steering wheel play

AzStang98

Founding Member
Nov 15, 2001
250
0
0
Tucson, Arizona
When I bought my car the steering wheel was nice and tight. Now it has a ridiculous amount of play and grooves in the road pull the car all over the place. Does it sound like my rack and pinion needs to be replaced? Also what would cause looseness in the actual steering column and steering wheel itself?
 
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Jack up the front end and put it on stands. Wiggle the front wheels with you hands and look for the play. It would be helpful to have someone else there to move the wheels for you while you locate the source of the slop. If you are lazy, you can take it to an alignment shop and have them give you a free estimate on fixing it. They will tell you what is wrong. Many times its not the rack itself, but the inner tie rods that are in the boots on the end of it. These can be change with the rack in the car, but some of them require a special tool which can be expensive. I just had the shop replace mine. For the extra $40 it was not worth the trouble.
 
jerry beach said:
Jack up the front end and put it on stands. Wiggle the front wheels with you hands and look for the play. It would be helpful to have someone else there to move the wheels for you while you locate the source of the slop. If you are lazy, you can take it to an alignment shop and have them give you a free estimate on fixing it. They will tell you what is wrong. Many times its not the rack itself, but the inner tie rods that are in the boots on the end of it. These can be change with the rack in the car, but some of them require a special tool which can be expensive. I just had the shop replace mine. For the extra $40 it was not worth the trouble.


I have actually had the inner and outter tie rods replaced and that did not solve the problem