Steering wheel play
- Thread starter Jakecapt
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
Stick Figure
New member
define play in the steering wheel? i would look at the rack bushings, and the inner and outter tie rods, not sure what exactly you had replaced, and i am way to tired to look up toyotas exact termanology for the steering components.
Jakecapt
New member
If you are at a stop and holding the steering wheel, there's movement in the steering without movement of the wheel. It feels like about a inch of play. When the vehicle is in motion and hits a minor bump in the road, it feels like there's more movement. This play in the steering while driving is okay while driving, so the Toyota techs tell me, but they said that it could be fix if I have the other section of steering assy installed.
techno
New member
Like Stick said, check the tie rods. They are the most common item to wear in the steering system. Check them by raising the front wheels and then trying to turn them by hand. You will be able to see and feel any play.
No disrespect to the Toyota techs, but they have been known to get things wrong sometimes.
No disrespect to the Toyota techs, but they have been known to get things wrong sometimes.
PossumJenkins
New member
I would definetly check the tie rods because I have a bad steering issue as well and I was told by a mechanic that my rods were bent and my bushings needed to be replaced and it would continue to get worse until I fixed it and it has gotten significantly worse over the last little while.
drmorbius
New member
Go to a Toyota web sight and go to parts. Plug in your year and go to steering column. pick any part under steering column and a drawing will come up showing the parts in an exploded diagram. I just checked it for your year and the intermediate shaft is one of three shafts in the column. The parts that wear out are at the end of the shafts and are either small universal joints or flexible couplings usually made of tire carcass. If you are good with tools and want to go for it there is nothing you can't work on yourself in this area. However, having it done by a shop will get you some sort of guarantee that the work done will last for awhile. Also since steering is an area where safety is all important you will want this done right.
chillinied
New member
Corroded/seized castle nuts
Suspected my ball joints-and when I checked them out there was no movement when prying steering tires 2" off the ground. Then grabbed each tire at the 15 and 45 after positions and there was a little bit of play -so I bought new outer tie rod ends. This vehicle is as badly impacted as a vehicle can be from Chicago salt. Penetrating oil was futile. One of the cotter pin was completely unidentifiable. I used a sawzall with steel blade to cut the bolt off. Had to borrow a tie-rod puller from parts store to pop it out of the steering arm. Removing from the female receiver of the power steering pump side which involves keeping it straight to not bind the inner ball joint. A Quality large wrench on the PS side can stabilize that- and a 17mm on the middle of the tie-rod end could loosen it with the lock nut remaining in the position it was in originally-which makes it a snap to pre-position the locking nut on the new tie rod end and install it. Now with my balanced tires, the play disappeared. And by play-I'd describe it as turning the steering wheel and the response required more turning than normal. And it felt as if the wheels would start wandering and it required turning just to remain straight on any highway. As a side note-I have previously replaced some of the bushings and-they all looked fine. Jakecapt-I see a lot of corrosion on my intermediate shaft-there's like a u-joint- I want to replace it so I'm curious if that require pulling the steering wheel? Did you do the rest and find success? Thanks!
Suspected my ball joints-and when I checked them out there was no movement when prying steering tires 2" off the ground. Then grabbed each tire at the 15 and 45 after positions and there was a little bit of play -so I bought new outer tie rod ends. This vehicle is as badly impacted as a vehicle can be from Chicago salt. Penetrating oil was futile. One of the cotter pin was completely unidentifiable. I used a sawzall with steel blade to cut the bolt off. Had to borrow a tie-rod puller from parts store to pop it out of the steering arm. Removing from the female receiver of the power steering pump side which involves keeping it straight to not bind the inner ball joint. A Quality large wrench on the PS side can stabilize that- and a 17mm on the middle of the tie-rod end could loosen it with the lock nut remaining in the position it was in originally-which makes it a snap to pre-position the locking nut on the new tie rod end and install it. Now with my balanced tires, the play disappeared. And by play-I'd describe it as turning the steering wheel and the response required more turning than normal. And it felt as if the wheels would start wandering and it required turning just to remain straight on any highway. As a side note-I have previously replaced some of the bushings and-they all looked fine. Jakecapt-I see a lot of corrosion on my intermediate shaft-there's like a u-joint- I want to replace it so I'm curious if that require pulling the steering wheel? Did you do the rest and find success? Thanks!
SL28
New member
Grab the steering shaft below the dash with one hand and wiggle the steering wheel back and forth with the other. If there's play, weld the slip joint together.
Replacing the rack bushings on mine helped. After welding the slip joint to eliminate play, it's responsiveness is now without ANY play or lag.
Replacing the rack bushings on mine helped. After welding the slip joint to eliminate play, it's responsiveness is now without ANY play or lag.
chillinied
New member
Rack Bushings
Upon driving the freeway a couple of times, I looked at the rack while my son turned the wheel and those bushings; while looking fine, have a bunch of play-so I ordered up a set. Will replace next week. Is the slip joint you mentioned welding the one under the dash? Set screw seems to barely have any movement-but there's still about an inch of play in the wheel before it's turning either direction. Not bad-in that the wandering aspect was fixed by the TR ends-but I suppose I could tack weld that bar and probably improve the response time. Will update when I get the rack bushings in.
Upon driving the freeway a couple of times, I looked at the rack while my son turned the wheel and those bushings; while looking fine, have a bunch of play-so I ordered up a set. Will replace next week. Is the slip joint you mentioned welding the one under the dash? Set screw seems to barely have any movement-but there's still about an inch of play in the wheel before it's turning either direction. Not bad-in that the wandering aspect was fixed by the TR ends-but I suppose I could tack weld that bar and probably improve the response time. Will update when I get the rack bushings in.
TheeMikeB
New member
Could be this...
Diagnose and Fix Steering Play/Rattle - TTORA Forum
I just made this repair myself in a little over an hour.
Nelsonmd
New member
Before you go this route, be sure that you have felt that joint while turning the wheel and can actually feel the play IN THAT JOINT. If you can't feel the play in that joint, then that isn't your problem.
I had what sounds like the same kind of play, it felt loosey goosey when hitting bumps and appeared to have some steering wheel play without the wheels moving when stopped. I solved it by replacing the steering rack guide (small improvement) and by replacing my front suspension (BIG improvement!). I also later replaced my LBJ's and TRE's (both I and O), and that made the front end feel tighter as well.
Please don't weld it before thoroughly checking these other things first and confirming that they are good.
TheeMikeB
New member
I should have prefaced this with the fact that I had already replaced all my front steering/suspension already. The only thing I have not yet done was the rack guide. But I was having pretty bad play offroad on washboard stuff and small rocks... I could actually feel the play between the shafts.. almost like a click back and forth.
jgue467
Senior Member
My owners manual sez an inch of play is Normal. Now what?
Nelsonmd
New member
Then it sounds like it was the right thing for you. If you can feel the play between the shafts, then it's a pretty sound confirmation. I just hate to see guys come here, see that article and think it'll solve their problem when I think the shaft play is probably the least likely cause, considering all the other causes are related to rubber/wear parts. I was pretty surprised to find that my steering play was caused by my knackered suspension, but lo and behold it was.
ben550
New member
When i bought my 01, it had a lot of play in the wheel. It was most noticeable driving a straight line at highway speeds. Id have to really work to keep a straight line. It was looser drifting left than right... it ended up being the steering rack. Replaced it and was good to go.
chillinied
New member
Tack welding that shaft--and I had probably a little less than an inch of play either way from 12 o'clock-and it wasn't making any knocking noises-totally tightened up my front end. I installed the new bushings on the rack-which didn't really make quite the difference the new tie rod ends did. The difference was dramatic with the weld-and it's like having a nearly new drive-where it was sloppy as all heck before. I didn't even have to drop the ignition portion of the wheel-and that wasn't going to happen with the alarm wires and tape making it a nearly impossible task. I disconnected the two bolts ouside the white plastic u joint-tilted it the 90 degrees and it slid off easily. it went back the same and the bottom shaft has the teeth and only fits in one way. So long as you can hold the shaft out enough while you reconnect the steering wheel end to the u-joint at an angle-then get the screws back it while you have it mated to the bottom connection near the firewall. If you pull too much on the u-joint-you might twist the ujoint-but you can compress the spring by pinching both sides and it can be rotated in to then easily re-mate with the steering wheel end. Now the only remaining issue is that when I hit a bump at speed I get a shimmy as if the ball joints are worn and thus slow to get the rotating wheel back to proper alignment as they are designed to do. Will change those out, get it aligned and report back. I no longer have any thought to get rid of this beasty TOY!
chillinied
New member
Lower Ball Joints
Adequately warned about non-oem lbjs-I went with Toyota brand and that improved the slop by a ton. I had tested the lbjs with a 2x4 when the front end was in the air-but that didn't indicate the movement. So changing the lbjs was probably a 3 hour job--and I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner. Still having shimmy at ~70 mph because the guy who balanced my tires didn't have proper balancing machine. Now motivated to get new strut set and shocks!
Adequately warned about non-oem lbjs-I went with Toyota brand and that improved the slop by a ton. I had tested the lbjs with a 2x4 when the front end was in the air-but that didn't indicate the movement. So changing the lbjs was probably a 3 hour job--and I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner. Still having shimmy at ~70 mph because the guy who balanced my tires didn't have proper balancing machine. Now motivated to get new strut set and shocks!
Did you have this done at a dealer?? Or did you do it yourself?
