someone has replaced a boot at some stage and not correctly packed the CV with grease or used the wrong grease.

Only way to check this is pull the boot back so it can be a good excuse to clean and repack the CV joint.

How do I know I had it happen to an MY I bought and it took a while to find what it was.

Pulling is caused by a high camber, low caster situation as far as alignments. You can also have a radial pull where the belts of the tires on the front can cause it but usually I see this on cheaper tires.

 

A wander is caused by excessive toe in or excessive toe out in the front. It can also be caused by a crab walk in the rear where the rear end thrust angle is out of whack. I have a slight wandering issue with my XT6 but thats or course because the steering rack bushings need to be replaced (oil soaked rubber...) but the alignment is in spec. So if your suspension and steering are tight as far as parts, then an alignment is whats needed.