Steering Wheel Pulling Hard

bl78ljb · December 16, 2009

I have an interesting problem with my 98 Suburban (details in signature). At the moment I am a few weeks out of surgery on my hand so am relying on my shop (whom I trust and has always done an excellent job) to work with me on this. A few weeks ago my wife started to complain that the steering wheel was pulling to the right, I drove the truck and thought maybe a caliper sticking or a bad steering component (though it was just aligned a few months ago). It was due for an oil change anyway so brought it into the shop. They checked the calipers and they were fine, reviewed the recent alignment results (spot on no wear at that time) and the test drove it on the computer. Lo and behold they got a wacky reading from the steering position sensor. Replaced and told me good to go (they did a 15 mile test drive w/o problems). They also rotated the tires as they were due to be rotated. Drove it home and it started pulling hard to the left this time but harder than before. I brought it back and they found the pitman arm and the drag link to be on the outside edge of spec and figured with the 285s that maybe that was the issue so I told them to go ahead and replace them. Drove it home all was well steering felt tight. However, the next day out with the family it starts pulling again. The pull is an intermittent pull that tugs on the wheel as if someone is trying to grab the wheel from your hand and will happen a few times and then stop maybe for a few feet or a few miles.

Last time at the shop they replaced the solenoid on the steering box with a GM replacement fixed orifice. Since all these repairs the issues is not gone but still seems to be intermittent. My wife reports that it seems to occur between 0 and 35MPH and doesn't occur over 50MPH. We cannot seem to cause it to occur on days that it isn't already happening, and it could be a few days before it occurs again. However, on a day like today it will pull more than 80% of the time below 35MPH. This is not just a gentle pull to the left this is a try to pull the wheel out of your hand pull. In fact, when my wife was driving I watched out the window and I could visibly see tire movement (the right front tire had the back moving outward while the pulling was occurring). This gives the feeling of a loose tie rod end or similar, but only goes to one side and occurs intermittently and the garage has checked all the front end components multiple times and reports that they are tight. My mechanic and I are at a loss currently.

To summarize thus far: new steering position sensor, pitman arm and brace, drag link, and fixed orifice on the pump and tires rotated; calipers and all other steering and suspension components checked out fine and alignment is spot on.

As this is the family vehicle that my wife transports the kids with I want to get this fixed ASAP, but we have been working on this for 6 weeks now.

Thanks

Nytemare · December 16, 2009

Check your serpentine belt tensioner...sounds like the belt is not engaging the pump properly at higher rpm's. Since it happens low in speeds...its happening while the gears are shifting thus higher rpm's. Once your at 50+ the rpm's stay relatively below 2000 until you hit about 70mph+.

What sounds to me like is happening is that you lose the power assist and those big old 285 are hard to steer...and therefore pull one way or the other...probably due to ruts in the road.

Something to check out anyway...I have seen it happen more than a few times.

bl78ljb · December 17, 2009

Check your serpentine belt tensioner...sounds like the belt is not engaging the pump properly at higher rpm's. Since it happens low in speeds...its happening while the gears are shifting thus higher rpm's. Once your at 50+ the rpm's stay relatively below 2000 until you hit about 70mph+.

What sounds to me like is happening is that you lose the power assist and those big old 285 are hard to steer...and therefore pull one way or the other...probably due to ruts in the road.

Something to check out anyway...I have seen it happen more than a few times.

Serp belt and tensioner are new. However, it happens even idling to a stop light at 2MPH up until it is stopped. With the diesel around town it shifts at 2200RPM so it never really sees the high RPM that a gasser does. It also is definately not a loss of power assist! If you have your hands off the wheel going straight to a light for example the wheel will turn 30-70 degrees to the left abruptly and start heading off to the left. The motion is a sudden jerk of the wheel to the left. It has no relation to ruts and no relation to the 285s as the same tires (size and make though all 4 replaced one time) have been on the truck for 3 years and 70,000 miles, and this problem only cropped up in the last 6 weeks. Also, in the diesel, if you lost power assist you would not have hydroboost and it is quite noticeable in the brakes.

Thanks

Nytemare · December 17, 2009

Didn't realize you had a diesel....hmmmm thats a head scratcher.

Only thing I can think it can be is that it has to be something applying pressure to the steering box..making it steer....but since it only pulls left its kind of weird.

Does this truck have speed compensated steering?? I don't even know if trucks came with that.

It may be tires....check your tires....You may have a broken belt...

The truck used to pull right....than you rotated the tires...the front right went to rear left....now the truck pulls left...Although...it should be more of a regular occurrence...check it anyway...have them rotated back to where they were and see if it pulls right again.

Just giving you things that could be man....cant be sure.

Have the steering position sensor checked again...it could be defective.

minibike132 · December 17, 2009

Without feeling it I'm just spitballing some ideas out here. I have never had this complaint so it's all just theory. There are no bullitens that I can find.

If the shop has a power steering pressure analyzer diagnosis with that would be the way to go. In the absence of that good guesses are all I can give you. Possible hose issue, I am thinking return side here. If there were an intermittant restriction in the return then the pressure would build and it would have to go somewhere. I've seen a few return restrictions that cause high pressure but have never had one cause this. The only other thought I have is the gear box itself. There is a spool valve in the box that switches the direction of the assist. I have had plenty of spool valves that cause no assist in one direction but not in the other. I suppose it is possible that if there were a leak somewhere internal to the box that it would cause assist when not needed.

That's about all I got for ya, good luck with this one.

Nytemare · December 17, 2009

Without feeling it I'm just spitballing some ideas out here. I have never had this complaint so it's all just theory. There are no bullitens that I can find.

If the shop has a power steering pressure analyzer diagnosis with that would be the way to go. In the absence of that good guesses are all I can give you. Possible hose issue, I am thinking return side here. If there were an intermittant restriction in the return then the pressure would build and it would have to go somewhere. I've seen a few return restrictions that cause high pressure but have never had one cause this. The only other thought I have is the gear box itself. There is a spool valve in the box that switches the direction of the assist. I have had plenty of spool valves that cause no assist in one direction but not in the other. I suppose it is possible that if there were a leak somewhere internal to the box that it would cause assist when not needed.

That's about all I got for ya, good luck with this one.

I was thinking about the blockage too...but it wouldn't really explain the pulling in only one direction....nor why it would change from the right a couple weeks ago...to left now. The only two things that he changed were the position sensor and tire location...of course it could have nothing to do with the problem................and I just realized how useless this post was...but I'm just thinking out loud.

bl78ljb · December 20, 2009

I uploaded a video to youtube of the wheel pulling. I was driving on up to a stop and then turning right. The road had a slight rightward curve in it. All leftward movement of the wheel was done by the truck itself. Granted while this was being recorded I allowed the wheel to go left, when this happens the leftward movement can be resisted but it does take some effort. Here is the link to the video.

Thanks for the comments thus far.

Nytemare · December 20, 2009

I uploaded a video to youtube of the wheel pulling. I was driving on up to a stop and then turning right. The road had a slight rightward curve in it. All leftward movement of the wheel was done by the truck itself. Granted while this was being recorded I allowed the wheel to go left, when this happens the leftward movement can be resisted but it does take some effort. Here is the link to the video.

Thanks for the comments thus far.

That is really weird....Seems like its pretty unpredictable too.....

Check all your steering components for abnormal wear...Pittman Arm maybe.

bl78ljb · January 17, 2010

Well, I finally got this problem solved. Actually it was fixed just before Christmas, but I wanted to give it some time to make sure it was fixed. As it turned out I was bringing the truck to the local dealer to have this evaluated, and on the way I had to make a right hand turn and heard a clunk then driving down the road I suddenly heard a loud snap and then banging. I knew immediately what was wrong - the right C/V shaft had snapped in half and after pulling over and checking it out that is exactly what happened. So, a tow to the dealer and a replaced front C/V shaft and no more steering problem. It is odd that there were never any typical C/V symptoms and the one clunk was the first indication of the origin of the problem. The mechanics response was "well I guess as bad as the joint was it could have caused a steering problem." Thanks for everyone's thought on this.