QV steering behavior

Sounds like wear in the system in one or more places like the rack & pinion, tie rods, or column U-joints. Worn column U-joints are easy to diagnose as they are plainly visible under the dash. If nothing obvious there, put the front on jack stands, get a partner to hold the steering wheel, then grab each wheel and move it left and right and you should be able to locate the "play." It's a simple system. I assume the wandering aspect is not caused by wheel alignment. No clue about the heat aspect!

While off the ground, also good to check strut, ball-joint, and sway bar link wear. Routine methods for these.

 

Alex (OP) - if I didn't know better, I'd think you were somehow borrowing my car without my knowledge. I'm currently chasing exactly this issue. Every sentence you typed is identical to the behavior on my QV. Even the mysterious "seems heat related" part.

Let me take a guess: The steering groan is at it's WORST when you make that final slow-speed turn into the driveway/garage? The "wandering" is really noticeable around 30-50mph on a straight road? (At 70mph freeway speeds, I don't notice it much.)

I can tell you what I've done so far:

- I've greased (zerk fittings) the U-joints under the dash (no change)
- My steering rack was rebuilt about 2K miles ago, before I bought the car. Hopefully rebuilt correctly, but I've no idea yet. This problem started about 700 miles ago.
- Inspected the tires. They are around 7-8 years old, and worn enough (but still safe & usable) that I'm planning to replace within the next 6-12 months. They show no abnormal wear.
- Briefly inspected ball joints. They aren't showing obvious problems like cracked rubber, but I plan a more thorough inspection as some of these symptoms are classic ball joint problems.
- Bushings look a bit worn, but I've seen far worse on other cars.
- Replaced the all the front wheel bearings 2 days ago. I found the right-side retention washer tab to be broken off. The previous mechanic should have replaced this $5 washer instead of reusing a broken one. So far I've seen a slight improvement, but I don't believe the problem is gone (haven't driven it enough).
- I plan to do an alignment on the car in the next week or two. I'll let you know if there's any change as a result.

I'll be interested in what you find out on your car as well... best of luck.

 

I would start with replacing the tyres..

 

Different tire sizes/offsets front to back will cause this wandering issue. Had an older Corvette years ago that I had deviated a slight bit from what the manufacturer called for in tire size/offset. Damn thing would wander all over the road depending on surface. Finally went to the same size tire all the way around and issue vanished.

 

As post 4: is it possible you are looking for the complicated solution when the simple one is to replace old tires ?

 

The potential for tire issues makes sense to me in terms of wandering, and possibly heat related. However, I don't hear the groaning after the 15-20 minutes it takes to heat the tires... It takes about an hour of driving for that noise to present itself.

Would an older tire account for the groaning noise that I hear turning the steering wheel sharply at very low speeds?

(I'm more than willing to spend six or seven hundred dollars on new tires if this would solve the problem - and the tires are indeed nearing EOL, I just don't want to throw parts at it.)

 

Could the groaning Be from the front shocks as the vehicle Sideload changes while making a slow turn? Old rubber seals on the shocks?

Guess simple test would be to spray a mist of deep creep or other penetrant up into the shock and see if the noise goes away?

 

Make sure the correct tires are on the correct wheels.

I had a shop mount tires for me and didn't realize they were different sizes - don't laugh, it happens.