So heres the scoop i have this terrible steering wheel problem thats extremely annoying right around 51-52 mph and then it goes to being only moderately annoying up to 70 and then kinda fades away, plus whenever i turn the wheel too far to the right i hear and feel a pop, heres what has been done to try and fixit and still no fix

1. balanced all wheels perfectly
2. rotated wheels thinking the shakes could be from bent rim
3. replaced all shocks and struts
4. had the car aligned to perfection
5. replaced both front wheel bearings
6. replaced both front tie rod ends
7. had the car re-aligned perfectly


i am at my wits end with this and have no idea on what it could possibly be, any help would be much appreciated,

 

i hope you didnt pay a mechanic to do all that, and your still having that problem...maybe balljoints?

 

Assuming 1-7 were done correctly (and the "rotated" wheels were not both bent or out-of-round) the only things left are the ball joints and the steering rack.

However the fact that it is speed dependent pushes me toward a dynamic balancing problem--have you had the tires/wheels balanced on a "road force" balancer like the Hunter 9700? That machine in particular will very often find wheel and tire run-out (radial and lateral) issue that other balancers miss.

 

no i havent tried that balancer but how would i find that? but ya i did have to pay someone but he showed how for further projects and i new a couple of em were bad bad but is the ball joint expensive or easy to replace??

 

o also since my "pop" is when i turn the wheel to the right does that mean theresa good chance that the right ball joints or should i replace both sides? also upper and lower?

thanks alot

 

ball joints arent bad to do, i recommend upper and lower. call a local shop and get a quote, shouldnt be too pricey

 

No upper ball joints on the '99-'04 MY, it's a modified McPherson strut with just lowers...

 

if i get new ball joints should i have to get the car re-aligned?

 

Yup, but don't just get them changed for the sake of it--they are easy to check:



The spec for maximum movement is 0.8mm (1/32")...

 

o my mechanic did this before he aligned it the last time and everything was solid there was no movement, he just had replaced the tie rod ends and it was his way of checking and he told me that everything was solid and that uf the alignment didnt work he didnt know what it would be, im sure if this is how you test them he'd pick up on it