My car is wandering - help me!

[bounceferret]

My paj is wandering on the highway! at any speed above 80km/h she moves all over the road. It actually requires a lot of effort to keep stright.
Can anyone please suggest how to remedy this as in about 8 - 9 weeks she's going up to NT and across the simpson, about 7000km's in total with most being on the highway

Thinking it was wheel alignment I put it in for full balance alignment etc.
still no good

It's not shocks as their brand new

steering idler arm maybe?

please help!

Steve

[Loco]

Could be the idler. or rod ends, or wheel align, or rear trailing arm bushes flogged out causing the rear to crab, any of these will cause similar to what you say, it might be now that you have replaced the shocks that it has accentuated something, now the springs are rebounding correctly.
Could also be faulty new shocks, ( I'm on a fourth set under warranty over 1.2 years, yes I changed brands now)

[marquis]

265/70 R 16" BF Goodridge All-Terrains

Good old tyres may have something to do with it too!

[bounceferret]

Good old tyres may have something to do with it too!

Could the tyres really be causing it to wander?
As far as I can remember this was happening when I had HT's on the car. Unfortunatly this isn't a new problem though it does feel like it's getting progressively worse

[kfet]

Mine is getting progressively worse too! Had the idler arm replaced less than two months ago so it shouldn't be that.. Also had wheel alignment done with it.

It feels like there's a giant freeplay in the steering but with the engine switched off the freeplay (looking at the movement of the wheel) is virtually zero! But when on the road I can move the wheel 50-70mm with no response. It has definitely gotten worse in the last week, to the point that i'm concerned about driving it.

Also I feel every little bump in the road violently through the steering wheel and it seems to track more easily than it used to.

What other steering components is there to replace that the mechanic didn't notice when replacing the idler arm?

[keith h]

I've become very intimate with the front suspension on my 200,000 km NL over the last 12 months while chasing vibrations and a scary "shimmy".

Here is he list:
repack and tension front wheel bearings, balance, wheel align
replace idler arm, wheel align
replace pitman arm (similar to idler arm on the steering box side), wheel align
replaced shock absorbers
replaced 4 tyres with brand new OEM tyres
Installed free wheel hubs
removed rear tail shaft for a test drive
desperation now - replaced upper and lower ball joints, wheel align - huge improvement

When I examined the lower ball joints after they were removed, I could move the bolt bit up and down about 1 mm by hand.


Each step in the process made it feel worse to the driver (me). I believe each part I replaced was increasing the transferring all the rattle and slop in the ball joints to the steering wheel.

Now I'm just waiting for the ball joint tightness to wear in to evaluate a hopeful sign - off.

[sunny]

My NH suddenly began 'Wandering' on the road a while ago - I had new tyres put on and the tyre guys said my idler arm was stuffed and this gave the floaty feel... I changed it and now OK... Probably lucky - mines done over 300000 kms and probably has other worn bits, but after just changing the ider arm it feels good again on the road...

Jack up the left hand front wheel and grab the wheel - move as if turning, look at the shaft of the idler arm if the bearing is stuffed you'll see the shaft moving back and forth, not pivoting on it's own axis...

[bounceferret]

how much on average is the replacement of the idler arm?

[sunny]

I picked one up from the wreckers $75..The hardest thing was to get the tie rod off - Another $20 for a new ball joint seperator..

- You also have to pull off the front underguard beneath the radiator to get to get a spanner onto the back of the bolts holding the idler arm.

[bounceferret]

I think i may have fixed the vibration going through the car ( i might have mentioned it in a previous post). I thought it was an unbalanced tailshaft. After hearing a few things I turned my attention to the transmission mounts. Turns out the transfer case mount was completely screwed ( in 2 pieces), and the transmission mount wasn't far off. I havn't had a good chance to fully test it on a highway yet but at 80km/h on a normal road everything feels smooth ! now maybe i can start looking at this wandering problem in more detail... idler you say? ..... hrm..

[bounceferret]

I think i may have fixed the vibration going through the car (..

Unfortunately this didn't fix the vibration although it did reduce it. Today I dropped the tailshaft in to get balanced. Turned out to be way out of whack! It was also bent.

$140 later car is running perfect, no vibrations at any speed.

Balancing the tailshaft is probably one of the cheapest troubleshooting activities you can do when it comes to driveline vibrations.
I figured that out after new tyres, new Uni-joints, 2 allignments, and new transmission mounts

now I'm poor
but happy

[keith h]

bounceferret, have you got any update on the "wandering" ?

[bounceferret]

bounceferret, have you got any update on the "wandering" ?

Indeed I have. I first thought it must be something to do with alignment of the wheels. I first decided to measure the height of the car from the hubs to the top of the wheel arc, I found the front right to be considerably higher (though not really noticable when looking at the front of the car), a 2 minute adjustment of the right torsion bar took it all to a consistant height (the adjusting nut was also much more wound)
The wandering has dropped considerably though sometimes I think it still does it but i would put it down to bad road surfaces.

[tez]

I think the freeplay / wandering is something that you just need to put up with, unless your going to replace all of the suspension components.

When I got my NH about a month ago, it has the same feel and Im just getting used to it now. I'll take it into Pedders for their $14 check and see what that comes up with. Then I'll decide on which parts / rubbers to replace and do it myself to save on the cost.

You can also adjust the freeplay on the steering box. Undo the lock nut and turn the adjustment screw in a clockwise direction. Do it in small amounts, say quarter or half a turn and then test out the freeplay. You know if youve adjusted it too much as the wheel wont return to centre after making a turn.

Just need a 17mm spanner (short one) and a flat head screw driver.