pontious

Hey guys,

I am having an interesting problem with some steering wheel shake.

I post this to the Suspension page a couple weeks ago and got some replies. I thought I might bring it out to the larger 2nd gen area.

Basically during moderate left turns I get a back and forth shake of the steering wheel. Really the car kind of shakes side to side, but I really feel it in the wheel.

The problem doesn't happen during right turns or hard left turns, only going around bends in the roads... Also it seems to happen more when I am gettign on the gas and during the turn.


I have checked and re-packed my front wheel bearings., as the FSM indicated that may be the cause of the problem. This did not have any effect on the problem. The was some play in the bearings when all the greese was removed, I was told this is normal, so I re-packed them and put them back in.

Somebody mentioned Tie rod ends, I have not done a check on those yet, but I can't really see how that would/could cause my problem.

Could it be as simple as the tires being out of balance? I could take them to the place I bought them and have them check and remount them..

Any other things I should look into??!?

Icemark

This does not happen while driving straight in any way right???

I would look at the tie rod, power steering rack, and wheel/tires myself.

pontious

Well, today commign in I thought I felt a little shake when going in a straight line. The problem is that the amount I have to turn to get it to happen is pretty small, so I might just have been turning just enough.

I don't have PS. Does that change any of the posibilities?

Can you expalin how the tie rod might cause this so I can better understand?

YearsOfDecay

have you inspected your tires closely for buldges??? says its worse when getting on the gas... look at your passenger side front and rear tires closely for buldges, weird wear, things of that nature. Whe it says getting on the gas.. that screams rear tire to me, i know it sounds odd, but the side to side montion you describe probably isn't due to tire balancing, but more likely to the tire being out of round in some way. In conjuction with loose tie rods, this could be really nasty.

pontious

Ok, I will check it out. When you say really nasty, you mean dangerous?

WAYNE88N/A

If it never does it at low speeds, always high speed, check your ball joints...

Icemark

When a tie rod is worn out, the one (or both) front wheels can slip on and off steering angle based on road illregularities. So you can end up with a shimming of one (or both if both tie rods are worn) wheel.

pontious

Ok, That makes sense. I will check that (and my tires for problems) tonight.

Thanks everyone...

pyrojunkie

I recently had the same problem and I thought it was the tie rod. It turned out to be the lower ball joint. I recommend inspecting the ball joint immediately. It basically should have zero play in it.

I learned this lesson the hard way and had my ball joint snap. No big damage, but I consider myself lucky. I still have the slightest of steering wheel shimming at higher speeds which I assume is the tie rod now. Very noticeable shimming was caused by the ball joint.

pontious

I get a little confused. I need to study the FSM more. but I seem to have a problem when people talk about ball joints and tie rod ends.

Looking at the parts on Mazdatrix:
http://www.mazdatrix.com/hsteer2.htm

what is it that you replaced?

I am going to put the car up tonight and go through the manual and check it all out. I guess I am trying to get better ideas of where to look...

Zach McAfee

http://www.mazdatrix.com/hsteer2.htm
The first picture on the page is the ball joint. I just changed my left side (same symptoms as you), and now the right side is slowly getting worse. 210,000 miles, I guess it's time!

Pull the wheel, support the suspension, remove the two bolts on the bottom and loosen the bolt on the 'clamp', and check the play and resistance. The new joint has no play and alot of resistance.

pontious

What did you specifically test to come to this conclusion?

I assume you are talkine about the first picture right? I have an 86, so I would not have to replace the entire arm, just the ball joints. If I do find this to be a problem i will prolly do them both at the same time...

Zach McAfee

Move the joint around. There is a section in the steering or suspension section of the FSM that shows you how to test it, but it'll probably be obvious once you remove it.

pontious

Cool, thanks. I will read up from the FSM before gettign into it as well...

'86_fc_drifter

couldn't it maybe have something to do with the rear steer bushing? If it was rotted right out, it would cause a wobble under moderate cornering. If it was hard cornering, then the bushing would flex as far as it could and be stable but light cornering it would float around some. Just a guess, based on the info.

pontious

Just pulled the ball joint.. The dust cover is rotted away, well most of it. most of the greese was dried up and sounded rusty/sandy when I move the ball around. So, I think i will be replacing the Ball joints. I also noticed that the Tie rod ends have the same broken up dust boot. I am going to assume that I shoudl replace those as well, even if as a precaution.

If this doesn't fix the problem (also I will be takign the car in for an alignment and wheel balance check) then I will take a look at the rear end stuff.

pontious

The passenger side was worse. I could actually pull the ball in and out about 1/4 inch.

I have attached a picture of the drivers side, in case other way want to see what a bad looking ball joint looks like

pyrojunkie

A rotted away dust boot is a sure sign that the ball joint is on its way out.

I wish you good luck on the replacement as I had a lot of trouble replacing mine.

pontious

What kinds of problems did you encounter?

I didn't have a problem removing the lower ball joints. I have not tried to pull the tie rod ends off just yet. I assume most of the problems would be related to removing items, if there are other gotchas PLEASE let me know...

pontious

Just an update for the records...

I replaced my Ball Joints and Tie Rod Ends. The ball joints were in VERY bad shape, the tie rod ends where not quite as bad, still with the torn boots it was a matter of time before they gave out.

After replacing the items listed my first impression is WOW. Not only is the shake gone, but the steering feels firmer all around. I have not had a chance to get on it, but so far it seems to have fixed the problem.