Steering wheel "play" question
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,352
Likes: 230
From: Northeast FL
Steering wheel "play" question
The car drives straight, brakes straight, no vibrations. Steering wheel is nice and tight......except for the first 1/4 inch either direction from top dead center. It's like there's no resistance and no steering impact when moving the steering wheel. Then you reach the point of resistance after a 1/4 inch turning the wheel and the car turns like it should. Once past the "loose" point the steering is nice and tight. By that I mean any adjustments to the steering angle during a turn exhibits no play in the steering wheel. It's only when moving either way from top dead center. Rolling or not. Speed has no impact.
Seems kind of odd.
Thoughts?
Car info....2004 vert, 13,900 miles. SIx speed.
Seems kind of odd.
Thoughts?
Car info....2004 vert, 13,900 miles. SIx speed.
Drifting
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,547
Likes: 210
From: Huntersville, NC
There are two bolts that hold the steering rack to the cradle. Driver side a hard one to tighten. the pass side has a bushing that could be shot. Not unusual to find eithe bolt a bit loose.
The tie rod ends could be loose, but unlikely on a low mile. The inner tie rod connection is a spherical joint, and hidden by the accordian boots on the rack. They are really tight, but possible improperly tightened by the factory.
After that and the steering shaft bolt mentioned above, the next would be one thing wrong with the rack itself
The tie rod ends could be loose, but unlikely on a low mile. The inner tie rod connection is a spherical joint, and hidden by the accordian boots on the rack. They are really tight, but possible improperly tightened by the factory.
After that and the steering shaft bolt mentioned above, the next would be one thing wrong with the rack itself
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 3,294
Likes: 482
From: Brea CA
This sounds like the issue a friend of mine had on his 2000. What we found after changing the steering rack and inspecting the tie rods and coupler was that the universal joint in the column where it tilts was bad.
We were already planning a swap from the standard column to a telescopic one, this speed up the change.
No issues since the change. This has been about 70k miles since it was swapped.
Gary
We were already planning a swap from the standard column to a telescopic one, this speed up the change.
No issues since the change. This has been about 70k miles since it was swapped.
Gary
Drifting
Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 1,365
Likes: 414
From: New Jersey
Last edited by C5MSG2004Vert; Oct 23, 2021 at 10:08 PM.
