Ford F-150 (2004-2008) :: Tight Steering When At Low RPMs Or Not Moving
Jul 20, 2014
I've got an 08 F150 and the steering has gotten tight when at low rpms or when not moving. The pump's whining and laboring. Fluid is clean and full.
View 3 RepliesI've got an 08 F150 and the steering has gotten tight when at low rpms or when not moving. The pump's whining and laboring. Fluid is clean and full.
View 3 RepliesSo our 2006 f150 fx4 has been having an issue with stiff steering... at times like it doesn't have power steering at all.
We recently had the lower ball joints on both sides replaced. Before that the upper control arm on the drivers side was also replaced.
There are days that it is better... other times not so much.
On my 2004 s-cab the steering is starting go 'notchy'?
I have considered, tight upper or lower ball joints, pump, rack or even a sticking rear diff, but not carried out any checks yet except oil level
I have a 2008 f350, crew cab,6.4L. with 27,173 miles. may have a problem with the steering, seems to be tight when turning from left to right or right to left, doesn't seem to center, if I turn a little to left or right it stays there. I can go in complete a circle. Raised front off ground turns ok no binding, nothing loose on the front end.
View 1 RepliesI've got an 04 f250 4x4 crew cab. I just replaced the upper and lower ball joints on both sides and also the drag link. My alignment was off from the bad ball joints so I had it aligned after I did all of this. Now the steering is really weird. Its like something is to tight. I can barely keep the truck straight because every time I barely move the wheel I seem to be going one way or another and getting it straight is nearly impossible to the point I look like a drunk driver. I can turn the wheel to go around a curve and let go of it and it will stay that way until I turn it back. It won't return itself. I'm kind of lost.
View 3 RepliesI have a 2004 Venture where the power steering feels tight. Fluid level is good. No leaks (had it repaired a year ago where line was leaking, and now repaired).
Turning the wheel under most circumstances feels pretty normal. However, say, doing parking maneuvers SOMETIMES feels like I have non-power steering for maybe a quarter turn, and then it picks up again.
2010 camry LE
A family member did a tune up on the car and did not realize that the power steering reservoir had a HOT and COLD min/max lines. He filled up to the max line for HOT while the car was completely cold. He also filled up with Prestone Power Steering fluid with Stop Leak instead of ATF/DEXIII.
The car was driven a few times for maybe 50 miles in total before I found out about all this and I drained the fluid out to the appropriate levels. However the steering at low/parking speeds is still very tight (tighter than what I used to remember, at least).
Did he royally screw up the power steering system here? What can I do?
I recently purchased as used 2006 F-150 Lariat 4x4 with 77K miles. I am having an issue with the shift on the fly, I had a vacuum leak that was causing the auto hubs to make noise on occasion but it has never allowed me to shift from 2wd to 4H while moving. I have replaced the IWE solenoid and repaired the vacuum leak but it still will not engage while moving. The light for 4H comes on but the hubs will not engage. The dealer where I purchased the vehicle is not a ford dealership and whey have been trying to solve the problem but to no avail.
View 3 RepliesI have a 2005 Ford F-150 with a 4.6L and auto tranny non 4 wheel drive. I have a hard time moving from park to drive and reverse. Is there a switch that lets you put it in gear once the brake pedal is depressed? Could that have gone bad?
View 5 RepliesWhen move steering wheel left to right just a tiny bit back and forth while the car is shut off or on, does it make any sort of noise in the column?
View 3 RepliesI am trying to solve a mystery on my mom's truck. It's an '06 4.2L F-150 STX with about 133k miles. It had a check engine light on until today- I cleaned the TB and changed air filter yesterday, and both were filthy. Code vanished later on while driving.
I want to check the PCV because the truck idles high and rough in any setting from park to OD, stopped or moving. Worse when stopped though. Entire coil pack has already been changed due to previous misfire problems. This feels similar to a misfire but without the acceleration hesitation. It has also had a recent oil change, and fuel/oil filter change as well.
There is only one hose connecting to the intake on this truck, and it appears to be a vapor line of some sort to the valve cover, but isn't a PCV cause it's just a hollow tube. There is nothing else coming out of the TB at all, except for the throttle control cable. I don't even seen any nipples or connections or holes where a PCV hose or valve should go. I thought it was on the passenger side, under the TB... but there is nothing here at all. I'm stumped.
I am beginning to think the truck just does not have one at all, which I know for a fact is impossible. I have traced every line on this motor from top to bottom, and I do not see it. Should have a heater on it I assume? What else can make the truck so rough? I don't buy it that "it's just that way". That is complete, lazy, BS. I have had/driven many trucks; 4x4s, supercrew, diesels, jeeps, dump trucks... I have NEVER had a truck run as badly and roughly as this one does. Heck, a twin-turbo 700HP diesel doesn't run this roughly.
I have a 2008 F-150. When moving gear selector from park to either reverse or drive, trans has a delay engaging. After engagement, it runs fine, shifts ok, downshifts ok....
View 7 RepliesThe steering on my Ex isn't working like it should. At times it feels loose when cruising then feels tight when straightening back out after a turn... the wander is really bad...
My PS fluid is also turning into a muddy brown goo every 5k... I changed the PS pump this summer with a supposedly good used one...
What should I be looking at/checking for?
Replaced the Intermediate Steering Shaft at 114,000 miles. Symptoms felt like power steering going out but no pump noise or low fluid. Steering became hard to turn and it sometimes felt like a tie rod was letting go.
Temporary resolution was to spray the two steering shaft joints with penetrating oil (PB Blaster). That freed them up pretty well. Then I ordered Dorman part 425361 (425-361) from Rock Auto. Simple enough job. Lots of good vids on YouTube.
I don't recommend spraying the steering shaft joints as preventative maintenance. Penetrating oil will get into the needle bearings and break down the bearing grease. That will cause the joints to fail over time.
Two side benefits, the truck steering is much smoother and small road bumps and potholes are much less noticeable. Feels like it was when new.
After 240,000 miles I had to get the ball joints on my 02 f250 2 wheel drive replaced and the alignment set. I notice that the steering is really tight. In fact that it will not attempt to return to center on the highway. The guy that did the work has 30 years experience doing this sort of thing and he says I just need to drive it and it will loosen up. Interested in hearing from others that have replaced ball joints; Is this normal? How long do they take to loosen up?
View 7 RepliesMy 2004 f250 ball and u joint replacement job is at a bit of a stand still. Tore it down, brought the knuckle and axle shafts to an ex mechanic I know, because he has a 20 ton Harbor freight shop press. He mostly used a hammer, bashed out the old ball joints (I already had removed the u joints). U joint turned out fine.
I did notice the upper ball joint protruded a very slight bit on one side in the knuckle, meaning you could feel with your finger on the underside of the joint and on the one side it is not exactly flush with the interior of the knuckle. I would say it protrudes no more than a thirty second or so.
I brought it home, installed the boots on the moog joints, (the bottom was unusually difficult to put on), greased the joints and hung the knuckle on the axle tube, by a few turns on the lower joints nut. I then inserted the camber sleeve on the top stud, torqued the bottom to 49 fp then the top to 67 and finally the bottom to 150. End result, very stiff movement on the knuckle. No tie rod attached, and it takes to hands to move it from the "stopped" position,(turned all the way). I am sure it is stiffer than when I did the other side.
I tried loosening the nuts completely, same stiffness. I redid the torque sequence, no change. Tried hammering the ears around where the joints seat no improvement. The fellow who installed into the knuckle came and took a look. He agreed the knuckle was stiffer than you would hope, but, he suggested Putting it all together, as he believed they would loosen up before too long. I am not sure whether to try that, or remove the knuckle now, and redo with new joints. Pros and cons to either approach.
My question is : Does a knuckle become more sketchy by the time it is dealing with the pressing of a third set of ball joints? If I finish the install now, will a stiff knuckle action lead to other mechanical wear within a thousand miles or so, while I wait to see if they loosen up?
Took my truck in to get the wheel bearings replaced (driver's side was singing pretty loud). Decided to have the ball joints replaced at the same time since they were still original at 133,000. Got the truck back and the steering is just not right. At high speeds it acts like an old F100 wandering back and forth and the steering is pretty tight when you try to correct the wandering. I have taken it back to Ford and had the alignment checked twice.
They adjusted it slightly and "loosened" the stearing gear box. Truck is better at low speeds but still not right at highway speeds. Ford is telling me there is a "break-in" period for the ball-joints. I don't remember my friends F350 having a break-in period when he replaced his ball joints. Truck tracked fine before the work was done. Tie-rod ends also checked out. Truck is a 99 350 CC SRW 8ft bed.
My 2007 5.4 Triton developed a miss. Code came up knock sensor at first. Changed knock sensor, did plugs, and coil packs. When we did the plugs, I was in town, and all of a sudden the truck just went crazy and started running like total crap. Was smooth up until this point. Spent three days trying to figure it out, and turns out one of the plugs went bad. Had to drive it like that back to the shop, and to work a couple times if that might have caused another problem. After that was fixed it ran like a champ.
Put Accel coil packs on. I had a sulfur/gassy smell coming through the air vents, and it progressively got worse, and the truck started missing again. I put the stock coil packs back on and the smell went away, and the previous miss was back, but wasn't as bad as the Accels. Brought the Accels back and ordered a set online, and installed them. Fixed the miss for about a week. Now it's back, and really prevalent at about 1100 RPMs. I swapped each coil pack today with a good one, and no change, so I don't think it's coil packs. I'm so confused and bummed over this... is it cam phasers? The truck is at 91k miles...
2001 F250, 5.4, Replaced the clockspring and now my steering wheel feels very tight. After cornering, it doesn't come back on it's own, like something is rubbing. The face of the clockspring is slightly different than what was there.
View 1 RepliesI have a 2006 Ford F150, king ranch, 4x4, super crew 135k miles. I bought the truck and shortly after noticed the miss under a load at 40-60 mph while in OD, or at higher RPMs at WOT, but never a CEL. Well 3 months went by and I couldn't take it anymore so with lots of research I decided to change the plugs. Ran seafoam through 2 tanks of fuel prior to this job to break up the carbon in hopes of none of the plugs breaking.
All 8 plugs came out with no issue and I replaced them with the Motocraft SP 515s (old ones were very nasty and brittle, most likely the original). I put copper anti seize on the end that goes through the channel in the head, however none got on the end near the electrode, and also on the threads. Put it all back together and it had the worse misfire an pretty much not drivable....flashing CEL and codes p0308, p0355, p0356. So I decided to buy 8 new coils as well, got all 8 of them on and now the truck is drivable but the miss is still there (no CEL).
Feels like maybe just one cylinder and I believe I got it pin pointed to cylinder 8. I put a vacuum gauge on it and unplugged the injectors 1 at a time and cylinder 8 is the only one that there is no change while unplugged. So I switched out the coil thinking maybe I got a bad one, still does it. My COP electrical plug has 12v Constant and also confirmed with an led it is getting signal. The injector is ticking or pulsing as i confirmed with a mechanic stethoscope. What am I missing????? Today when I get off I plan pulling the spark plug, checking for carbon tracking, check compression, check actual visual spark, and pull and clean the injector.
I have a 2004 f150 fx4. My truck starts to jerk around 50-55 mph at 1100 rpms and again at 80 mph.
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