Streering Wandering Feel

[JimPatterson]

My truck now has 30,000 miles on it, mostly highway driving, owned since June. My steering feel has changed and it doesn't feel as positive like it did a few months ago and wanders a little. I also had a clunk noise in the front end on a real sharp turn at low speed that went away over time. Dealer has checked it twice and never found a problem. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[rbattelle]

Could be worn rubber bushings?

 

[TBOB]

wander

C



heck the track bar. You may need to use a pry bar. Tbob also Make sure the tires are OK, Tread seperation will do the same thing.

 

[JimPatterson]

The clunk went away, it sounded like the front coil spring shifting in it's seat, maybe the surface polished up a bit so the spring can slide a little when the front axle flexes a little during a fast turn at low speed. The wandering bothers me, because the truck did steer so good, now I have to make slight constant corrections.



I checked the track arm and the link bushings they seem like new, and they should be, the truck is only 6 months old. My tires have only a third of their life left, could be the tires I had that problem on a car once. I'm going to have the alignment checked, went I put on new tires, maybe the alignment is slightly toed out, maybe as the front end worn in a little the toe might be out a little. I'll add a little more positive caster to improve the self centering ability.

 

[fozzy]

Check the Panhard bar. Every coil sprung Dodge I have ever had would get a clunk on hard turns and the truck would wander. It would be on the top ball joint on the panhard bar where it hooks to the frame. You could not ever see or feel it was bad when you checked it out, but your alignment shop should be able to tell you.

 

[DPKetchum]

Out of align. To much toe in causes wandering also.

 

[CLWilliams]

Check out my "Scared to Death" thread. I too experienced a little wandering from my previously tight steering. Last night on the way home (truck has not been repaired yet!!!!) some extreme wandering but everything seems tight! Dealer is supposed to fix on Tuesday!! We'll see.

 

[draymorris]

Get it checked again!

Sorry I just found this thread! I had this happen. Took it to the dealer - couldn't see anything. I thought I was going crazy! One minute it drives straight - next minute I thought I hit a cross wind. I told them it was intermittent - it did not do it for the tech when we took it for a spin. Thennnn - the problem showed its face - about 3000 miles later the steering box started leaking - from the top - the adjusting screw! I took it in quickly. I have a tech at my dealership that takes care of me. He put it on a rack and easily discovered that the shaft in the stearing box would move up and down - the adjusting screw had backed off causing the gear meshing to be loose. He wasn't sure, but he thought the gears could have become completly loose and lost stearing. They replaced the box with one from a truck on the lot because they were on back order. They hinted that they had seen this before!



Good luck.

 

[JDerbedrossian]

i had the same leak from top got fixed but no other problems