Vibration in Steering Wheel

[NickLR3HSE]

About a month ago I got the tires balanced on the LR3. Last night I drove my wife and I out to dinner and every time I would hit a bump in the road it made kind of a clunk, like something was loose in the front end, would this be the bushings have gone bad? Then today my wife was driving and she just called and told me there was a vibration in the steering wheel at Highway speeds, its never done this before. Its an 06 LR3 V8 HSE with approximately 48K miles on it. If it is the bushings can someone provide me with a link to new ones (unfortunately doesnt go off road too often, so something that doesnt change the on road characteristics much)....also how hard is it to change them out......or would it be smarter to take it to a rover shop. Not too keen on going to dealership out of warranty, they charge way too much for labor.

Anyone know of a good shop in the Houston, TX area to take it to?

 

[duckdive]

"Clunk" usually= worn bushings.

 

[NickLR3HSE]

"Clunk" usually= worn bushings.

after reading through a bunch of threads, is it wise to just replace the lower control arms instead of replacing the bushings and ball joint?

Also whats the likely hood the top needs to be changed as well, or would i be stupid to not just replace them all at once?

 

[duckdive]

Nick, get under the truck and shake the lowers. It will be very obvious because you will be able to simulate the clunking noise you hear when driving over a bump. If it is just the lowers then YES you are better off replacing both the control arms and bushings in one shot.

 

[blackforestham]

Don't jump to conclusions. Check it out fully. It's also possible that the intermediate steering shaft needs replacement. If you feel the "clunk" in the steering wheel, it's most likely this.

 

[NickLR3HSE]

Nick, get under the truck and shake the lowers. It will be very obvious because you will be able to simulate the clunking noise you hear when driving over a bump. If it is just the lowers then YES you are better off replacing both the control arms and bushings in one shot.

thanks....i ll crawl under this weekend and take a look

 

[SoCal LR3]

also how hard is it to change them out......

for future reference, here's a pdf i found on changing out control arm bushings:
http://www.dixieformplates.com/LR3BushingProcedure09.pdf

 

[NickLR3HSE]

Well I am stumped. I crawled underneath the LR3 last night and grabbed hold of all the front control arms and sway bars and there was very little movement if any. The only thing that moved a little was the sway bar.

Guess I am going to take it in to the Rover Shoppe in houston, tx. Let them diagnose the problem. Last night we took it driving and I asked my wife exactly what it was doing, she said the steering wheel was vibrating (shaking) left to right, any chance that would be the intermediate steering shaft that someone else mentioned? How do you get to it?

 

[Houm_WA]

I had a bushing-sounding clunk in the front end a few months back that turned out to be a loose bolt on one of the suspension links up front. Free fix.

 

[jesus_man]

I had a clunk on our as well. Turned out it was something in the steering, but I don;t recall what. One thing you can try is have some turn the wheel an 1/8th or a turn back and forth while you start at the firewall and work your way down the steering system to make sure that movement is getting transferred completely. Best while the vehicle is off.

J.D.