SW20 Steering Rattle

[solitaire]

Hi all.

This morning the SW20 has started rattling on dirt roads... its still normal on tarmac etc.

When driving up my gravel driveway i hear a metallic rattling/tapping sound and feel it a little through the steering wheel... the car handles fine but now im constantly worrying if i am about to loose my steering at 100k's... not a pleasant thought...

I think the sound is coming from where the steering colum dissapears into the dash... but im worried that something is loose under the car and it just happens to be rattling further up the steering colum...

sorry for the rant... anyone experienced something similiar?

[Ae92typeX]

checked the sway bar links are all sweet as?
not a sw, but on the aw I had a similar thing. resolved by putting new links on (and renewing the stupid design of a bush in the colum). They were fine on smooth road, but rattled on rougher surfaces. To check, just jack up, or put on ramps and give a firm shake of sway bar looking for sounds.

[big_boy]

looking for sounds.

[Ae92typeX]

lol...fine, if I need to expand:

looking around areas of the sway bar and links to identify if/where any sounds are comming from.

better?

[Adamal]

I'm not satisfied, elaborate futher please.

Whats the steering response like on tarmac? And whats it like going over speed bumps?

[solitaire]

Thanks for all the replies fella's,


On tarmac is pretty good... there is a little play but according to the bgb it is within the limits... Speed bumps are a tough one because i only ever go over them in the downtown carpark so its pretty sudden with not much time to notice whats going on but it feels absolutely normal...

I do notice that if while turning the car at about 5km/h on tarmac if i wiggle the steering wheel at about half lock i hear the same noise (a bit quieter though). It is most pronounced on my driveway but thats more rally than road.

I must say from day one it has felt somewhat nervous on really turbulent rural roads and you really have to fight the car on uneven surfaces when the front suspension is under load.

Tomorrow i will jack her up and have a gander... the bgb's resolution to steering noises seems to be "check everything" - not very usefull but probably very accurate

[fivebob]

Common failure points are the steering rack bushings, rod & rack ends, lower ball joints, and sway bar mount points on early (pre '92) models.

[solitaire]

Ok ive had a look... thanks for all your replies....

Under the car everything seems normal... ive got the car on axle stands and there is no play in the steering when i move the wheels or anything.... i have wiggled everything i can touch and everything seems solid...

about 5 months ago albany toyota replaced the steering rack, rack end and steering boots so hopefully he would of picked up anything dodgey.

I noticed there is play between the steering wheel and where it actually connects to the rack... so im wondering if a bracket or somthign has come loose... unfortunately that probably involved taking half the dash out to get a look at it...