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smartascii -> Front Suspension/Steering (2/4/2008 3:50:45 PM)
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Hello All!
I have a 1998 E150 Conversion van with some front end/steering issues I'm trying to pinpoint. The steering has quite a bit of play in it, and it wants to pull to the left, although it's sensitive to road camber, meaning that when the road slopes slightly toward the right (as it often does in the right-hand lane) it pulls less.
It has a steering wheel vibration at freeway speeds that appears to be truly random. Sometimes it does it, sometimes not, and I can't tell that the speed, steering angle, road surface, or tire temperature have anything to do with it.
When you turn the wheel back and forth all the way to the stops, as I often do when parallel parking, the whole van leans noticeably in the direction opposite from the way the wheels are pointing.
Also, when making a very sharp left-hand turn, like a u-turn, there's sometimes a thunk from somewhere down in the works, and the van lurches, as if the tire moved on its mount suddenly. And on softer turns, it sometimes shudders a bit from what feels like tire slippage, almost as if the differential were locking up.
I also hear rattles and thunks from what sounds like somewhere under the passenger footwell when driving on bumpy roads, though I don't know if that's related. And, it returns about 10 MPG from the 5.4-liter, which suggests to me that it may be having to work a bit harder than normal, so maybe something's out of alignment. I know it's not a Prius, but 10 MPG is a little low for this thing, when driven at 65 mph with the cruise control set, right?
I've heard that the ball joints are prone to failure, but they were replaced at 80k, and the van now has 107k on it, so it seems (to me, at least) like the failure would be a little premature. I live in Chicago, with all the bad roads and road salt, if that makes any difference.
Hopefully, some of you have some thoughts on this. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to pay some rip-off artist to start replacing parts willy-nilly 'til he drains my bank account and never gets it fixed.
Thanks for any advice.
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