Steering wheel shake

[Keith]

When on the highway the steering wheel turns (shakes) back and forth by about an inch in either way. This only happens when there is a curve in the road. When driving straight it is fine. Any ideas?

 

[JDraper]

Might be a valve in your power steering pump pulsing. I've seen that in Ford vehicles before.

 

[unabonked]

digging up an old post

This happened to me on my trip back to the transmition place in NH. It happened 3 times in the first 20 miles of leaving the parcking lot but not after that.

The steering wheel shook so violently, i almost lost control. and it only happened when in a curve, and lost traction one one of the front wheels (I.E. hitting a pothole). After about half an hour, it ran fine however, even when I tried to cause it to shake delibrately (only way of showing the shop how to reproduce the effect).

the computer was reset when the new tranny was put in, and my computer seems to be in learning mode. so I thought that may have somthing to do with it.

if anyone else has any suggestions, let me know.

 

[Robert]

Mine did that one time. The only time it did it was right after I had it lifted up on jack stands and was running it. I put it back on the ground and got a couple of miles away. I hit a very small bump and my Explorer shook all over the place, right through the steering wheel. I drove onto a dirt road and made some sharp turns. When I got back on the pavement, it worked fine ever since. The only thing I can attribute it to is the transfer case probably got bound up and when I hit a bump, the built up stress got relieved. Yours was probably something similar. It definately had nothing to do with the computer relearning though. They obviously had the vehicle off the ground to get the transmission in so when they put everything back together, things weren't aligned just right. The stress built up until it shook your vehicle as it releaved itself (kind of like taking a pee outside in sub-zero temperatures ).

 

[unabonked]

ahh.. that makes more sense. I actually had in in 4x4 when the tranny blew. I was figuring it was either the steering pump, the front anti-lock brakes, or the front 4x4 system. waited till i got to the ford lot near my house to try the 4x4 again... figured if somthing whent wrong i woulden't need to pay for a tow

 

[tcbarney]

If air gets into the ps pump, it will cause that stutter.

This happened to me recently. Working on the car, I had my wife turn the steering wheel with the motor off, while I was taking a look at something else. Not only did that force a little power steering fluid out of the vent hole on the reservior cap, but it was enough to, I guess, suck a little air into the pump.

Starting the engine and turning the wheel back and forth a few times bled the air out of the system and the stuttering went away.

So if what you're seeing is a stuttering vibration, check your fluid level and make sure the pump isn't sucking air.