Dervish

Hopefully someone can help me pinpoint the cause of this problem.

If I take to the highway (>80 km/h or 50 mph) the steering wheel shudders so badly that my watch rattles. It also seems to be off by a few degrees.

I took it to a local mechanic and while it was jacked up he was able to tug on the left front wheel and show me that there was some play. He mentioned something about a "bearing".

Can anyone shed some light on this? Is it something I can replace easily? Or economically for that matter?

Thanks!

ant6177

If it is just the bearing then you should be able to replace it, if you are mechanically inclined and have access to a service manual.

This may be irrelevant, but have you checked if your wheels are balanced or not? On my old car I had this one wheel that was really off balance and it caused my steering wheel to shake at certain speeds.

Dervish

Thanks for replying. Well I'd originally brought the car in thinking it was an alignment problem but they actually suggested it might be balancing. After checking it out the verdict from the mechanic was that it was the bearing.

Now I do have the service manual and I can see that there are any number of linkages that could be at fault. Is the play in the wheel (when tugged) any indication of where the problem is exactly?

Thanks.

dubcac

Could be:

Bad axle
Bad tie rod
Bad balancing
Bad alignment
Possibly a bad wheel bearing

JimBlake

That indication comes from seeing exactly WHERE the looseness is located.

If it's a wheel bearing, then the wheel will be loose while the steering knuckle is held solid. If the steering knuckle moves along with the wheel then it's a ball joint. Then you look at each ball joint as you push/pull the wheel, to see which one is loose.

If a suspension arm actually moves along with the knuckle, then you're looking at a suspension bushing. These bushings are at the inboard end of the suspension arms. (This isn't as common as wheel bearings or ball joints.)

Dervish

Thanks JimBlake, that's the kind of troubleshooting I'll need I think.

I'll try and put the car on stands later this week and check it out.

Cheers.

JimBlake

Sometimes the movement is really small, and you have to put your hand across both parts or both sides of a balljoint. You can feel a very small knocking motion better than trying to see it.