nickb21 Posted April 2, 2006 Share Posted April 2, 2006 '02 OBW, ~65k I have been fighting some type of steering issue for a little while now, but haven't been able to diagnose the exact issue. About 3k ago I put on a set of new tires, and new front rotors and pads (which fixed my shake under braking). At about 60mph and up i notice a pretty significant shake in the wheel. It seems to be much worse on rough and rutted highways vs fresh pavement, but that might not mean much. The car tracks straight at speed. With the new rubber I noticed steering is a bit softer, I figured it was the better traction rating of the new tires. I check the tie rod ends and ball joints and they seem okay. The 2 steering u-joints seem tight. When I grab the lower steering u-joint and move it back and forth I get a fairly loud "knock" coming from the rack-area. I did this while holding one of the inner tierod joints and i don't think they moved. Oddly enough if I rotate the u-joint while pushing out on the tires, the noise isn't as loud... So.. any suggestions? I'm thinking of just replacing the inner tie rods. But could this be an issue with the rack itself? Sorry for the long post.. thanks for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcspeer Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Have you had the tires rebalanced? If not I would try that and have them check for a seperated belt on the tire also. '02 OBW, ~65k I have been fighting some type of steering issue for a little while now, but haven't been able to diagnose the exact issue. About 3k ago I put on a set of new tires, and new front rotors and pads (which fixed my shake under braking). At about 60mph and up i notice a pretty significant shake in the wheel. It seems to be much worse on rough and rutted highways vs fresh pavement, but that might not mean much. The car tracks straight at speed. With the new rubber I noticed steering is a bit softer, I figured it was the better traction rating of the new tires. I check the tie rod ends and ball joints and they seem okay. The 2 steering u-joints seem tight. When I grab the lower steering u-joint and move it back and forth I get a fairly loud "knock" coming from the rack-area. I did this while holding one of the inner tierod joints and i don't think they moved. Oddly enough if I rotate the u-joint while pushing out on the tires, the noise isn't as loud... So.. any suggestions? I'm thinking of just replacing the inner tie rods. But could this be an issue with the rack itself? Sorry for the long post.. thanks for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickb21 Posted April 3, 2006 Author Share Posted April 3, 2006 Before i put the new tires on, I had the originals (re92's) re-balanced to no avail. Put the new ones on hoping it was an issue with the oem's... rotations didn't help either. I'm just confused since it's so inconsistent. Might have to just bring it up to a reputable shop and see what they think. Bearings and CV's seem tight. I think i'm running out of stuff to check! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OB99W Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 I have been fighting some type of steering issue for a little while now, but haven't been able to diagnose the exact issue. About 3k ago I put on a set of new tires, and new front rotors and pads (which fixed my shake under braking). At about 60mph and up i notice a pretty significant shake in the wheel. It seems to be much worse on rough and rutted highways vs fresh pavement, but that might not mean much. The car tracks straight at speed. With the new rubber I noticed steering is a bit softer, I figured it was the better traction rating of the new tires.[...] This kind of problem can be hard to diagnose. Looseness tends to exagerate the effect of imbalance, and vice versa, etc. Any front end looseness needs to be dealt with first. Besides imbalance, other tire-related possibilities are out-of-round, or runout (due to bent rim). However, since new tires and rotations didn't help, those seem to have been eliminated. I'm also assuming that the problem existed before the rotors were replaced, because imbalance in a rotor can sometimes cause problems that balancing the wheel and tire off the car can't resolve. Speaking of things being bent, is there any possibility of a damaged half-shaft? You could jack up the OB and try turning each wheel by hand, verifying that there's minimal runout (wobble). While rough roads can cause front end problems to make a vibration worse, it's also possible that a bad engine/trans mount could be confusing things. Have you checked them? It's sometimes useful to determine if the problem is road-speed specific or not. If the shake starts at 60MPH in top gear, does it also begin at the same speed if you're in one gear lower? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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