Guys -

My car has a wheel vibration at highway speeds. It sounds like it is coming from the driver side front wheel. My first thought, was that I had a worn wheel bearing or excessive play in there. To try and solve the problem, I have replaced wheel bearings, and made sure I had the correct bearing play, which didn't help. Around town I don't here it, and it is only at 55+ mph it happens, and it doesn't get better at higher speeds. It seems if I were to steer quickly to side to side, the sound stops for a sec.

I have since jacked up the car and moved the wheel back and forth checking for tie rod endplay. The thing I found is the passenger's side tierod seems to have much more play than the driver side, and were are not talking much here, on the order of 3mm or so, but there is definetely a difference. The play is not coming from the tierod itself, but within the rack.

The next thing for I was gonna do was to R & R the rack, but before I do that, I thought I would get some of your guys thoughts.

Thanks,

Brandon Yu

Well, there are a couple things you could check before you R&R the rack.

1. Have you double checked your tires? Balancing, out of round, flat spotted? If you have the same size all around try swapping them front to rear.

2. Have you replaced the steering shaft coupler? Is it tight?

3. Is there a lot of play in the rack itself? Try jacking the front up and while rocking the steering back and forth check for play at the rack and pinion itself.

4. This is a long shot but it's a possibility nonetheless. Have you checked your brake rotors and calipers? Is it possible one rotor may be warped a little? Or a piston is seizing in the caliper?

5. I'm assuming you have done this already but were the rack bushings replaced with the urethane ones?

If all this fails it may be the inner tie rod ends at the rack. Just giving you some more ideas.