Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and trader007
New Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2010
- Messages
- 149
- Reaction score
- 2
- Points
- 0
- Vehicle Year
- 1999
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Transmission
- Automatic
when it gets hot outside, and i drive the truck enough (get it hot too) i get this play in the steering that i cannot pinpoint. i think its in the rack itself.
it makes a small knocking sound in the steering wheel, i can feel it more then hear it... just enough to notice it well enough for it to be annoying. it doesnt really effect the steering, but it is about 1/8" of play in the wheel without the truck responding. normally though, the slightest tire shake is enough to make it sort of rattle. but again its not like it hurts the steering that bad.
basically, on a straight flat road, its just enough so that if you pull the wheel left and let it go, it will just barely wander left after awhile, and if you nudge it right, the truck will wander right ever so slightly. if you hang onto center, you can just barely feel the wheels dancing back and forth on the highway even though the truck keeps straight.
truck has 191k, and its been doing this for at least 20k miles now i think.. again its only when its hot outside and the truck is hot (just normal stuff but you know what i mean), and it seems like when its just normal or cold outside the steering tightens up and it really doesnt have any play.
both balljoints replaced on both sides, and tie rods checked multiple times. alignment shop couldnt really figure out why it wouldnt stay perfectly calibrated even though everything looked and was seemingly tight.
my best guess is either the fluid inside the rack is bad/dirty/whatever and just doesnt hold up in the heat anymore... or the rack itself is worn out. thats the best i can describe! just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. i think ill try draining out the crappy looking fluid and replacing it with some new stuff + lucas additive or something.
it makes a small knocking sound in the steering wheel, i can feel it more then hear it... just enough to notice it well enough for it to be annoying. it doesnt really effect the steering, but it is about 1/8" of play in the wheel without the truck responding. normally though, the slightest tire shake is enough to make it sort of rattle. but again its not like it hurts the steering that bad.
basically, on a straight flat road, its just enough so that if you pull the wheel left and let it go, it will just barely wander left after awhile, and if you nudge it right, the truck will wander right ever so slightly. if you hang onto center, you can just barely feel the wheels dancing back and forth on the highway even though the truck keeps straight.
truck has 191k, and its been doing this for at least 20k miles now i think.. again its only when its hot outside and the truck is hot (just normal stuff but you know what i mean), and it seems like when its just normal or cold outside the steering tightens up and it really doesnt have any play.
both balljoints replaced on both sides, and tie rods checked multiple times. alignment shop couldnt really figure out why it wouldnt stay perfectly calibrated even though everything looked and was seemingly tight.
my best guess is either the fluid inside the rack is bad/dirty/whatever and just doesnt hold up in the heat anymore... or the rack itself is worn out. thats the best i can describe! just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. i think ill try draining out the crappy looking fluid and replacing it with some new stuff + lucas additive or something.
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i guess ill just flush and refill and go from there.
