Hello everyone,

I am having some vibration going on when cruising at 60mph, the steering wheel starts shaking left and right... At first I thought it was my rims or alignment but I swapped my rims had them balanced and did a alignment...

I'm thinking it could be my rack opinion??

Let me know if anyone had this problem and found the solution..

Abe Berro

 

check the wheels for being properly balanced also.

 

Have you checked for worn suspension parts wheel bearings etc.

 

Tires are balanced, and wheel bearings seem to be fine..

I'm pretty sure it's the rack opinion..
I have taken it to 2 shops this past summer and them said it was the rack and the other said my rack opp is fine...

Is it a pain to replace ?

Abe Berro

 

Not sure what it might be, but the term is rack and pinion, not rack opinion.

 

Thanks..

Abe Berro

 

Just a thought... do you have TPMS? I had one break free inside the wheel. It flopped all over the place. If your tire shop just re-balanced, it would be out of balance as soon as they put the wheel back on the car.

I've never heard of a rack causing this kind of problem - you would feel the play at rest as well.

 

How are your struts ? Check for leaks ?
Check your tires again. Not always a balance issue but bubbles or sometimes the rubber gets funky when it gets warm. Had a set of michelin on my Toyota Tundra that started to disintegrated when it got warmed up at highway speed causing shimming issues also. Ended up getting them warrantied with discounttiresdirect

 

Just had a similar (but mild nonetheless) symptom addressed in my Turbo. The solution was to rebalance the front wheels/tires. As the tires wear they go out of balance. More and more nowadays about half way worn I have to have the front tires rebalanced.

BTW, you really have to be sure a proper rebalance was done. Unfortunately some places will claim to have done a rebalance, even an alignment, but really don't. It doesn't happen often but when it does it can be a real pain to deal with when one is trying to solve a problem that would have been solved had the balance/alignment actually been done.

Be sure too the wheels are properly mounted. If a wheel doesn't center on the hub properly while the wheel/tire is balanced it can still cause you grief. Generally though these do not change on their own, but is more common when fitting new wheels. The wheels are not machined properly.

If a proper balance and alignment didn't fix the behavior then the steering rack is suspect. So are the shocks. Any signs of shock fluid leakage?

One "test" for a bad rack is to take the car to an empty parking lot and at slow speed make a u-turn. As the turn completes let the steering wheel go and let it find its own center.

Note where the wheel stops.

Repeat this several times making the turn in first one direction then another.

If the wheel doesn't stop/center the same place each time the rack has to be suspect.

You probably would want a professional Porsche tech to make this diagnosis though as a new rack is expensive and you want to be darn sure one is needed before having a new one installed.