When the sterring wheel has alot of play in it and vibrates when driving over normal streets - what do you guys think it is?
It could be a lot of things, from bad tires to wheel bearings to worn tie rod ends. Could you be a little more descriptive of the vehicle and the nature of the problem? Year? Mileage? 2wd or 4wd? Manual or automatic? Speed the problem occurs? Any other unusual conditions?
I think that you need to drive directly to the best front-end shop in town to find out what components in the front end of this mystery-vintage Mitsubishi (with an unknown number of odometer miles) are worn out.
The problem could involve any or all of the following:
Steering rack
Tie rod ends
Ball joints
Bushings
This is a definite safety issue, so I really mean it when I say that you need to take the car to a front-end specialist immediately.
Thanks for the reply. It’s a 2000 Mitsubishi Montero Sport with 148,000 miles on it - 2wd - automatic. Pretty much at any speed. It’s not severe however, it does have a definite “weobble” to the steering wheel. Turning is fine, tires are about 2/3 rds gone but not bad by any means. Anything else you can give me on this is appreciated!
Thanks agin for the recommendation and I will take your recommendation. Any idea of whether this is a big dollar repair? It’s a 2000 Mitsubishi Montero with 148,000 miles on it.
Thanks again!
It depends, anything from $100 (a bad bushing) to $1000 (lots of worn out stuff), or more (damage from hitting a curb, etc) hard to tell from here.
Thanks to all that replied! Really appreciate the help!
These vibration issues used to be an easy call when steering dampners were common, you don’t see them as much today, perhaps due too increased use of rack type steering.
Have someone move the steering wheel back and forth, about 1/8th turn in each direction, while you get down in front of the vehicle and watch each of the parts as they move. If something is severely worn, you will pick it out right away.