Steering Wheel Shake

[LSEGHATCH]

The other day my p/s return line busted and on the drive home w/o p/s I noticed my steering wheel would shake every 8 seconds or so. Well the next day I replaced the line and found that the shakeing still occured. It felt like it was comeing from the pas. side so I swapped the back wheel to the front to see if it was a balance issue or the belts/chords in the tire. This calmed it down maybe 5% but it still shakes.

I read on here that it could be tension rods or tie rod ends. What should I look for to pin point the culprit and not have to pay the fee for a mechanic to problem solve? I am 100% capable of doing the work myself I just don't like when they give you the guilt trip of not going through them after they find the problem.

Should I just replace both with Tein products? Opinions??

[180fan]

Look at the tension rod itself. If it's got some goop coming out of it, looks dried out, then replace the bushing or replace the rod.

if it's the tie rod, you should be able to look for play in the link. it could be at the ball joint or have thrust play along the length of the link.

tein inner/outer tie rods = not worth it. just get some z32 inner/outer tie rods from SPL Parts (don't forget the dust boots either). You might want to get the SPL tension rods while you're making your order too.

[LSEGHATCH]

Well this car will being turning into a drift project and I am not sure the z32 rods will be able withstand the beating.

[kheff46]

could be a wheel bearing also(if not the others). mine would do similar things, but usually only at lower speeds.

all are easy fixes tho, so don't worry.

--keith

[LSEGHATCH]

Just picked up some Tein Tie rods (inner & outter). Should be here later this week hopefully. I went under the car today and turned the tie rods with my hand. The driver's side felt good and full of grease while the pas. side (which is where I felt most of the vibrations comeing from) turned very easy as if nothing was in there. Hopefully this fixes it as I can't have this much down time with my school/work schedual.

Damn these money pits.

[Black R]

I have the same problem. very bad vibration at 50+mph. I can't really go over 60-65mph or it feels like the steering wheel will shake off! But the shake comes and goes even when maintaining a particular speed. The tires aren't out of balance and the wheel bearings are in good shape.

I went over to my friends shop, http://www.mainstreamperformance.com where they do a lot of 2jz swaps... They put it up on the lift and we looked at everything we could think of. The things that control the caster (tension rods) - the bushings were fuxord. And one of the steering rack pieces (tie rod) was really loose as well. Of course the balljoints for the tie rods were shot too..... So... I don't want to spend too much $$$ but are the tein pieces worth the loot? I've seen so many different mfr's of these parts, which is a decent deal? I take it the $80pr for the tein inners and another $80pr for the tein outers doesn't come with the spherical bearing balljoint? Or does it? And iirc, suspension techniques sells the caster/ tension rods for around $100 with spherical bearings?

Are these ok for the streets or will they rip out the mounting points on rough surfaces/ street driving?

[LSEGHATCH]

The only reason I am going with Tein instead of oem is because this car will be running at drift events and oem likes to bend and break. If you don't drive out of the norm then I would suspect that oem is just fine. Here is a link to where I picked up my Tein rods & ends for $160 shipped.

http://www.240sxmotoring.com/tetieros1.html

[Black R]

That price is for inners and outers for both sides? I just may have to order asap!

[180fan]

tein's aren't that much better if at all. The z32's are a bit bigger than the s13's and if you couple them with the spl tie rod ends, they're full of win and win. I've personally got kazama inner/outer tie rods and haven't busted them yet either.

[LSEGHATCH]

That price is for (2) tie rod ends & (2) inner tie rods.

[Black R]

That price is for (2) tie rod ends & (2) inner tie rods.

:

I'm assuming you still had to buy the balljoints separately though?

[LSEGHATCH]

No, ball joints are included.

[Black R]

Thanks, I just ordered from http://www.240sxmotoring.com !

But what about the front tension rods/ caster arms? Know of any good deals on those parts?

http://www.nopionline.com/nopi...240SX

sounds like a good deal, BUT it's for one side only. So I guess I have to order two?

*(edit) and I'm not sure these are the tension arms or some other part to adjust caster.....
Modified by Black R at 8:07 AM 5/16/2007

[cody180sx]

have the rotors checked mine did the same thing at 50 to 60 miles and hour i had to have them turned

[Black R]

it's not the rotors.

i went ahead and bought the tein tension rods from http://www.240sxmotoring.com as well..... as I was pleased with their professionalism and their prices are a little better than average. I also figure tein will have a decent product since they're selling so much stuff and have been for some time, they can't afford to sell a shoddy piece.

[LSEGHATCH]

Have you installed them yet? I've heared from another source that it could be brake rotors.

[LooseSlide]

go to splparts.com for tension rods they are beafy as all hell i have em and love em.

and as for the tierods, the spl(z32 w/adj. ends) are better than the tein. trust me i have been running tein for 2+ years and hasnt been a tierod i havent bent just from drifting(the inners bow)/driving hard(no curbs or potholes). i have gone through atleast 4 sets of inners and one set of outters.

although my car being so low is most likely the culprit(spl can correct for this).

the z32 ineers being beefier can withstand this phonomenon better. (besides teins are just rebagged oem inner s14 rods)

i will be picking up the spl rods once the cash becomes available in the next 2 weeks.

edit. have you guys put all four wheels on a balancing machine(not just looking for weights) cause steering vibration over 50 realy sounds like a wheel is out of balance.

[LSEGHATCH]

Yeah that was the first thing I did. Zero'd them out and the shakeing still occured. I think I'll sell the Teins and pick up some SPL's.

[Pr0jeCt]

I have the same problem. very bad vibration at 50+mph. I can't really go over 60-65mph or it feels like the steering wheel will shake off! But the shake comes and goes even when maintaining a particular speed. The tires aren't out of balance and the wheel bearings are in good shape.

may car is doing that right now..took it to a shop and they say broken belts in 1 maybie 2 of my tires.

i would check that..again

[LSEGHATCH]

I'm going to. I have a freind who is going to lend me some tires this week to test it out. That would be awsome if it were the tires since that is the easiest to fix with my schedual right now.

[demin]

yeah it could be broken belts in the wheels, mine did that, replaced rack and pinion, tie rods and other things, and it still did it (just not as bad), bought myself some rims with some tires on em and wham no more shaking. put oem crap tires back on for winter, and it came back. so it could def be the tires.

[180fan]

when was the last time you had an alignment done? getting that done can save 1. money on mileage and 2. since these are suspensions where there are differences in the way they'll look/behave when laden and unladen, it's probably best to have someone at a shop to check those out as well.