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Our Honda Pilot was giving us some vibration at highway speeds and had bad wear on the inside edge of the front tires - this plus a pull to the right if you didn't keep a grip on the steering wheel prompted a trip to the local mechanics for new tires and whatever else it needed.
We are in a small town - no dealership for near a hundred miles - the local shop has always done a good job. They replaced the outer tie rod ends, put new all season tires all the way 'round and did an alignment. Test drove it, said it was all good and after a grand paid on the bill we were good to go. Or not.
First day out we noticed what seemed to be a random wobble in the steering. We blamed it on a windy day and not being used to having the alignment fixed. Took it out of town the next day and nearly hit a grain truck head on when the steering started to pull to the right in a way you had to fight it to keep the vehicle straight, then it just let go, whipping the steering wheel out of my husbands hands and drifting, like floating, clear the other way (into the other lane) before returning to straight and normal. We took it home and tested it in town where it was safer and came to the conclusion that after a left turn or lane change, the steering wheel would be crooked and start to be "heavy" or hard to steer straight. Then it would just release with a jerk and be really loose for a second, then go back to normal, no pulling, no drifting, perfect alignment if you let it go, until you turned again.
Back to the shop it went where the mechanic took it out and experienced everything we had - decided the inner tie rod ends must be bad too, replaced them aaand... it still does it. They can't figure it out and neither can we - it did nothing like this before the tire replacement/tie rod replacement/ alignment. They don't think the rack and pinion is bad but that would be "their next guess" with a $800+ bill for a guess that might not fix anything. They hooked it up to diagnostics to see if it might be a sensor/computer issue and it came back with nothing. They recommend a trip to the dealership in the city (in a suv that randomly gets loose steering, that'll be fun) to have them diagnose it for a couple hundred.
I'm about to just buy a new SUV. Hopefully with the same wheels. Anyone out there have anything similar??
We are in a small town - no dealership for near a hundred miles - the local shop has always done a good job. They replaced the outer tie rod ends, put new all season tires all the way 'round and did an alignment. Test drove it, said it was all good and after a grand paid on the bill we were good to go. Or not.
First day out we noticed what seemed to be a random wobble in the steering. We blamed it on a windy day and not being used to having the alignment fixed. Took it out of town the next day and nearly hit a grain truck head on when the steering started to pull to the right in a way you had to fight it to keep the vehicle straight, then it just let go, whipping the steering wheel out of my husbands hands and drifting, like floating, clear the other way (into the other lane) before returning to straight and normal. We took it home and tested it in town where it was safer and came to the conclusion that after a left turn or lane change, the steering wheel would be crooked and start to be "heavy" or hard to steer straight. Then it would just release with a jerk and be really loose for a second, then go back to normal, no pulling, no drifting, perfect alignment if you let it go, until you turned again.
Back to the shop it went where the mechanic took it out and experienced everything we had - decided the inner tie rod ends must be bad too, replaced them aaand... it still does it. They can't figure it out and neither can we - it did nothing like this before the tire replacement/tie rod replacement/ alignment. They don't think the rack and pinion is bad but that would be "their next guess" with a $800+ bill for a guess that might not fix anything. They hooked it up to diagnostics to see if it might be a sensor/computer issue and it came back with nothing. They recommend a trip to the dealership in the city (in a suv that randomly gets loose steering, that'll be fun) to have them diagnose it for a couple hundred.
I'm about to just buy a new SUV. Hopefully with the same wheels. Anyone out there have anything similar??
