I've been trying to figure out a steering dead spot in my 01 Z06. Spent a ton of time reading on the forums and looking through problems other people have posted.

My symptoms are the following, about 2-5 degrees of slop in the system when the wheels are pointed straight ahead. Driving down the highway, I can feel the wheels hunting, and I have to make constant minute corrections to keep the car going straight, which is an annoyance. The car does not drift a particular direction. I've done the following to fix this problem, with no luck:

Tightened both nuts on the steering shaft from the wheel the the steering gearbox. They are very tight.

Replaced the entire steering rack with a remanufactured one. Bled the entire power steering system. The steering rack felt tight when I put it in. The old one felt tight as well, so I presume that was not the problem.. Oh well.

Replaced control rods (new steering rack has new inners, and I put new Moog outer control joints on as well)

Delrin bushing (same as the DRM unit) on the steering rack.

My rubber bushings look good, there is no noticable play in any of the ball joints, everything is very tight.

Still have the slop at neutral. I'm going in for an alignment on Thursday, and otherwise i'm out of ideas..

 

most cars have a slight toe in which can result in a dead zone in the steering. I always get my cars aligned with zero toe in order to have the most precise steering input.

 

The condition you're describing sounds like what is called "tramlining". It is the wide tires trying to follow the grooves in the road. The grooves can be rain grooves or the "ruts" formed in the asphalt by all the vehicles travelling in the same part of the lane. Do you notice it more on certain roads or stretches of road?

If it is tramlining, an alignment will help significantly but not cure it for all conditions. Let the alignment folks know what you're experiencing. There are a lot of discussions on this board about alignment settings. PFADT Racing had a sheet that gave recommendations for various forms of driving. (street only, street / track, track only)

The feedback you get from these cars is significantly different than what you experience from most other cars. Try daily driving your Z for several month and then get back into your other vehicle. You will feel numb to the road. I have to relearn how to drive my pick-up after 8 months of driving the Z because I will over drive the truck's abilities.

 

I'm going to get the car aligned tomorrow. Should see if that helps. I looked up the Pfadt performance street suggested toe settings, and I think i'm going to go with the very slight toe-in condition as described by them (.17 degrees)

The issue I still feel is as if there is excess lash in between the teeth on the rack and pinion setup. Not sure that would be felt as tramlining..

 

Reman racks are garbage, that may still be your problem.

 

I have this issue as well, let me know what you find out!

 

A buddy of mine had this issue on his 2000 C5. We swapped steering racks, verified tie rod ends and tightened the fitting at the rack for the column.
The issue ended up being the steering column itself. The Universal joint where the column tilts was worn causing the play. Swapped columns and that solved it.

Gary

 

Definitely going to be in the column u joint, very common ailment on many many cars.

 

6 year old thread. You might not get an answer.