Ford Excursion :: Steering Wheel Jerky When Coming Back To Center?
Mar 13, 2015
If I make a turn either right or left when bringing the steering wheel back to center it feels jerky or twitchy.
View 6 RepliesIf I make a turn either right or left when bringing the steering wheel back to center it feels jerky or twitchy.
View 6 RepliesI'm stuck failing a vehicle inspection for the steering wheel not returning to center after a turn. It turns most of the way back but you definitely have to finish the job yourself. I've jacked it up and turn the wheel lock to lock with no bind at all, one finger, nice and smooth. I've replaced almost everything up front (ball joints, u-joints, bearings, drag link both ends, etc.).
Mechanic that did the inspection seems to think the steering gearbox and/or the power steering pump could be the source. I have only seen threads for loose/wandering steering (which is why I replaced everything up front already) pointing to the gearbox. I brought the state trooper in to verify it and he said while he wouldn't necessarily fail it, he can't override the mech's call because it does require assistance to straighten out.
I took my truck to work and needed a pitman arm. So took it home put a new one on and the steering wheel was crooked which didn't bother me. but after in cranking the torsion bars I noticed how Badly I needed an alignment. So took it back in for an alignment and I cant turn the steering wheel back to center because the tie rods are maxed out. I tried to take the pitman arm back off center the wheel and everything but the key ways just line up the same way. Any chance the after market pitman arm is off or any clues?
View 11 RepliesThe steering on my truck has become a little heavy after making a turn and bringing the steering wheel back to center. The steering feels heavy like I had a front tire half way down. There's a lot of drag then once on center it's gone. Could it be the beginning of the end for my ball joints?
View 10 RepliesStarting having a problem with the front suspension on my 01 excursion. When you go over a incline I am getting a big bang in the front suspension also when you turn the steering wheel to the middle it has a jerk right before its in the straight position.
I have new wheel bearings and new locking hubs coming, this problem still happens without the hubs in. Could it be a front axle or U joint but it happens with the 4x4 disengaged.
Wife bought an '06 GS300. Not a bad car, but isn't my 2000 Camry either.... Of course I pick my Camry to the Lexus. I noticed driving it from the day she bought it with 75K on it, it has a jerk or detent when the steering wheel is brought back to center. On the road it drives me nuts, cause I was gifted at driving a car without tossing the passengers back and forth while going down the hwy and in the twisties. I turn and return, I don't try to crack sniff my way down the road. So the dealer can't feel it, the wife feels it some, and low and behold today, I bumped into a co-worker with the same model/year. She feels it too.
View 5 RepliesMy dad has a 2002 Limited X and my uncle had a '99? F350 dually. Both have this issue:
-Occasionally when driving down the road the truck will suddenly just try to veer off to one side or the other and then the steering gets really rough (The steering wheel moves back and forth rapidly. My dad has to pull off to the side of the road, completely stop and turn the wheel all the way to each side twice and it seems to correct it momentarily.
-The other issue is that when making a corner there will be a hard "thump" noise, and then the before mentioned issue occurs.
My dad has replaced all 4 ball joints, the 1 bad tie rod and has gone through a set of Warn Lockout Hubs (In less then 6 months. He had to drive around with the hubs locked in to prevent the truck from pulling due to warn out needle bearing. This somehow resulted in the passenger side Hub being internally destroyed and that wasn't even the side the bad ball joint was on.)
My 2000 V10 Ex 4x4 (has 146,000 miles) with some rust on rockers and wheel wells runs pretty good. The exhaust needs some work. The transmission shifts pretty well I think, except sometimes from 1st to 2nd its a little jerky (like in a parking lot). I've put powerstop brakes on all four wheels, and have been maintaining it pretty well since I bought it almost two years ago.
Here's my issue. My 3rd son (out of 4) was diagnosed 2 years ago with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia). His End Of Treatment (EOT) date is July 8th 2018. This is relevant because to celebrate his EOT, we are planning on taking a 2 week road trip out west in our new to us hybrid travel trailer we just purchased this past February. We are taking the camper on a few weekend trips this summer and one week long trip to Michigan in July (we're from Ohio).
My concern is this: am I risking a ruined trip out west with such an old vehicle? I don't really trust it for such a long trip, I worry something would fail me and ruin a trip that's supposed to be celebrating my son conquering cancer. Am I being overly paranoid? I see V10 trucks and Excursions all the time with more miles than my own. I just worry that the rust will just be too much and the driveshaft will fall off, or the transmission will fail while we're towing up the Bighorns, or in Yellowstone. You get the picture.
I'm completely aware a lifted truck will not ride factory and most likely ride harder. But this is ridiculous.
So I bought a 8" super lift for my F250 7.3 2000, although the price is very cheap at that shipped to my door debating if I have messed up either with the brand or somewhere because I feel like I went from a casual ride in my lovely 7.3 to feeling like a horse carriage of a few century's ago.
Lift is setup with lift leaf springs in the front, one add a leaf in the rear with a block, and 4 new shocks and all the other hardware included to do the lift.
I'm wondering if it's possible the springs are installed wrong, or the shocks are just that bad or if there a weird issue I've over looked.
Tire pressure is set to 35-40 psi all around on toyo open country mts, (which I was running before the lift so that hasn't changed) but I mean this is so stiff that when I hit a bump my steering wheel jerks and I feel like my suspension has absolutely no flex in it. Debating on returning to stock or not at this point...
I just drove a car I'm looking to buy and the steering wheel was pretty loose. Not jerky, just sloppy.
I can tell it needs an alignment, but what could I be looking at in order to tighten it up?
I've learned that front ends can get pricey pretty quick.
while taking turns at slow speeds, but only sometimes. Can't reproduce by turning wheel when not in motion. My 3yers/36,000 miles warranty expires soon. How do I prove I have a potential problem?
View 5 RepliesMy 'new to me' 01 Ex has 129k miles on it and the one problem is the steering. I read (all 34 pages of) the wander cure thread and I played with my steering box extensively over the last 3 weeks. The initial tightening really worked with the slack in the steering, as did adding air to the passenger front tire to even it out with the driver's side. But it did not cure everything. In fact, the tightening of the box revealed something else - the steering now exhibits what feels like binding. And now I must make minute corrections every second or two all the way down the road, even perfectly straight, flat roads. It's sorta driving me crazy(er) and my wife won't even consider driving it until it's fixed.
I was so caught up in diagnosing this problem that I completely missed that the steering wheel would not re-center itself after turns. My father noticed when he visited last weekend and tried to drive it but parked it after going around the block. If making a 90 degree turn, the wheel will maybe make it back to 45 degrees and stops. So you must manually turn the wheel back to center if you want to go straight.
So I've gone back and tried to loosen up the steering gears to start again, but now the gears seem tight regardless of how I adjust it.
I have already planned to replace the ball joints and get the alignment adjusted when I do the shocks and rear sway next week. Should i wait to see if the ball joints fix the problem or should i plan to replace the steering box at the same time? What say you all?
06 F250 6.0 CCSB 4x4 163K Truck was in a pass side wreck about three weeks ago. Aside from bumper, head light, etc I had to replace the track bar and then I had the alignment done. Mech said the steering was loose and was either the steering box or column.
PROBLEM: Truck drove and parked fine last night, I went to leave the driveway this morning and I had to turn the wheel full right while backing up. The wheel locked up and wouldn't turn back to the left to straighten out. Hood wouldn't pop either to check anything
I crawled under the truck, the belt was in place and I didn't see any power steering fluid leaking. Thinking it was a PS problem and the hood not opening, I basically floored it and yanked on the wheel and it broke loose. Also, for what ever reason the hood opened after that
Now the steering is heavy and the wheel doesn't center on it's own. It will stay turned when I let go of the wheel. Scared that it would happen I didn't try turning it full lock on the way to work. but it happened again exiting the parking lot, again full right lock and the wheel stuck.
I managed to yank the wheel to the left again and I heard a distinct pop from what I'm sure was the pass side wheel area.
The PS fluid is dark and I'll figure out how to change it. I've read issues from the U-joints, ball joints, Steering box, steering stabilizer, and failing PS pump could all lead to this. Being the truck had a pass side fender bender, and I'm pretty sure the pop sound came from the pass side how do I check all of these items.
I have a 2010 F250 King Ranch FX4. I have an odd problem that I am trying to get to the bottom of. We went on a 2,500 mile road trip last year and I noticed on the way home my steering wheel had worked it's way off center counter-clockwise at a perfect diagonal. I had gotten an alignment right before we left and it was perfect center at that point.
I took it back in when I got home and had a tire rotation and another alignment. Within a week the wheel was off again to the same degree, counter-clockwise at a perfect diagonal.
Two weeks ago... tired and annoyed of driving like this, I crawled under the truck and adjusted the steering wheel to center via the drag link adjustment. I tightened everything down tight and this lasted all of three days.
Wat would cause this? Tires are wearing normally, alignment checks out and it tracks straight. I do see some grease like leakage where the pitman arm meets the top of the drag link and again have some small grease where the drag link connect to the passenger side tire. I lifted the front end and tried to move/wiggle the tires and I have no movement... everything is solid. The truck never wanders when on the road... steering wheel is just off.
Truck only has 90k on it of highway miles and an easy life thus far. I am not hard on the truck.
I have a 2009 screw with ~60k miles. It is used for DD and tows our small camper or my flat deck w/jeep.
The other day I noticed an issue when turning right. The wheel gets hard to turn and does not want to return to center. There is also a low speed clunk you can feel in the steering wheel/column itself.
The truck is at the dealer now and they said the rack needs to be replaced and there is something in the column they need to replace too. I have the extended warranty, so this is all but covered 100%. I just have a deductible to pay.
I have not hit anything with the truck, so I am not sure what caused these issues.
Ok just swapped out the stock steering wheel(polyurethane) to the oem leather wheel...
The diy install went fine then i went to sleep, in the morning i took the car for a spin, i noticed when keeping the steering wheel straight i kinda veer to the left, ok maybe i got the install wrong so i popped out the wheel and adjust...but now it veers to the right!
How can I now keep my steering wheel straight w/out it veering left or right? I did change rims about 2 months ago, wheel alignment perhaps? Probably wasnt paying attention to the steering wheel before..
When I picked up my car I noticed the steering wheel is slightly off center to the left. I brought it back to the dealer who checked the alignment which was spot on. Toyota was notified and another C on the lot was driven which it's wheel was also slightly left. Dealer notified Toyota and offered to adjust wheel one more click but at the risk of it possibly moving to far to the right. I left it as is and as long as alignment is in specs I'm not to worried.
View 19 RepliesJust got my golf R 4 door/Nav. When driving straight on the highway (regardless of road crown)... my wheel was about 4 degrees off to the left. No problem alignment wise, but the nice flat bottom wheel is cockeyed.
Car has only 330 miles on it. Took it back to the dealership, they put it on the alignment rack - actually had me sit in the car ensuring the wheel was straight as the tech adjusted the Tie Rods below.
This made it better - I instantly noticed it was better when I took a short test ride with the tech, just as they were closing. However, on the highway home I noticed its still about 2 degrees to the left. Really frustrating as now I have to take it back to the dealer a second time.
The tech actually showed me the alignment printout which was close to-but not totally perfect. Said the only way to make it perfect is to adjust the sub-frame? Really? on a new vehicle.
I do have plans to mod the car's suspension with H&R Coilovers - but will not touch anything until I get this wheel thing square and I am 100% satisfied.
2012 Sonata ... I took it to dealer for alignment. Steering wheel off center.
mechanic said the left camber is off, cannot be corrected.
My question is, can the steering wheel still not be put to center so as it is not tilted to the left aprox. .5 "
The center of my steering wheel rattles (part that you press for your horn) is there any way to tighten this?
View 4 Replies13.5k, 2.2 Ecotec, Automatic
The MAF had to be replaced, while the car was at the dealer the power steering motor was replaced (recall). When I got the car back the steering motor (reman) was making a lot of noise and I took it back. This time the motor and the steering column were replaced. After a week I got the car back last night.
This morning I noticed the steering wheel is off center (~1/2 to 3/4") to the right. The car tracks straight with no pull to either side.