Vibration In Steering Wheel On Highspeed Sweeping Left-hand Turns

[Daskuppler]

Hello Everyone,

 

I have a 14 Forester 2.5 Premium with 100k on it.  Recently, I have noticed a shudder in the steering wheel when making left-hand sweeping turns at speeds over 50.  It feels like it is coming from the passenger front wheel but it is hard to tell while driving.  All tie rod ends, ball joints, and wheel bearings feel tight.  However, with the driver side tire on the ground and passenger side jacked up, there is a significant amount of play in the wheel with very little translated to the driver side (though there is some movement).  There is also a "rattle" sound coming from that corner of the car on cold starts, and some popping when bumps are hit just right.  I did not notice any play in the strut, but I did not remove it to double confirm anything.  I was thinking the rack and pinon is going out, but steering is still smooth, tight, and there are no leaks.  I also don't want to just throw in 1k worth of parts without knowing for sure.  There is no abnormal tire wear either.  The alignment was just done, maybe 1k miles ago and everything is in spec.

 

What else could be causing this?  It does not occur on right-hand turns.  What could be causing this?  Any other troubleshooting steps?

[laegion]

My thought would be the tie-rod ends or the ball joint. From what you're describing it really sounds like a tie-rod end to me.

Just because you can't register any movement with human strength doesn't mean it isn't loose; your car exerts far more force on those in turns than you could ever manage manually.

The popping on bumps could be sway bar bushings or end-links.

Also maybe check your tires for separated belts.

Edited November 15, 2021 by laegion

[el_freddo]

Also look into a shot wheel bearing. 

Cheers 

Bennie

[1 Lucky Texan]

might swap tire-pairs front-to-back, inspect brakes, lug nuts, etc. at the same time.

[Daskuppler]

2 hours ago, 1 Lucky Texan said:

might swap tire-pairs front-to-back, inspect brakes, lug nuts, etc. at the same time.

Coins something have been damaged during a stud replacement? The tire shop broke one off and paid for another shop to replace it. The vibration was noticed sometime after that

[1 Lucky Texan]

well, several things come to mind but, yeah, I'd have everything inspected closely. maybe a rim is bent, or another stud has cracked or improper lug nuts used or nuts are not properly torqued, etc.

[laegion]

7 hours ago, 1 Lucky Texan said:

well, several things come to mind but, yeah, I'd have everything inspected closely. maybe a rim is bent, or another stud has cracked or improper lug nuts used or nuts are not properly torqued, etc.

Very good point. I had a strange vibration and sound during sweeping turns a week ago and it turned out it was a wheel Les Schwab had worked on about a month ago and the lugnuts were backing out and barely finger tight.

They gave me some nonsense about torquing Subaru Lugnuts to 90 lbs/ft.

I dunno about others but I always roll my car a few feet and re-torque when I tighten wheels.

 

Might be worth checking even if it seems too obvious...that's what I thought too and glad I checked!

[Daskuppler]

This ended up being a wheel bearing.