Loose steering feels like it has play and drifts

[Jarickeman]

Wondering fixed tsb flash and rusty lower control arms adjusted to 24 1/4”. Rubicon at stock height and build date of Jan 18. Drives as it should now.

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[Holymoly1963]

It seems so strange that the owners know more about fixing the damn thing than the manufacturer. Pride in ownership versus corporate mediocrity? We the owners want the best, while the manufacturer accepts kind of a government mantra ....it's good enough for the masses. These guys would never be able to land a man on the moon. What's going on here?

 

[Blammmo_]

it’s a shame that customers have to resort to fixing the steering issues on their own.
Especially with so many threads written about steering issues and the magnitude of this thread alone.

 

[plex]

Was informed dispatcher/service manager is to find this information. Seems to me lots of people in dealers like mine don't want to be bothered. Anyway if your handy with wrenches you might be able to help yourself. I put Mopar 2" lift lower control arms on made it 75% better. The dealer did do alignment and adjusted toe-in. Tightened lower ball joints to next slot in castle nut. Adjusted gear box 1/8 turn. Now I'm about 90% good waiting on a Teraflex 2.2 steering stabilizer, but it does handle very close to our JK . Hopefully stabilizer will dial it in close too 100%. When and if FCA comes out with a solution, everything I have done can be put back. If you read the threads on this issue you will find that maybe just doing one of these things could get you where you want to be. Would rather be down 20HP and leave computers and electronics out of steering system. Next issue, my white grill turning yellow. At their mercy on this one, till my patience runs out, then its just dig deep in the pocket and do it yourself.

I am planning to do that, put on the slightly longer LCA. How was your installation experience? Did you torque it to 190 ft-lbs of those mounting nuts?

 

[318Polara]

LCA installation is easy. My torque specs show 103 ft pounds and 145 degrees more. Do not fully torque till you have jeep on ground.

 

[Jeepsterfreak]

There has to be a way one of these hacker/programer people can provide a way to adjust the steering assist.
IMO thats what is causing this. Its assisting too much on some of ours jeeps..
Im only assuming because when i pull the fuse on the power steering, I get no play.

Most vehicles, the assist make steering tighter the faster you go, Mine seems to not do that at all.
I love driving my 2dr JK over my JL .

This is interesting. When you pull the fuse, is the Jeep driveable without power steering? Is the steering wheel play eliminated while parked? This would rule out a sloppy steering box wouldn’t it?

 

[DWheelerR]

I didn't drive it .I just started it up and tried to turn the wheel left and right while it was running. I didn't notice any play.
But I will say it's kinda hard to tell because it's so hard to turn. Maybe I'll test it more over the weekend

 

[Jeepsterfreak]

I didn't drive it .I just started it up and tried to turn the wheel left and right while it was running. I didn't notice any play.
But I will say it's kinda hard to tell because it's so hard to turn. Maybe I'll test it more over the weekend

That would be a good test. Many owners are reporting steering wheel play before the front tires move while parked. You could test it with and without the fuse. If there is slop in the steering box then the same amount of play should be present?

 

[Chewbacca2264]

Well I am leaving in a few minutes to go attack the steering box in my rig to see if I can get this thing right once and for all. I have been thinking about this non stop for the last couple of weeks after I got my caster set correctly. I believe that the loose steering is 100% on the steering box, so long as the computer has been given the correct program for the steering assist. Here is the deal there is no way for them to have an adaptive program that could take into account play in the steering wheel, if that was the case each Jeep would have different settings in the computer. Not possible when mass producing. I believe that if the rumors are true that there is going to be a big recall for steering the only thing that makes sense is the steering box. Bottom line is that the computer controlled steering assist is designed to work with a properly calibrated gear box, when that occurs these Jeeps drive great. Problem is that people have been making the large assumption that the gear boxes are set properly at the factory, I believe that therein lies the problem. Poor quality control on the gear box causes steering hell for those of us trying to figure it out. As I have stated prior my buddy has a Jeep same build month, model as mine purchased from same dealer 6 days apart. His steering is wonderful, very responsive with no play in the wheel. Mine is like driving the 1961 GMC dump truck that I learned to drive on baling hay on my uncle's farm when I was 10. Three mechanic friends of mine all agree that for the steering assist to help based on speed the gear box has to be properly calibrated. Bottom line is that I have nearly 3 inches of dead spot in my steering, makes no difference what the steering assist is doing that is mechanical slop in the steering wheel. Hopefully in a few hours I will be able to post on here that my steering is fixed, it has to be the box and I am determined to get it right. Will check back in later.


Chewi

 

[DWheelerR]

Sounds good . Keep us informed .I tightened my box close to 1/8 and that took at least over an inch of play out . I left room to go more later .I feel like 1/4 turn would do it for me

 

[DeVoTee]

Well I am leaving in a few minutes to go attack the steering box in my rig to see if I can get this thing right once and for all. I have been thinking about this non stop for the last couple of weeks after I got my caster set correctly. I believe that the loose steering is 100% on the steering box, so long as the computer has been given the correct program for the steering assist. Here is the deal there is no way for them to have an adaptive program that could take into account play in the steering wheel, if that was the case each Jeep would have different settings in the computer. Not possible when mass producing. I believe that if the rumors are true that there is going to be a big recall for steering the only thing that makes sense is the steering box. Bottom line is that the computer controlled steering assist is designed to work with a properly calibrated gear box, when that occurs these Jeeps drive great. Problem is that people have been making the large assumption that the gear boxes are set properly at the factory, I believe that therein lies the problem. Poor quality control on the gear box causes steering hell for those of us trying to figure it out. As I have stated prior my buddy has a Jeep same build month, model as mine purchased from same dealer 6 days apart. His steering is wonderful, very responsive with no play in the wheel. Mine is like driving the 1961 GMC dump truck that I learned to drive on baling hay on my uncle's farm when I was 10. Three mechanic friends of mine all agree that for the steering assist to help based on speed the gear box has to be properly calibrated. Bottom line is that I have nearly 3 inches of dead spot in my steering, makes no difference what the steering assist is doing that is mechanical slop in the steering wheel. Hopefully in a few hours I will be able to post on here that my steering is fixed, it has to be the box and I am determined to get it right. Will check back in later.


Chewi

Chewi, I couldn't agree more, My daughters Moab (late 18 build) had the steering box changed. It drove completely different, so I have experienced the diff first hand. One finger or no hands driving at 60/65 mph on a two lane hwy.

For drifting, loose steering it's definitely the box.

 

[Chewbacca2264]

Well that went ok, the screw did have locktite and we had a heck of a time getting it loose to make the adjustment. We decided to adjust the screw until the front wheels turned with the steering wheel. In other words with the Jeep running and standing outside of it I could literally turn my steering wheel almost three inches before the front wheels would react. Instead of deciding to turn the screw a set amount based on others actions we used this as our base, get the wheels to turn with the steering wheel. We went 1/16 and there was a small improvement, then went to 1/8 of a turn and saw more improvement. We then continued until we were just short of 1/4 of a turn. It appeared as though the wheels were "synched" up pretty well with the steering wheel so we stopped. I ran it with the falcon 2.2 on medium and on firm. Definitely still has a bit of play while driving though it is much better. The wheel did firm up quite a bit but honestly I still like the feel of the firm setting on the stabilizer. I was able to set the cruise and enjoy a highway drive without constant correction so that is nice. All in all this was the biggest improvement yet for the handling issues, though I would still prefer the feel of my 2014 JKUS over this. There is no doubt in my mind that the gear box is the biggest issue for the handling problems, bottom line is Jeep needs to find a better steering box that will work in conjunction with the computer and recall the POS boxes that we are all having issues with. No doubt in my mind that all of our gear boxes are going to react differently and there can be no clear instruction on this fix, each vehicle will need to be adjusted based on handling. Right now after a few short test drives I kinda wish we had gone another 1/16 as there is still a small dead spot in the wheel. I really hated to mess with the gear box but it is absolutely necessary for those of us having this issue. This is not a problem with the steering assist, in simple terms it is a problem with the steering gear box working with the steering assist and quite obviously there are some gear boxes that are adjusted correctly and some that are all over the board. Help FCA...….you are our only hope....LOL!


Chewi

 

[Paul Hess]

Well that went ok, the screw did have locktite and we had a heck of a time getting it loose to make the adjustment. We decided to adjust the screw until the front wheels turned with the steering wheel. In other words with the Jeep running and standing outside of it I could literally turn my steering wheel almost three inches before the front wheels would react. Instead of deciding to turn the screw a set amount based on others actions we used this as our base, get the wheels to turn with the steering wheel. We went 1/16 and there was a small improvement, then went to 1/8 of a turn and saw more improvement. We then continued until we were just short of 1/4 of a turn. It appeared as though the wheels were "synched" up pretty well with the steering wheel so we stopped. I ran it with the falcon 2.2 on medium and on firm. Definitely still has a bit of play while driving though it is much better. The wheel did firm up quite a bit but honestly I still like the feel of the firm setting on the stabilizer. I was able to set the cruise and enjoy a highway drive without constant correction so that is nice. All in all this was the biggest improvement yet for the handling issues, though I would still prefer the feel of my 2014 JKUS over this. There is no doubt in my mind that the gear box is the biggest issue for the handling problems, bottom line is Jeep needs to find a better steering box that will work in conjunction with the computer and recall the POS boxes that we are all having issues with. No doubt in my mind that all of our gear boxes are going to react differently and there can be no clear instruction on this fix, each vehicle will need to be adjusted based on handling. Right now after a few short test drives I kinda wish we had gone another 1/16 as there is still a small dead spot in the wheel. I really hated to mess with the gear box but it is absolutely necessary for those of us having this issue. This is not a problem with the steering assist, in simple terms it is a problem with the steering gear box working with the steering assist and quite obviously there are some gear boxes that are adjusted correctly and some that are all over the board. Help FCA...….you are our only hope....LOL!


Chewi

What's your build date. If its prior 5/8 there is a star case to remove the steering box and test it and install a new one. Moving the set screw is a no no with Chrysler. They just finished ours yesterday and wow that's what 50k should drive like. I will be posting star case as soon as I have everything.

 

[DWheelerR]

Mine is late Sept build . So they won't do anything for me.
Reason why I had to adjust my box and take matters into my own hands. And I'm 100% glad I did.

 

[HardRock]

Chewi, I couldn't agree more, My daughters Moab (late 18 build) had the steering box changed. It drove completely different, so I have experienced the diff first hand. One finger or no hands driving at 60/65 mph on a two lane hwy.

For drifting, loose steering it's definitely the box.

How did you get service to change your steering box?

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