Question about sloppy and wandering steering

[southboundchicken]

There is no sensor that will tighten your steering on these trucks its all mechanical linkage same as the older trucks please post up what other truck you had that had a sensor to control your steering slop. A new (remanufactured) box from napa is less than $200 so if you do in fact need a new one its not the end of the world, i tried that adjustment bolt on the top in my 03 and if anything it just made it worse

 

[scoobyxj]

No sensor.... Try replacing the pitman arm, idler arm and idler arm bracket if its still sloppy consider replacing the steering gear box..., i just replaced the gear box idler arm and bracket, pitman arm tie rods and ball joints and what a difference..... Also, one thing i was doing was running my tires with more pressure than i should have and while this wont do anything for the sloppy steering i felt it did contribute to the wondering so check tires for correct pressure

Something to really consider. I've noticed if I get my tires over inflated by just the smallest amount it gets squirrelly. My only conclusion is it's the tread blocks in the center flexing due to the tire being slightly crowned over. I'm sure this largely has to do with the type of, and tread pattern of the tire as well.

There is no sensor that will tighten your steering on these trucks its all mechanical linkage same as the older trucks please post up what other truck you had that had a sensor to control your steering slop. A new (remanufactured) box from napa is less than $200 so if you do in fact need a new one its not the end of the world, i tried that adjustment bolt on the top in my 03 and if anything it just made it worse

The sensor he's referring to changes the power steering pressure in relation to the position of the steering whee on the OBS trucksl. So it could have an effect on how the vehicle drives. I'm not 100% certain, but don't the vehicles with the stabilitrack (or whatever it's called) have steering wheel position sensors. However I don't think it's tied into the powersteering. It just tells the system what direction the wheels are pointed.

 

[Mr. 960]

on my 06 Yukon I felt it had slop compared to my 06 Sierra with rack and pinion. My pitman arm and idler arm looked good, but my tie rod ends were on their way out. I also noticed that my truck form the alignment shop was towed out too much. I corrected this when I installed the tie rods and aligned the truck with my friends help towing the wheels in. That made a night and day difference, my tires ware evenly now, as before the were not. I added the cognito steering braces, and a rough country stabilizer. Truck runs nice now with no play at all and tracks very straight.

To answer the previous post. Yes, my Yukon ahs stupidity control and it has all kinds of wires connected to that plastic bearing case under the dash. My truck, does not have this so called stupidity control, and has no wires on that bearing.

 

[ccapehartusarmyINF.(ret)]

has anyone checked there shocks when i bought my hoe it had 100k miles on it and the original factory shocks and the steering was so squirrely and sloppy i thought it had all kindsa alignment issues but once i put new shocks on it fixed all my steering concerns

 

[Mudfrog]

My steering is sloppy and I have brand new shocks. It was always a little loose but it's really noticeable once I installed larger tires. The steering stabilizer helped but I'm having to do a lot of over correcting. I just had it aligned but they didn't say any front end parts were worn, I might replace them anyway as I can tell just by looking at them, they've been installed for a very long time.

 

[rob76]

My 94 suburban had wandering steering at 135,000 miles The steeringbox was worn out. I repalced it myself. Then it drove like a new car.