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View Full Version : Steering wheel/front end shimmy


ucfz31s13
07-05-2005, 05:41 PM
Lately the car has developed a VERY speratic(sp) and harsh steering wheel shimmy on occassion.

Generally driving under 60mph, the shaking only happens when I am mid turn or countersteering and hit a bump.

However, over 65+ it shakes rather badly, usually as soon as I do a lane change or hit some sort of bumpiness in the road.

In both instances, the steering wheel shakes so bad you'd think the outter tie rod was COMPLETELY shot. I have no choice but to hit the brakes and slow down a bit for it to go away. It only happens on occassion and I can't figure out what the problem is, only a few guesses, which is why I am coming to you guys.

I took the front wheels off today, and manually checked, shaking the hubs trying to find some sort of slack, but I could find nothing.

Up front the car has Tein HE's, SPLParts tension rods, and Tein inner/outer tie rods. All parts are less than a year old and show no signs of excess wear. Front tires are balanced, and mechanically everything looks to be in decent working order.

As of right now I'm thinking it might be some sort of steering rack issue (fluid leaks a bit), or possibly the PITA steering column bushing.

Is it possible for a steering rack to develop excess slack inside the actual rack/teeth? I only have 119k miles on the chasis, so it seems premature for the rack to be going, no? The car has seen a few drift days and lots of night parking lot stuff, but never had any sort of impact (i.e hitting curb).

Any ideas? I searched and didn't find anything except some technical bulletin for pre-92 s13's, and mine is a 93 so it shouldn't apply.

Is there any way to test the steering column bushing, etc?

Thanks in advance.