Over the past couple of weeks, my steering has became pretty lazy, and the wheels change direction at the slightest bump. The car rides ruts hard. I have a lot of play in the steering. If a road has a long curve in it, I can feel my wheels want to go straight, and then correct themselves. I am all over the road with this thing, and decided today to park it until it's fixed, as I don't feel very safe driving it.

So, here is what I have done. I have replaced the front wheel bearings, as one of them was bad. I shook the wheels at 3 and 9 with the steering wheel locked, and had zero play. After this little test, I feel confident the tie rods, and ball joints are OK.

Here are some symptoms that concern me:
The steering shaft has a bit of play in it. I have tightened up any visible bolts on it. I had my fiance shake the steering wheel back and forth, and I do hear a clunk, I think it may be from one of the U joints but I can't tell for sure. I don't know if the amount of play and noise in it is normal. I can't hear it with the car on, but the car is cammed and has a loud valve train. Also, with the car in the air, I notice lots of grease and grime all over the steering rack, and a noticeable amount on the passenger side boot. However, the car doesn't really use any power steering fluid, and all of the fluid looks clean. When I had my fiance turn the steering wheel, I could hear a "swoosh" from the rack... probably normal.

So, should the steering shaft have any play in it? Any idea's on what to replace? Advice?

The car has 98k miles on it. It is a 2000 Camaro.
At one point in time, about 20k miles ago, the power steering fluid was nasty, and black. I flushed all of it, and haven't really had any problems since.

If there is any info I can provide that might help pin point the problem, please let me know.

 

Do you have and suspension mods? How does the endlinks on your front swaybar look? Have you checked/gotten an alignment lateley? What tire pressure are you running with what wheels/tires?
There could be a lot at play here and could be a combination of things as well. If you are on stock shocks (or other inadequate shocks) no doubt that is a huge contribution to ride quality and stability, and somewhat steering feel (but obviously won't fix any play, just some feel). If you are missing a swaybar endlink or one is broken that could definitely play a role as well. Alignment could be way off. Tires being over inflated cause cause them to track and wander on rough roads and ride rougher, as well as larger wheels making the car ride rougher and pull more.

 

Thanks for the responds JD AMG. The car has stock suspension, nothing touched or replaced. On the front of the car I have 275 KDW 2's, at 32PSI. The car has always rode ruts. I am running 315 DR's with 20ish PSI in the back, so its a bit unpredictable on rough roads, but nothing like it is now. Something is definitely broken/worn out.

Everything is tight, all of the bushings are in good condition, and no play in the wheels. I went over to my buddies house today, who also has a Camaro, and shook his steering shaft (I am trying really hard to not sound gay right now), and he had a comparable amount of play in his steering shaft, so I marked the steering shaft off the list.

The only thing left really is the steering rack, which I began removing today, but got distracted by the "honey-do list". I disconnected the tie rods, and removed the power steering fluid. I think I will need an 18mm line wrench to remove the lines from the rack. After that I guess I just remove the bolts holding the rack to the K member. A lot of people are saying you have to jack the motor up to get the driver's side bolt out, but I am just going to cut it with a sawzaw.

Does anyone know if I am missing anything for the procedure of removing the rack? I did a little search, and from what I have read, there is no "how to" on this, just some very vague instructions in random threads.

 

checking tie rods and ball joints for play is not easy for an average joe to feel... it takes a certain touch to know what you are doing, ball joints are expecially difficult to spot. supsension must be loaded to check ball joints(jack up under the control arm) and use a pry bar under the tire and pull up... It sounds like you have two issues... one is either a ball joint/tie rod, in case you will also need an alignment. And the other sounds like a bad strut not keeping your tires firmly on the ground over bumps, so it jolts one way or the other after a nice bump. Third possibility is your steering rack is junk... Id have a shop look at it, give you a free estimate, and do the work yourself if inclined.

 

I appreciate your input, but I just have a hard time believing all of these things went bad at one time. The problem didn't develop over time, it just seems like an immediate thing. However, I will keep your thoughts in mind if the rack turns out not to be the problem.

I made very little progress so far. I have been being lazy, and I hardly ever do anything on Sunday's with football on TV. But, I did remove the feed line, and return line. When I removed the feed line, the power steering fluid barely dripped out of it. There was a bit of grime inside the fitting, and I scooped it out with a paper towel, and then fluid came pouring out. I had a hard time believing one of those lines could clog up with all of the pressure being pushed through them, but I am thinking that may have been the problem.

 

Well, I replaced the rack. I didn't lift the engine, I just cut out the mounting bolt on the driver's side with a sawzall (anyone that has replaced the rack before knows that I am talking about), and I swear that bolt was made out of diamonds. That thing took forever to cut, and ate up one of my expensive metal cutting blades.

It seems to have fixed the problem. However, I have been driving my fiancee's Audi, and it's a big change going back over to the obnoxious Camaro. I am paranoid because the Camaro rides rut's because of the big tires, and I kind of forgot what that was like with not driving the Camaro for two weeks. I keep wondering if something is still wrong with the steering, but I just have to remember that the Camaro is not an Audi.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

My steering feels like crap as well. the steering wheel has a lot of play in it, and it doesn't feel at all precise. I don't think the rack needs replacing, but prehaps something needs tightening?

 

My car had the U-joint nearest the rack almost come off,
it was not clamping down hard on the splines. The tire
shop dude was able to loosen both ends and seat it on
there better.