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Steering wheel wiggle

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Dallasneon

Member
I just bought my GTP and its been an awesome car so far. The problem I am having is during turning left or right the steering wheel gets a wiggle in it almost a tug back and forth. It never does it going straight down the road only on turns. When I did the wheel bearing I noticed the tie rod boot was torn. Could they be the problem? Also the ABS and TCS light are on which i know kills the magnasteer, would magnasteer not working cause the issue? Thanks.
 


If you are feeling this only on sharper turns- getting close to lock. I would be thinking steering rack. If it did this going straight I'd say wheel balance. Maybe try Lucas power steering additive. That stuff helps get rid of hard spots in the steering.
 
I would think your rack is going bad. Check for worn components. If none can be found, the rack should be replaced.
 
COEBAM said:
If you are feeling this only on sharper turns- getting close to lock. I would be thinking steering rack. If it did this going straight I'd say wheel balance. Maybe try Lucas power steering additive. That stuff helps get rid of hard spots in the steering.
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Well that's what is throwing me. Its not when I'm getting close to lock its more like anytime its off center. Imagine a slow sweeping turn were you just turn in slightly, that's when the tugging or wiggling starts. But i'll throw some Lucas in just to see.
 
I still say rack. I've got 149k on mine having same problems. I put the lucas in...It took some time 2-3 weeks. but it def feels smoother.
 


I think I have a similar problem on my 2001 GT , it does not seem that bad yet , I have 170,000km on the car . but feels like the steering wheel wants to move back and forth a bit when turning right or left ..

there is another problem I have which is vibration on acceleration when going right around a turn at 25-80 kph , like at a highway onramp , I think its most likely CV shafts from what I have read .. planning to replace both sides with new , been reading about A1 cardone new CV assemblies , are they any good?
I dont want vibrations.

maybe for the power steering I will try some lucas ..
how much did you use ?
 
I filled it with Lucas and it still does the wiggle action, its not major so I'm gonna let it ride till I can't stand it anymore.

The vibration you are getting is probably the CV shafts, my car was doing the same thing if i accelerated from about 65mph or up, it would vibrate like crazy. Replaced them both and it went away. I have the Cardone CV's, and they seem fine.
 
TurboTrav said:
other things to consider: alignment, warped rotors, bad wheel bearing
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Has nothing to do with anything you just said, and it also has nothing to do with cv shafts. For one cv-shafts will start to click and make noise so it makes it obvious if those need replaced. Two, warped rotors and bad wheel bearings have nothing to do with this guys symptoms and or steering system problems. Three alignment could be a problem but I highly doubt it.

I've got the same problem on my 1998 gtp but it's not to bad. It almost feels like the wheel tugs a bit and isn't completely smooth. My car only does this when it's cold, when completely warm my tugging problem disappears. Leads me to believe power steering pump, lines, or rack problem only.
 
Dallasneon,
ya from what I have read CV inner joint is most likely cause for the vibration on accelerate, as everything else to check seems ok. I will get my mechanic to take a test drive and inspect as well just to get his expert opinion on the matter.

cleangtp, for my vib on acceleration do you not agree it could be CV? if its not the CV do you have an idea what could be root cause?


Now for the steering wheel wiggle I am also experiencing (which is why I posted on this tread) I dont think that low speed wiggle is caused by CV's. I did some more road testing , the wheel wiggle does not happen when fully stopped ever , I can turn the steering wheel fully from stop to stop with out any wiggle and it seems very easy and smooth no noises either. But when doing even a very low speed I get a bit of wiggle you can feel , in either direction.
its not that bad , but just a bit annoying and does not feel quite right to me.
I dont think its related to the wheel / tire because it does not seem to change with speed , if it was the tires / wheel , I would expect it to have faster back and forth motion at higher speeds.

does anyone have any thought? everything on the front end seems very tight and proper on the hoist. the car does have 170,000 kms on 01 GT , and I dont think the steering rack has ever been replaced could it be the rack itself?

could this be caused by magnasteer ? can that be disabled perhaps?

any thought / ideas / experiences appreciated.
 


Is there anyone in here that ACTUALLY has any kind of working knowlege or experiance repairing automobiles, or is a forum a place to spread a bunch of mis-information that just gets passed around and accepted as fact because people dont know any better? The problem is not warped rotors, bad CV joints, bad steering rack, or wheel bearings. The problem is that your Toe is out of adjustment. You need an alignment. Pretend you are standing on your roof and were able to look through your car to see the tires. When driving in a straight line the front of your tires should be slightly closer at the front (bumper side) than the back ( firewall side). This is called "toe in" and every car needs a little toe in to drive nice. When you turn a corner, depending on which way you turn one tire will piviot in more than the other. Stand in front of a friends car or truck and have them turn the wheels back and forth lock to lock and you will see what I am talking about. When your toe is out of adjustment a tire may piviot either not enough or too much. This difference in pivioting is why you here tires squeel in a parking garage that hase a smooth concrete surface. The tugging is the tires fighting with each other for traction while you are turning. You dont feel it while driving in a straight line because the forces are not that great. However, if you dont have an alignment you will experiance either rapid outside edge or most likely inside edge tire wear. Everytime you unbolt or replace anything having to do with your suspension, you need to at least go somewhere to get your alignment checked. If it's not too far off most places will do the adjustment for free hoping that you come back to spend money on wheels and tires. In the past I have worked at Sears and Firestone performing alignments and have seen cars that have wiped out tires that were purchaced from us 2 weeks earlier because they didnt want to spend the $60 for an alignment. Too bad beacuse they spent more money to replace 2 brand new - worn out tires.
 
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buford1972 said:
Is there anyone in here that ACTUALLY has any kind of working knowlege or experiance repairing automobiles, or is a forum a place to spread a bunch of mis-information that just gets passed around and accepted as fact because people dont know any better? The problem is not warped rotors, bad CV joints, bad steering rack, or wheel bearings. The problem is that your Toe is out of adjustment. You need an alignment. Pretend you are standing on your roof and were able to look through your car to see the tires. When driving in a straight line the front of your tires should be slightly closer at the front (bumper side) than the back ( firewall side). This is called "toe in" and every car needs a little toe in to drive nice. When you turn a corner, depending on which way you turn one tire will piviot in more than the other. Stand in front of a friends car or truck and have them turn the wheels back and forth lock to lock and you will see what I am talking about. When your toe is out of adjustment a tire may piviot either not enough or too much. This difference in pivioting is why you here tires squeel in a parking garage that hase a smooth concrete surface. The tugging is the tires fighting with each other for traction while you are turning. You dont feel it while driving in a straight line because the forces are not that great. However, if you dont have an alignment you will experiance either rapid outside edge or most likely inside edge tire wear. Everytime you unbolt or replace anything having to do with your suspension, you need to at least go somewhere to get your alignment checked. If it's not too far off most places will do the adjustment for free hoping that you come back to spend money on wheels and tires. In the past I have worked at Sears and Firestone performing alignments and have seen cars that have wiped out tires that were purchaced from us 2 weeks earlier because they didnt want to spend the $60 for an alignment. Too bad beacuse they spent more money to replace 2 brand new - worn out tires.
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Trust me it has nothing to do with the toe! I've got the exact same thing going on. Goes away when the vehicle is warmed up so that just ruled out your theory!
 
buford1972 said:
Is there anyone in here that ACTUALLY has any kind of working knowlege or experiance repairing automobiles, or is a forum a place to spread a bunch of mis-information that just gets passed around and accepted as fact because people dont know any better? The problem is not warped rotors, bad CV joints, bad steering rack, or wheel bearings. The problem is that your Toe is out of adjustment. You need an alignment. Pretend you are standing on your roof and were able to look through your car to see the tires. When driving in a straight line the front of your tires should be slightly closer at the front (bumper side) than the back ( firewall side). This is called "toe in" and every car needs a little toe in to drive nice. When you turn a corner, depending on which way you turn one tire will piviot in more than the other. Stand in front of a friends car or truck and have them turn the wheels back and forth lock to lock and you will see what I am talking about. When your toe is out of adjustment a tire may piviot either not enough or too much. This difference in pivioting is why you here tires squeel in a parking garage that hase a smooth concrete surface. The tugging is the tires fighting with each other for traction while you are turning. You dont feel it while driving in a straight line because the forces are not that great. However, if you dont have an alignment you will experiance either rapid outside edge or most likely inside edge tire wear. Everytime you unbolt or replace anything having to do with your suspension, you need to at least go somewhere to get your alignment checked. If it's not too far off most places will do the adjustment for free hoping that you come back to spend money on wheels and tires. In the past I have worked at Sears and Firestone performing alignments and have seen cars that have wiped out tires that were purchaced from us 2 weeks earlier because they didnt want to spend the $60 for an alignment. Too bad beacuse they spent more money to replace 2 brand new - worn out tires.
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I love when someone marches into a thread, treating everyone like their stupid, and then the information they provide as absolutly nothing to do with the problem.

Look, this has not a thing to do with alignment, I have had my car on an alignment rack 3 time, 1st time, to have it aligned and the other 2 was to check the aligment, and this was at 2 different shops. The alignment was within factory spec each time and still is today. It has nothing to do with tires either as I had those replaced between the alignment checks. I am abosolutly convinced its the rack now. Mine is on order and should be installed by next weekend, I'll update everyone.
 
I do plan to get an alignment check, but I think its ok , the tires do not appear abnormally worn.

I was able to disable the magnasteer as well to test , I found out you can just unplug the connector from the steering rack.
But I did it another way because I did not want to climb under there, and it was only temporary to test how it drives.
I unplugged the EBCM connector , which disables ABS, traction control and Magnasteer all at once.

With the magnasteer disabled the steering is much more stiff , I personally like it better , but I am not sure how good it is for the rack. so I will put it back to the normal.

I get less of the steering wheel wiggle , but its still present , I think the magnasteer disable just made is less noticable. maybe its the rack itself its the OE rack with 170,000 KM on it .. , but I will try swaping around the wheels as another test to see if that changes anything.
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with regard to the vibration on acceleration , I also notice something else that causes vibration on the highway, when I hit a bump on the highway and the car goes down and up , when it goes down , the vibration makes itself felt , its the same feel as when going right around a corner at speed .
it also seems to be aggravated if I press on the gas , and lessen if I lift off the gas.

still have not done any actual replacement of parts , and will not do until I get it looked at by an experienced mechanic , but I am thinking maybe I should do the strut assembly and CV's , then if after that the steering is still wobbly maybe the rack itself. but well see , maybe it will turn out to be something different altogether. will post when I know more .
 
Good god people replace the tie-rods with some MOOGs and call it a day I just did mine and it turns completly different not to mention I drive 200 miles a day! mines getting a new rack too considering inner moogs are like 40 each and a whole rack after exchange is about 130 from Oreillys. The rack comes with inner tie rods to doing just inners makes no sense. Oh my car has brand new BF Goodrich tires also so the balance is fine. Im telling ya I couldnt believe how much stupid tie rods helped.
 


Just becasue the boots looks fine means nothing yes mine were messed up the taper was screwed up on them and it let them moving back and forth pivioting on the steering knuckle. It should move a little its a ball joint. If bad it will be noticable like tugging on the wheel when turning like you said and mine made noise going in and out of driveways or parking lots. I thought that noise was the upper strut mounts flexing but the outter tie rods stopped that also. Once I get the rack and inner tie rods done it will be even that much better. I have 140k on my car you said you have more right? start with tie rods and get moog from oreillys their better than stock and like 40 45 each I think dont remember but I use the best available replacements like my Thermo quiet brake pads cost more yes, worth it absolutly!! Also DO NOT grease up the tierods with the car in the air youll over fill it and likely wreck the boot. The suspension needs to be loaded so grease them with the wheels on the ground! Ive seen many people pop brand new boots then you might as well start over.
 
02GrandPrixIraqVet said:
Good god people replace the tie-rods with some MOOGs and call it a day I just did mine and it turns completly different not to mention I drive 200 miles a day! mines getting a new rack too considering inner moogs are like 40 each and a whole rack after exchange is about 130 from Oreillys. The rack comes with inner tie rods to doing just inners makes no sense. Oh my car has brand new BF Goodrich tires also so the balance is fine. Im telling ya I couldnt believe how much stupid tie rods helped.
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I replaced tie rods as well with Moogs and still had the wiggle feeling. If the rack does not fix it the only other thing i can think of would be the ball joints.
 
Dude not every wiggle is gonna have the same fix. I was stating that I had all the same problems and outter MOOG tie rods fixed it. I understand it could be other things but outter tie rods are a cake job. And a good place to start since their way easier than ball joints. And control arm bushings are a massive PITA !!
 
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