I’ve noticed for a few weeks now that sometimes when I’m driving the steering wheel will pull kind of hard to the right. It’ll do it for a while and then it’ll go to the left, or it’ll just go straight. It started to wobble and shake last week. I had the tires rotated and balanced a few days ago. It revealed that one of the two original tires had a broken belt. I had it replaced and the car drove better. Today I had to go out of town and I still felt the wheel pulling in my hand to the right for a little bit and some small vibration that stopped after some miles. I checked the wheels and I didn’t see a nail or anything sticking out.
I don’t know if this will help, but this is a very basic Caliber. No RPM gauge, no electric windows, or door locks, not even cruise control. I’ve had it for three years now. I’ve changed all but one of the original tires. It has over 99,000 miles on it.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Caliber Caliper?
Was The Car Checked For A Dragging/Sticking Brake Caliper?
How About Steering And Suspension Hardware, Tie-Rods/Ends, Ball-Joints, Track-Arm Bushings, Etcetera?
CSA
I think you need the suspension, brakes and steering inspected ASAP.
This could be an accident waiting to happen.
A broken tie rod and you could lose control. Same with the ball joints and usually when one goes there is major body work from losing a wheel.
Please get this inspected so you or any other people get hurt.
Hopefully it will just be sticking calipers, but I doubt it is just that.
Yosemite
Concur w/ Yosemite above, this should probably by looked at by a shop w/due speed as it might be a safety problem. If you aren’t able to take it in – or a shop has already looked at it and doesn’t see anything obviously wrong — sometimes these kinds of problems can be diagnosed by swapping the tires around and seeing if the symptom follows one of the tires.
+1 to CSA’s post and to Yosemite’s post.
There are a number of possible causes. Bring it to a reputable chassis shop, give them a clear description of the symptoms (the one you gave us is excellent), and let them give it a good checkup.
You could even print this thread and bring it to them if you’d like. Sometimes people get tung-tied or forget details in person that they put in writing. Writing gives you a chance to think through what you want to say. According to his autobiography, Lee Iacocca made all his senior managers submit everything in writing because it forces one to think through what they want to say.