Steering Wheel Jerks
- Thread starter dm_longhorn
- Start date
Have you looked at all the usual suspects already??
Tire pressure
brake pads, rotors?
alignment
road condition (leaning left/right)
I have a similar problem in my car, if you take your hand off the steering wheel, you can actually see the steering jerk once when the brake are applied/ jabbed quickly. My car still goes straight and doesn't pull to the left/right. The dealer couldn't figure it out but finally took apart the caliper and lubed the guiding pins. That helped for about 2 weeks then it came back again. At least for me, I think the guiding pins are the culprit.
Tire pressure
brake pads, rotors?
alignment
road condition (leaning left/right)
I have a similar problem in my car, if you take your hand off the steering wheel, you can actually see the steering jerk once when the brake are applied/ jabbed quickly. My car still goes straight and doesn't pull to the left/right. The dealer couldn't figure it out but finally took apart the caliper and lubed the guiding pins. That helped for about 2 weeks then it came back again. At least for me, I think the guiding pins are the culprit.
well, it's doing the same thing now, the dealer gave up and said it's normal. I just kinda left it for now since it doesn't bother me too much. The explanation was that one of the calipers is sticking due to the guiding pins so one caliper grabs the rotor just a second faster than the other, making the steering jerk.
I can assure you that the problem you are experiencing is far from normal. A year ago I had my pads and discs changed on my e36 and after the change I got exactly the same problem you have described. At the time I was told that the caliper may be too tight is why I was experiencing that problem. I could'nt ever get to the bottom of the problem as I sold it very soon after. If the dealer insists that the problem is normal, ask them to demonstrate the same charectaristic in a different car. I bet my bottom dollar that problem will not appear in the other vehicle.
I don't recall the whole conversation from the dealer... but they checked it out and mentioned something to the effect of a bushing and control arm issue...
they also mentioned that it wasn't essential that it be fixed immediately... he said over time it will cause more wear and tear than normal.. to fix it would run $400 or so.. out of warranty..
they also mentioned that it wasn't essential that it be fixed immediately... he said over time it will cause more wear and tear than normal.. to fix it would run $400 or so.. out of warranty..
they've replaced my lower control arm bushings first, then there's the rotors all around with new brake pads. then they checked all the tires, rotated, balanced. Then there was a service bulletin on the steering - they replaced some rubber bushing in the steering column. Then finally after it's all done - calipers(which of course is not under warranty - maintenance) I though about putting in some of those metal guiding pins for the calipers from bav auto. Hasn't gotten around to it yet, like they say, I can still drive on it.