[fdnczx3]

ok so today i took a right corner at a high rate of speed to come to feel that my steering wheel shifted an inch or so to the left!? wth!!

ive looked into steering wheel play but didnt come across any answers to what i am experiencing.

i also can move it a bit when i am not driving to the left an inch or so with my hands on 4 and 8 o'clock.. but does not have any play to the right.

lose tie rod?

steering rack/column?

mmmm dont know much on steering i am doing my research and will feel for lose parts this weekend with more time since it is my DD[driving]

input/pointers would be awesome

 

[sleepyboy]

Moved to the Technical Chat area, you'll get more answers here.



I would pull the steering column covers off and look at the column to see what's going on. On my older focus the wheel moves slightly side to side, but that's from me holding on tight to it when my seats broke and I drove like that for a while.

 

[sailor]

Agree with Sleepyboy,

Looking at the column itself & where it bolts down would be the place to investigate.

Play in the steering itself is the more common subject, that's when you turn the wheel & the car's wheels don't respond instantly (tie rod ends as you mention for example).

If yours is adjustable there are more places for it to get loose.

 

[tmittelstaedt]

Here's my advice on the steering. Go to a tire store you trust and buy a lifetime wheel alignment. Take the car in. If there's anything loose in there they will not do the alignment and show you the problem while the car is on the lift. Then just refuse to have them do any work, take the car home and fix it, then bring it back (because you will need to have it realigned, anytime you work on the steering or front suspension you will have to have it realigned.)

I have a lot of respect for the guys who insist they get a better alignment when they do it in their garage with a tape measure. But the alignments I get at the tire store on their alignment bench are "good enough" and they have the car on and off the rack a lot quicker than I would.

 

[fdnczx3]

tanks guys all this info helps.[twothumbs]

 

[amc49]

' If there's anything loose in there they will not do the alignment...'

I would NOT rely on THEM to do that, time and time again posters here have commented on aligns done with totally destroyed front end parts on the cars. The align guys do what you tell them (legal issues), you must clearly say 'don't align!' if they find something loose. DON'T leave it up to them, if a single pay they will align to get the money and wrong, if lifetime they will simply fiddle with it to change something since something will ALWAYS be off 'a little' and give the defective car right back to you. And no way would I trust them to find steering issues inside the cockpit unless easily reproducible at the time. You gotta lead the horse to the water.

Look at the attachment of bottom plate under steering column, one guy here in the recent past posted a broken shaft joint pic, not realizing the entire plate was cracking up in pieces to let the whole steering column move around. What broke the joint. And fix it NOW, that is extremely dangerous.

If column attachment is the problem really no need to align for that after fixed unless you just really want to. The stock locators would put the column and by extension the steering back where it was pretty much. The column can actually move around a bit as far as points in space and still work fine, look at what happens when you adjust the steering column up or down. And the column mounting bolts often have big slotting/loose holes to accommodate them, the steering works fine bolted up in a slightly different spot from before. The joint coupler lower down is what needs to be about the correct spot and the rack pretty much locks that in.