2003 Suburban Steering Issues

[bry21317]

My Suburban is a 2003 LT 4x4 and for about the last year or so its had a wobblly feeling, not sure how to explain it in the steering.

 

I have had it checked a few times, and aligned quite a few times, alignment helps, but never gets rid of it. I also had the Steering Box replaced, Idler Arm, Pitman Arm, as they had play in them. Well there is still play. It seems like when I hite a bump on the passenger side, on the HWY when taking a left hand sweeping turn, the car will lose control for split second, and the car feels like it "Floats" between the front passenger side wheel, and the rear driver side rear with a sort of rocking motion. I know this sounds crazy, I am sure, but this is the only way that I can think to explain how or what it feels like.

 

I just got an alignment done the other day again, and had the guy check everything, he said the Suspension components all seemed tight, not that this means anything, but thats what he said.

 

Now, heres a question, it almost feels like theres about 1 inch of play on either side of the steering from center, say to left/and right both, so about 2 inches of travel, maybe 1.5 now after the alignment, but still quite a bit to keep the truck straight on the road. Now when I let go of the steering wheel, it seems to go straight as an arrow and stay there, its only when you hit a bump on that front passenger side, that it will push the steering wheel towards the passenger side. Also, Could this possibly be the front shocks? I noticed this norning driving in, on a pretty flat road, it is swaying passenger side to driver side even without really hitting any bumps.

 

The shocks were replaced by me, about 45k ago, with Bilstein BE5-6500-H0 (FRONT RIGHT&LEFT) and BE5-E380-H0 (REAR RIGHT&LEFT)

 

Could the front shocks be going bad?

 

Sway bar end links were replaced about 2 years ago with Energy Suspension End Links, the bushings on the bar have never been replaced yet.

 

I was reading somewhere, and it stated that bushings in the A arms might could cause this odd type of issues, would this be true? And how can you test to see if they are bad? It does seem to have a wobbly back and forth feeling even when driving down a straight road in the front end.

 

 

Here are the Numbers for the Alignment I got 3 days ago.

 

Here are all tne numbers. There are more if you need them, that are stated in the Secondary Angles.

 

Front

Caster Initial Final

L 3 58' 3 28'

R 4 32' 4 05'

 

Camber Initial Final

L -0 01' 0 01'

R -0 32' 0 07'

 

Toe Initial Final

L 0 16' 0 02'

R -0 08' -0 03'

Total 0 08' -0 01'

 

Rear

Camber Initial Final

L -0 31' 0 30'

R -0 20' 0 20'

 

Toe Initial Final

L 0 07' 0 07'

R 0 09' 0 09'

Total 0 16' 0 16'

 

Thrust Angle -0 01' -0 01

 

 

Thanks,

Bryan

[jrrod2004]

I dont know about the swaying issue but the "loose" steering wheel, maybe you need to have the zerks regreased...that was an unrealized plus on my last oil change...

[bry21317]

I have grease the zirks quite a bit, but will do so again this weekend. I know that I had done them within the last month. Oh and the Tires are brand new Michellin LTX MS, as the others were worn out after 50k.

 

Bryan