I considered posting in the other steering thread, but I think mine is a different problem.
So a few weeks ago I rotated the tires. Before that my steering was fine, no complaints. Since then it has been "loose". What I mean is it feels like any imperfection in the road, whether it's rough in general or just slanted to one side, causes steering to change when it really shouldn't. If you're driving over really rough ground, rocky off-road conditions, and you let go of the wheel you would expect to see the wheel jumping around. Mine kinda does that on normal roads.
I don't think that it's a "dead zone" issue. When cruising along at speed going straight if I make small steering changes it feels tight enough and the wheels do respond. But normally small bumps and ridges in the road don't cause the wheels to turn on you, there's some degree of resistance to that. Mine seems to have lost any such resistance, and even minor bumps will cause the wheels to change their angle a bit. Driving to work over the main roads which are fairly good I don't notice it much. Driving on the back roads, which are full of patches and uneven surfaces, it's very noticeable.
My only theory on what caused this is when I took the front wheels off they were stuck in place pretty good. I had to take a 2X4 across the back of the tire and smack it around with a sledge hammer to get them loose. I think I screwed up by doing this one at a time, meaning the other wheel was sitting on the ground so any stress I put on the steering rack by smacking tire around was increased by the other side being held in place.
Assuming that's what caused the problem, what would I have likely stretched, bent, or otherwise damaged to cause my steering issue?
So a few weeks ago I rotated the tires. Before that my steering was fine, no complaints. Since then it has been "loose". What I mean is it feels like any imperfection in the road, whether it's rough in general or just slanted to one side, causes steering to change when it really shouldn't. If you're driving over really rough ground, rocky off-road conditions, and you let go of the wheel you would expect to see the wheel jumping around. Mine kinda does that on normal roads.
I don't think that it's a "dead zone" issue. When cruising along at speed going straight if I make small steering changes it feels tight enough and the wheels do respond. But normally small bumps and ridges in the road don't cause the wheels to turn on you, there's some degree of resistance to that. Mine seems to have lost any such resistance, and even minor bumps will cause the wheels to change their angle a bit. Driving to work over the main roads which are fairly good I don't notice it much. Driving on the back roads, which are full of patches and uneven surfaces, it's very noticeable.
My only theory on what caused this is when I took the front wheels off they were stuck in place pretty good. I had to take a 2X4 across the back of the tire and smack it around with a sledge hammer to get them loose. I think I screwed up by doing this one at a time, meaning the other wheel was sitting on the ground so any stress I put on the steering rack by smacking tire around was increased by the other side being held in place.
Assuming that's what caused the problem, what would I have likely stretched, bent, or otherwise damaged to cause my steering issue?
