[anjunabeats91]

I know there was already a thread on this a while ago but didn't conclude much for me so I'm staring a fresh one

I noticed this last summer when I had my gt4 style wheels put on with nitto nt555s, and the steering wheel would begin to shake at 45 mph and up. Here's what I did then: My local tire shop balanced them twice, took off the retainer clips, front tire shaving, road force balanced them, pulled off the fronts and used the factory wheels. All did nothing. Also had Ford do a balance to give it a try somewhere else, and nothing.

Here's what I've done now: Just got back now from that local tire shop and I suspected the front tires were just no good so they just swapped them out for new ones, balanced and still nothing.

I never noticed anything on my stock wheels and tires because I've only had them on when its cold out. But this year I've had them on since today and its been warm out and have actually been noticing the same steering wheel shake with these, but a little less than with the summers on.

So my next thought has been alignment, but after reading on here, someone said that did nothing, now I'm not sure what. Anyone know if stiffer suspension would do it? Now that I'm fairly certain its not the tires considering it does it on both winter and summer sets. Or maybe is it that steering rack problem? Or some bushings up front suspension?

Back when I first noticed this I did actually go into Ford to have them look at it and had a tech ride along to see what was happening, and they didn't find anything.

Anyone have any light to shed on this?? I've been trying to diagnose this for so long now and cannot get to the bottom of it. I do a lot of highway cruising to work and back and it's tiring now. I'm about to give up on this

 

[csamsh]

What front suspension mods have you done?

 

[anjunabeats91]

What front suspension mods have you done?

Oh yeah, bone stock

 

[jckennell]

try upgrading to the boss steering rack. there is a thread on here somewhere that I read recently that fixed this

 

[jckennell]

here ya go

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/foru...ering-wheel-issue-heres-how-i-fixed-mine.html

 

[PMDmustang13]

I don't know if you still have a warranty left, but if you do, then I would be contacting Deysha and line up another appointment with the same or different dealer and have them figure it out. I would not be spending money out of my own pocket for the boss steering rack and labor if I have a warranty. With bone stock suspension you should not have those issues.

 

[anjunabeats91]

here ya go

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/foru...ering-wheel-issue-heres-how-i-fixed-mine.html

Appreciate that. I pretty much feel like the OP.

I don't know if you still have a warranty left, but if you do, then I would be contacting Deysha and line up another appointment with the same or different dealer and have them figure it out. I would not be spending money out of my own pocket for the boss steering rack and labor if I have a warranty. With bone stock suspension you should not have those issues.

Yeah I'm not interested in dropping over a grand on a steering rack if I've got warranty still. I'm going to go in next week and give it another try, and I'll let you all know if it's the same steering rack problem. I believe my warranty is still good. I'm at 33,000. Think thats under the basic 3 yr/36,000

 

[anjunabeats91]

Update:

Went to Ford last week and blew $160 on them to diagnose the front suspension, etc. and also brought my two front stock wheels and tires for them to compare. They claim nothing is wrong with the suspension up front and found on their balancer that the front Nittos were BOTH wobbling back and fourth, and rims were just fine. That was news to me after all this time.

I go back to my local tire shop with mine and my brother's Mustang to use his two front to test (I sold him the V6 in my signature if anyone gives a rip), but first the guy wanted to do another road force test with me watching (last time I had this done was last year with the original Nittos). So I'm watching him spin up the right front wheel, and it's wobbling back and fourth like almost what I feel when I'm in the driver's seat going 60 down the freeway. We then concluded that that was the problem out of all this, and he convinced me to try another new set of Nittos up front...again.

Now I'm back there at 8 this morning and they put the new set on, spin them on the car, and said the new ones do the saaaame daaaaaamn thiiiiing. He is speculating that it's not the tires he's putting on, rather still something going on inside the car. So after some thought, discussion, and decompressing of my frustrations, I called back and ordered two front Falkin tires that are on my brother's V6 (he loves them btw). Now waiting for those to come in which will take 4 days because they are apparently coming up from Texas.

Now this stirs up a question to you Nitto owners: any maybe, slight wobbles in your steering wheels? I'm blown away I got 3 sets of tires that do this wobbling thing if that's in fact the issue

 

[Mustangfreak196]

In for updates

 

[anjunabeats91]

Update:

Tires came in yesterday, and they put them on, balanced and everything. Got on the highway and almost smooth as butter. Relief. When I could feel it in the steering wheel at around 60-65 mph with the Nitto's, I now really can't feel it anymore. But when I let go and watch, it is still there, but about 50% less. When I used to start seeing it at around 40-45 mph (that's when it would really shake), now it's about 30% less. Cruising at 70+ mph, it's now very smooth, and little to no shake (visible and feeling). So these new Falkin tires did something for sure, but did not eliminate it. Overall, compiling feedback from each speed I've noticed (and listed) this issue, I would say has fixed the problem by about 70%. When I am now grabbing with both hands on the steering wheel I don't feel the wheel still "trying" to shake, rather is calm and smoooth. So something with these size Nitto's and stock suspension on these size wheels can very well cause steering wheel oscillation. When Ford tech drove with the stock ones up front, they claimed there was no oscillation, and I believe neither on the road force balencer. But there was with the Nitto's, as well as on the road force. And now I've found definite improvement with the Falkins up front.

Maybe the suspension is so soft that it picks up the normal imperfections in the tires/wheels? And that the Nitto's has such a tread pattern that amplifies that? I don't think it's that steering rack issue because I feel I would still have the same thing happening with the Falkins, so clearly something about the Falkins dampend/improved this issue.

I feel better, but still a little let down, because I was really feeling that an entirely different wheel brand and tread pattern would fix this. And it did to a certain extent, which I'm happy about.

I'm planning on going with KW V1 coil overs eventually, and that's where my thinking is next- stiffen up what ever is allowing that play in the wheel/tire. I will probably be getting an alignment too, because I've heard there's a chance that could be a factor in the issue considering its never had one to my knowledge (I'm second owner, bought at 9,000, and now its at 34,500).

If anyone's got any light to shed on what this could still be, I'd love to hear it. But overall I do feel relief, just not entirely.

 

[T3RM1N8R]

Been dealing with this for years, had it on my 2011, had it on my 2014.

Same story as you, tried different tires, rims etc and nothing. I even swapped in a one piece drive shaft and it did not cure the problem.

I have new pirellis now, which were balanced countless times, and an alignment done and its almost cured. But still some slight shake through out the cabin at high speeds. Its not something the average person would notice but nevertheless.

The steering in these cars is fully electronic and it also does micro adjustments every fraction of a second to account for wind and correct. The mustangs sensitive suspension, less than ideal tires, and the steering rack programming is what causes this. Also the strut tower brace needs to be torqued down to 26 ft/lbs so make sure you have that done correctly if you have a strut tower brace. There is no other possible culprit. Dont waste your money on diagnosis, mine is much better now, but at the end of the day its just the nature of the beast.

 

[anjunabeats91]

Been dealing with this for years, had it on my 2011, had it on my 2014.

Same story as you, tried different tires, rims etc and nothing. I even swapped in a one piece drive shaft and it did not cure the problem.

I have new pirellis now, which were balanced countless times, and an alignment done and its almost cured. But still some slight shake through out the cabin at high speeds. Its not something the average person would notice but nevertheless.

The steering in these cars is fully electronic and it also does micro adjustments every fraction of a second to account for wind and correct. The mustangs sensitive suspension, less than ideal tires, and the steering rack programming is what causes this. Also the strut tower brace needs to be torqued down to 26 ft/lbs so make sure you have that done correctly if you have a strut tower brace. There is no other possible culprit. Dont waste your money on diagnosis, mine is much better now, but at the end of the day its just the nature of the beast.

Thanks for the insight! That helps.

So would you say going with coil overs to stiffen it up would really help? As well as going with an alignment?

And I don't have a strut tower but planning on one after cobra jet intake with adjustable motor mounts. Are you saying the strut tower has also helped, and just needs to be torqued to 26 to be effective?

 

[Criminal Pilot]

Wait... you've had an oscillating problem all this time and you have yet to try an alignment? Just curious, but why? Is it extremely expensive where you live? Does Ford not cover that under your warranty as part of the diagnostic process? I find it hard to imagine it would be any more trouble to do than the half dozen tire balances you've had.

Alignment could easily be the suspect. My Raptor had oscillation/vibration issues at high speed and an alignment corrected it. It was similar to yours (sort of), at around 80kph it would start becoming noticeable, and it got worse and worse as you went faster to the point that anything over about 120kph was horrifying because of how violently it would shake. Alignment was the very first thing I tried. Luckily for me I have a mechanic in the family so cost wasn't an issue, but I am just surprised that you've gone all this time and you haven't tried an alignment simply because someone else said it didn't work for them. Different cars, different sources. Perhaps the alignment will correct the last 30% of your problem. Worth a shot any day. Any steering issue, you should be looking at anything to do with the tires/steering/front end, and alignment is a big one!

Good luck, I hope you get it sorted. Get the alignment checked!

(Or maybe I'm right out to lunch and alignments have absolutely nothing to do with steering, and my Raptor was magically fixed on itself. I don't know, my brother is the mechanic after all, I'm clueless!!)

 

[anjunabeats91]

Wait... you've had an oscillating problem all this time and you have yet to try an alignment? Just curious, but why? Is it extremely expensive where you live? Does Ford not cover that under your warranty as part of the diagnostic process? I find it hard to imagine it would be any more trouble to do than the half dozen tire balances you've had.

Alignment could easily be the suspect. My Raptor had oscillation/vibration issues at high speed and an alignment corrected it. It was similar to yours (sort of), at around 80kph it would start becoming noticeable, and it got worse and worse as you went faster to the point that anything over about 120kph was horrifying because of how violently it would shake. Alignment was the very first thing I tried. Luckily for me I have a mechanic in the family so cost wasn't an issue, but I am just surprised that you've gone all this time and you haven't tried an alignment simply because someone else said it didn't work for them. Different cars, different sources. Perhaps the alignment will correct the last 30% of your problem. Worth a shot any day. Any steering issue, you should be looking at anything to do with the tires/steering/front end, and alignment is a big one!

Good luck, I hope you get it sorted. Get the alignment checked!

(Or maybe I'm right out to lunch and alignments have absolutely nothing to do with steering, and my Raptor was magically fixed on itself. I don't know, my brother is the mechanic after all, I'm clueless!!)

Very interesting, good to know! Here's the thing, I don't have that much knowledge on suspension stuff, but when I first went to investigate this last year, my first thought was actually to get an alignment. When I went to my tire shop and told them the issue, and also said I feel it could be the alignment, they immediately said no no, that wouldn't be causing your steering wheel to shake. Went to Ford twice (the last time was a few weeks ago), asked/suggested the same thing about alignment, and they said the same too!

Now that you say that, that makes me more curious about the alignment (before I give up that has been on my list if all else fails). I will probably do one next week and keep let you know what happens. There really aren't that many other possibilities at this point that could be the cause.

 

[anjunabeats91]

Still waiting to get time for an alignment. Does anyone else who knows about this issue highly recommend getting an alignment? I just want to get as much input as possible