Doing the Edge Wobble

[LEB Ben]

Drove Bailee's Edge for the first time in about 6 months for a 400 mile round trip. I get around to the drivers side, notice a pretty severe wear pattern on her less than 5,000 mile old tires. In about a mile and a half I notice a front end wobble from the drivers side. I ask her how long it's been wobbling, she said a couple months (doh...facepalm). Anyway, the steering wheel isn't true, and when driving, when I approach true, it starts wobbling pretty fiercely, when I go left of true, it goes away...when I'm traveling straight there's a little wobble in the wheel...turning to the right, absolutely zero issues. Wobble also seems to be there sometimes upon brake application, but I couldn't always duplicate it. Since I have no idea what the front end composition is like on these things...what do I need to look at??? And will it be something I can accomplish in my driveway???

Tire wear:

How far from true the wheel is:

 

[LEB Ben]

Frig...I just edited those photos to be rightside up. I give up.

 

[blacksnapon]

Did she hit something? Bust a belt on a tire?

 

[kiwi f150]

I'd say you need to get a wheel alignment done Ben looking at the wear pattern on your tyre.
For the wobble issue i'd jack up the front of the truck and slowly spin the wheel looking for any bulges or depressions in the sidewalls of the tyres also check for any flat spots in the tread - it sounds like you may have a broken steel belt (commonly caused by dropping a wheel into the gutter hard or striking a large pothole at speed) in one of the tyres to induce that wobble or if the wobble is not that bad one of the wheels is very much out of balance.

 

[LEB Ben]

Did she hit something? Bust a belt on a tire?

Nah...not like a busted belt...at lower speeds you can actually hear 'linkage' clunking.

I'd say you need to get a wheel alignment done Ben looking at the wear pattern on your tyre.
For the wobble issue i'd jack up the front of the truck and slowly spin the wheel looking for any bulges or depressions in the sidewalls of the tyres also check for any flat spots in the tread - it sounds like you may have a broken steel belt (commonly caused by dropping a wheel into the gutter hard or striking a large pothole at speed) in one of the tyres to induce that wobble or if the wobble is not that bad one of the wheels is very much out of balance.

Was planning on getting it off the ground and taking a look...just won't have the time until the weekend. So I'm driving it around town. I prefer the thought of my driving it 15 miles round trip at 35 mph, than her 100 miles and 70mph.

 

[kiwi f150]

Nah...not like a busted belt...at lower speeds you can actually hear 'linkage' clunking.



Was planning on getting it off the ground and taking a look...just won't have the time until the weekend. So I'm driving it around town. I prefer the thought of my driving it 15 miles round trip at 35 mph, than her 100 miles and 70mph.

Ben if i was you i'd check the tie rod ends plus just make sure all the wheel lug nuts are tight - great plan on swapping cars too ...... i've just had a 1300km round trailer towing trip to collect my dead Commodore due to my not swapping cars with my wife when we came back from Nelson last week.

 

[LEB Ben]

Ben if i was you i'd check the tie rod ends

And that's basically what I was wondering...is the front end of these things like anything else I tend to work on (ie 70's or older)...or will I be in over my head.

 

[Fellro]

The basics are still the same, it is more car-like. The only difference is you have fewer parts to chase down. It has just inner and outer tie rods, then the ball joint. A quick test I do is grab the tire by front and back and see if it has motion. I tend to put my knees against the tire too, helps a little with moving the tire, and also helps with the feel. Normally you shouldn't get any motion, and if the tie rod is bad you will feel it. No need to jack it up for this test. Just walk up to it, grab hold of the front and back and see if there is movement.

 

[LEB Paul]

Watch when you jack it up in the air too, if ball joint is bad you'll most likely see the tire kind of kick out when the weight comes off of it. Check all the wear parts, tie rods, ball joints, bushings, etc. McPherson strut setup on those I believe, pretty simple to work on.

 

[LEB Ben]

Alright guys...what am I missing??? Turned the wheel side to side...didn't see any play in anything. Lifted the front end...no play front/back or top/bottom with the tire. Put my hands on everything and couldn't get any play. Snapped some pics and nothing really looks bad to me...thoughs???

 

[LEB Paul]

Swap the tires around and see if it moves. Might be broken belt in a tire like was mentioned earlier.

CV joints tight?

 

[LEB Ben]

Anything with a joint I yanked on with everything I have...no movement. I'll give the tires a shot...just wasn't sure a busted belt would cause that crazy wear pattern.

 

[Fellro]

Actually, broken belts cause all kinds of interesting wear patterns. You can typically find the broken area by the tread wearing more at those points. They will cause a wobble sometimes when driving slow, under 20 mph, and can cause shakes/wobbles when applying brakes hard at road speed. they also make shakes like a bad balance.

 

[kiwi f150]

If you take each wheel off individually and roll it along your driveway and you have a broken steel belt you'll soon see it Ben - can be like an egg shaped bump in the tread out to a sausage style looking bulge plus on the side walls you can see scalloping that will be easy to see when you are looking at angle from the top of the tyre as you are rolling it.
To check tie rod ends leave the vehicle on a level hard surface and have a mate or the missus wiggle the steering wheel from side to side while you are lying down looking at the tie rod ends and ball joints ..... any play causing the symptoms you described will be pretty easy to spot.

 

[LEB Ben]

Thanks mark...did the steering wheel turn last night...nadda. Yanked on anything I could put my hands on...no play. Didn't see any eggs. Putting the tires on a balancer right now too to double check the belt situation.

 

[LEB Ben]

Alright...well I'm back, after almost having to make a few people eat a tire iron so I could get a tire on a balancer...tires all came back with no bad belts.

So at this point I reckon I'll get back under it tomorrow and start taking it apart. I mean, it's only a strut, ball joint, control arm and a couple link ends.

 

[O'Rattlecan]

I've had some bad ball joints I couldn't get any 'wiggle' out of, and I can muscle it around pretty well. What's the configuration?

Ryan

 

[LEB Ben]

Alright...so I did a little more digging...read online that with the push pull, derivatives of problems can start from the opposite side. Lifted the front end of the Edge up...sure as all things that are holy...the passenger side outer tie rod is garbage. I woulda never guessed. Sound plausible???

 

[LEB Paul]

You only checked one side before? Come awn Ben...

 

[m78]