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I’ve got something weird going on with my steering and I’m having trouble getting it diagnosed. –Perhaps the Pradopoint brains trust will have some ideas.
When we returned from Cape York the Prado had a bad vibration and wobble in the steering. It turned out my aftermarket, steel rims were buckled. Once new rims were fitted the vibration was gone but the steering was still vague, so I put it into a suspension specialist for a wheel alignment and a general check of the steering. They found that the camber pins were seized, and there was some wear in the steering rack mounting bushes. So I had them replace the camber pins, lower control arm bushes and steering rack mounting bushes. When I first picked up the car it all seemed good but after a few hundred kilometers, all of a sudden, the steering wheel was down to the right by 25 to 30 degrees but the car was still driving straight. It was like on an older vehicle if you removed the steering wheel rotated it a couple of splines and replaced it. I checked all the steering and suspension but couldn’t find anything wrong. I then took it for another drive and the steering wheel was centered again!
I’ve had it back to the suspension place, they checked everything over, gave it another alignment, but couldn’t find anything wrong. That was on Friday, driving it around over the weekend I have found that 95% of the time the steering wheel is down to the right about 25 degrees and 5% percent of the time it is centered. Whether it is down to the right or centered the Prado seems to steer the same. It still seems a little vague and possibly there is a little more force required to turn left as compared to right (but that would also just be my imagination!).
I’ll be taking it back to the suspension place this week, but I don’t hold out a lot of hope since they have already been all over the car and couldn’t find anything wrong. The only thing I can think of it that there is something amiss inside the steering rack. If the suspension place can’t sort it out next time I guess I’ll be off to Toyota which is always interesting with all my modifications.
Any ideas on what the problem may be or how to check/test the steering rack?
Leachy
When we returned from Cape York the Prado had a bad vibration and wobble in the steering. It turned out my aftermarket, steel rims were buckled. Once new rims were fitted the vibration was gone but the steering was still vague, so I put it into a suspension specialist for a wheel alignment and a general check of the steering. They found that the camber pins were seized, and there was some wear in the steering rack mounting bushes. So I had them replace the camber pins, lower control arm bushes and steering rack mounting bushes. When I first picked up the car it all seemed good but after a few hundred kilometers, all of a sudden, the steering wheel was down to the right by 25 to 30 degrees but the car was still driving straight. It was like on an older vehicle if you removed the steering wheel rotated it a couple of splines and replaced it. I checked all the steering and suspension but couldn’t find anything wrong. I then took it for another drive and the steering wheel was centered again!
I’ve had it back to the suspension place, they checked everything over, gave it another alignment, but couldn’t find anything wrong. That was on Friday, driving it around over the weekend I have found that 95% of the time the steering wheel is down to the right about 25 degrees and 5% percent of the time it is centered. Whether it is down to the right or centered the Prado seems to steer the same. It still seems a little vague and possibly there is a little more force required to turn left as compared to right (but that would also just be my imagination!).
I’ll be taking it back to the suspension place this week, but I don’t hold out a lot of hope since they have already been all over the car and couldn’t find anything wrong. The only thing I can think of it that there is something amiss inside the steering rack. If the suspension place can’t sort it out next time I guess I’ll be off to Toyota which is always interesting with all my modifications.
Any ideas on what the problem may be or how to check/test the steering rack?
Leachy
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