gamountainclimber

Anyone have any problems with the steering in your CTS-V? About two months ago my '04 with 34K miles started "wandering" when making a right turn at 50+mph...like you wagged the steering wheel back & forth a couple times in the middle of the turn. Also frequently would happen when changing lanes if the road had any amount of imperfection. The steering pump was also making a noise so I took it in and the dealer replaced a leaking steering gearbox. The noise (caused by a cavitating pump) went away, but the wandering is still with me. Dealer blames it on my winter tires (Dunlop Winter Sport M3 that were mounted when the gearbox was replaced) but this also occurred with my GY F1 Supercars on there as well. Car has been aligned 3 times front & rear in last month by dealer who claims that nothing is coming out of alignment and nothing is wrong. Now I notice that the left front tire is beginning to scalp on the outer block. This to me points to a suspension or linkage problem, but the dealer service manager (who sells maybe 4-5 of these a year and obviously would rather deal with a 65-yr-old driving a DTS than a 33-yr-old driving a V) insists that I caused it when I put non-OEM tires on the car. Any thoughts on this...?

BaddillaK

iTrader: (13)

sound like you could possibly have a bad ball joint thats moving in and out of the knuckle when its stressed ie. turning a with moderated g's... if you want to check this on your own its not to hard. you can jack the front of the car up w/ about 6 or so inches under the tire suspension at full droop (I would put some jackstands to be safe) this part you may need somebodys help, but what you need is a crowbar or something similar and you place b/t the tire and ground and lift the tire, and what you will be looking for is the tire and knuckle assembly to move up with out the lower controll arm moving. and if it does that tells you that your ball joint is worn and needs to be replaced.... its a pretty simple test that will only take about 10-15 min. to do but it might find the problem.... and im sure that its not the tires its probably a susp. issue.... good luck finding the problem and hope my info helps some.... pm if your not sure what im talkin about

RocketSSled

I have a similar experience with steering wander with my V and plan to take it to the dealer for a look see. I also have some creaking in the rear end that I hear when I back into my garage. Not sure of this is a related issue with the rear-end or it's the rear suspension bushings getting warn.

gamountainclimber

BaddillaK: didn't think of ball joint, I will try to perform the test in the next couple days and let you know. Sounds like a possibility - might also explain why it is not noticeable at low speeds, and why a road irregularity on the left side might trigger it. Appreciate the comments...will let you know.

V-seriesTech

iTrader: (5)

Werd.

Balljoint. tie rod end...etc etc.

Like dude, says, jack up the car, front wheels off the ground(you can do one at a time). You could probably see right away without removing the wheel. Just grab the wheel thats off the ground, and see if there is any movement at all. If np parts are broken, then you should have ZERO movement. Any wobble,....would most likely be the root to your problem.

I worked on a car this past week, that had similar problems you expereinced. It was front wheel drive....and it ended up being the knuckle, and control arm.

gamountainclimber

To those curious about this...I put the car on jack stands this past weekend after a planned drive where I purposely put the car under differing situations to try to replicate a pattern (and I found that it was only occurring lateral loading on the left side of the car - which was not at all apparent for quite a while) and looked at everything again...including the rear. Recall that there has never been any steering feedback when the car waves back and forth in the lane, even when it violently swerved, even though you would swear that the front of the car is moving. As it turns out, the left rear tire has about 3/8" of play in it...took it back to dealer who found a loose tie rod. He's going through the rest of the rear end now, but for sure the tie rod play was contributing to this - if not causing it. Will update when I pick up the car, inspect it, and drive it...but I have high hopes on this one now. Thanks to BadillaK for pm guidance on looking for the problem...though it was not in the front as we suspected, it still led me to the ultimate discovery. Now I will go to battle with the dealer who didn't find this through 3 visits over the past two months, during which time I ruined two rear F1 Supercars with 1/2 tread still remaining, and scapled the two fronts.

gamountainclimber

Happy to report that after I told him what the problem was, the dealer confirmed - and fixed - my problem. It was a loose left REAR TOE LINK. Now that it's fixed, the wheel has no play in it when up in the air, and tracks just as the car should on the road.

Dealer is refunding the money I paid for the first alignment (he has now done 4 alignments in the last month, but the last 3 were already covered), plus he's going to give me a service voucher to compensate for my trouble & premature tire wear. He has also admitted that in fact, my tires and I are not to blame for a performance sedan wandering around lanes unprovoked.

Keep this in mind if you have handling problems...these Cadillac dealers aren't used to complex suspensions like this.