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Loose Steering-Worse at +speeds

S

Snipey

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Dec 12, 2004
Messages
819
Location
Springfield, Ma
I've got brand new
-Struts/springs
-Outer tie-rod ends
-driver's side axle
-front sway bar links
-upper strut mounts

The steering feels very loose at times. My best comparison would be driving in the rain, and when you hit a puddle on the side of the road, how it pulls your car into the curb. Not exactly as strong of a pull, but very noticable.

Its especially awful at highway speeds and with uneven surface.
For example : switching lanes on the highway, i literally have to hold the steering wheel tight or it will pull back. It is much more noticable at high speeds but it also happens at any other speed. Seems intermittent but probably just depends on the road.

It pulls seemingly equal in whichever direction it decides to pull. I was thinking alignment but if it pulls both ways, wouldnt it be something else? I thought i had it pinned down when i found the drivers axle boot was leaking grease everywhere but the problem is the same after replacement of that.

What now? Anything to look for would be great.
 
had an alignment done yet? if not its time. Also try to get 1/8 total toe in (or 1/16 per side toe in) instead of the standard toe out spec for alignment. the car will follow the road less.
 
BrApple said:
had an alignment done yet? if not its time....
Click to expand...
Yep, had that issue before. :eek:

Also just for grins, do the o'clock test, just in case, something happened between the time those items were changed and loose steering. The other item to check if the steering column itself is the culprit.
 
wiggle the steering wheel left and right and see how far the steering wheel turns before the wheel actually turns
 
got the alignment yesterday...been waiting to drive for a bit to get an update

-definetly still have the problem, i'd have to say no improvement what-so-ever

also, there is no gap from when i turn the wheel, to the wheels visibly turning. even the slightest turn.
i'll try the clock test when i get a chance.

on the positive side, i got more than 50% off the alignment from employee discount at the balise ford i went to! at least it wont hurt so bad if i need another one in the future :)
 
i feel bad bothering him with my little problems/troubleshooting
i usually go to him when i got the parts ready for install :p

although it may be inevitable
 
steering column to steering gear

steering column to steering gear

Hi Snipey

there is a coupling between steering column and steering gear right under the accelator pedal (outside the room), if you partly remove the carpet, then the rubber part which isolates the room, you can see it. there is a rubber disk between the steering gear and the column end which is held by two bolts, the plate shape part of the coupling which carries the bolts, rusts the bolts hole become bigger and makes the steering loose, and usualy felt at high speeds. turn the engine off, use a light to see better, after moving the carpet and that rubber from room floor. play with the steering wheel, see if there is a loosnes or not?
 
i'll see about the bushings, that coupling sounds like quite a task to tackle...

i was drivin around tonight, around ~15mph... i'd be turning right and it would be real smooth, easy to turn, then turning the wheel back to the left would have some resistance. the same thing happened when turning left too, easy to turn, but resistance turning back.

kinda hoping to narrow down the possibilities before investing in anymore parts :p

thanks for the ideas !
 
Too much toe OUT will make it drift first one way then the other. Front wheel drive makes that problem worse as both powered wheels fight to take car in a slightly different direction. Seemed like someone above was suggesting a little more toe IN, that would help you. Don't forget INNER tie rod ends, i.e. the ends of the rack and pinion. Usually though they show up as a shake when letting off power. The rack can be loose to the pinion itself also, inside the steering unit itself. I have personally seen a badly mismatched set of tires on the front produce a similar spooky problem, car would suddenly take a track one way or the other like someone turned the wheel slightly. How 'bout 4 wheel tracking? Are rears square to fronts? Have seen some incompetent aligning I think around my area, great numbers of cars that when you follow them they are clearly not tracking straight, rear of car running way to one side or other of the front. Seen so many it's hard to believe they've all been wrecked, some seem to be fairly new vehicles.
 
I'd be looking at that rubber coupling like they said, you described perfectly what happened once on an old Mustang II I had that had that part fail. Turned in easy but steering would try to drag heavy coming out of turn, even lock up sometimes, dangerous as hell.
 
Snipey said:
got the alignment yesterday...been waiting to drive for a bit to get an update

-definetly still have the problem, i'd have to say no improvement what-so-ever

also, there is no gap from when i turn the wheel, to the wheels visibly turning. even the slightest turn.
i'll try the clock test when i get a chance.

on the positive side, i got more than 50% off the alignment from employee discount at the balise ford i went to! at least it wont hurt so bad if i need another one in the future :)
Click to expand...


do you have the specs for the alignment? was the front set with toe out or toe in?

If it was set by the book its going to track to the road. My SVT must have toe-out in the alignment as it really follows the road, I have to really hold onto the wheel at times because it wasn't to follow the road. You need toe-in, the car will not follow the road.

do this, take a tape measure and from the center of the tread to the center of the tread, or using the same two reference points measure the distance between the tires at 9 and 3 oclock, or as close as possible. I bet the measurment at the back side of the wheel, towards the back of the car is smaller then the front side. you want the front side smaller.

the difference is this

toe out - follows the road

\ /


toe in - tracks straight

/ \



/ = wheel



might also concider control arms as mentioned also ...
 
Bear in mind that front wheel drive cars have a tendency to increase toe in as both axles torque up and take up any slack in holding parts. That's backward from rear wheel drive which increases toe out as car changes from static (at rest) state to dynamic (car moving under power).
 
BrApple said:
If it was set by the book its going to track to the road. My SVT must have toe-out in the alignment as it really follows the road, I have to really hold onto the wheel at times because it wasn't to follow the road. You need toe-in, the car will not follow the road.
Click to expand...

Original KDW tires still, right? My SVT used to follow the road so much I thought I had suspension and/or alignment issues. Once the KDW's came off and the Blizzaks went on, it stopped.
 
amc49 said:
Bear in mind that front wheel drive cars have a tendency to increase toe in as both axles torque up and take up any slack in holding parts. That's backward from rear wheel drive which increases toe out as car changes from static (at rest) state to dynamic (car moving under power).
Click to expand...

i understand that but i've had the car for almost ~3 years and this is new to me. and its quite a drastic change from before.

i did notice last night driving home the tires were squealing a bit on some turns. (not very sharp turns) They were at ~40psi and tires max is 51 so i filled them a bit and they seem to be quiet now. Somewat worn but not worn enough yet to worry about new tires.
 
Snipey said:
i understand that but i've had the car for almost ~3 years and this is new to me. and its quite a drastic change from before.

i did notice last night driving home the tires were squealing a bit on some turns. (not very sharp turns) They were at ~40psi and tires max is 51 so i filled them a bit and they seem to be quiet now. Somewat worn but not worn enough yet to worry about new tires.
Click to expand...

What type of tires are you running? (Sorry if it was posted above somewhere. Heading out to lunch at work right now)

40 psi seems too high and now you are running them even higher?
 
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