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Play in steering?

4188 Views 14 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  parts68
I have an 02 lade with 60k miles. When im driving down the road I have to keep the steering wheel turned slightly toward the center of the road. The alignment is fine if the road is flat the truck goes perfectly straight. Its like the crown of the road causes the truck to pull alot to the right. Has anybody else had or heard of this before? Is it normal for the mileage? Dealer says it fine. The 05 lade loaner the dealer gave the wheel stays straight no matter the road.
Sorry for the long post.
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If you have never had your idler arm replaced then
that's probably the problem.
What goes wrong with idler arm? Would that be covered by cadillac or would I end up paying for it? The truck is at the dealer right now I guess I should ask them to look at it.
idler or pitman arm possibly. i doubt it'd be under warranty since its a wearable part like ball joints and tie rods.
I just replaced my right pitman arm, my truck was doing the same thing,
it was covered under my extended warranty, so was the balljoint and tierod
fast66 said:
I just replaced my right pitman arm, my truck was doing the same thing,
it was covered under my extended warranty, so was the balljoint and tierod
I had the lower ball joint and tie rod end replaced under warranty as well.
Tie rods, ball joints, idler arms.... they are all covered under the factory warranty. There is some normal play in the idler arm so it has to be measured to see if it is "out of spec".

There are ways to work the alignment for a little more positive steer, depends on who aligns your truck. It sounds like a little road crown pull, which could be considered normal.
Lots of things come into play though, tire inflation, tire size and brand, if you have some bling wheels on your truck that could affect it as well.
Bottom line is if it's at the shop and there is anything they can do to fix it, they probably will.

Good luck.
You might try adjusting the inflation pressure one or two psi higher on the right front to compensate for the crown.
I know it should pull from the crown of the road and im fine with that. It just seems to correct for the pull the steering wheel is turned way to far. It may be normal the truck is still at the dealer so well see what the say when I call them monday morning. Thanks for your help guys. Ill post back on what they say.
Picked up the truck tonight and they told me that they adjusted the steering gear. Not sure what they are talking about, nobody was there to talk to to. Im not to familar with these trucks, does anyone know what they are talking about? They truck drives much better what ever they did they fixxed it.
They probably adjusted the alignment.
The gear is not adjustable. That probably came from someone who didn't know.
Glad to hear it's driving better.
I dont think they did anything with the alignment. On a flat road it went straight and it goes straight now. The steering feels slightly tighter. Im just curious on what they did ill call tomarrow and speak with my service writer.
Tie rods, ball joints, idler arms.... they are all covered under the factory warranty. There is some normal play in the idler arm so it has to be measured to see if it is "out of spec".

There are ways to work the alignment for a little more positive steer, depends on who aligns your truck. It sounds like a little road crown pull, which could be considered normal.
Lots of things come into play though, tire inflation, tire size and brand, if you have some bling wheels on your truck that could affect it as well.
Bottom line is if it's at the shop and there is anything they can do to fix it, they probably will.

Good luck.
They probably adjusted the alignment.
The gear is not adjustable. That probably came from someone who didn't know.
Glad to hear it's driving better.
Not true, the steering box does have an adjustment screw, so that is likely what they adjusted. I have an 02 Escalade with just over 330K on it and an new steering box that needed to be adjusted after installation, it also got new idler and pitman arms, tie rod ends, added a steering damper for fun, new sway bar end links and upper control arms because the ball joints were also shot (no surprise there, they were original)
that thread has a full beard by now.
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