Ice messing with steering?

[jharrisliberty]

Has anyone experienced a problem with their steering due to ice build up from driving on icy and snow packed roads? The steering issue only occurs when I am driving at slower speeds.

 

[vaksanov]

What kind of symptoms do you have? Mine just wobbles but that's because it switches between the tracks that are already on the road if that makes sense.

 

[jharrisliberty]

What kind of symptoms do you have? Mine just wobbles but that's because it switches between the tracks that are already on the road if that makes sense.

I don't have that problem. The problem that I am having is almost as if my power steering is failing but I just changed the power steering pump, and it works much better than it had before. All of this started after driving through some good snow on the side streets for fun.

 

[tommudd]

Never had any issues with mine and I've pushed snow up over the hood
are you sure you bled it right after installing the pump?

 

[dude1116]

Only issue I get is wheel vibration from lack of balance! And that's only an issue until the snow shakes out of the wheels.

 

[jharrisliberty]

Never had any issues with mine and I've pushed snow up over the hood
are you sure you bled it right after installing the pump?

Yes I bled the pump correctly and did so until I didn't need to add any more fluid. The pump is not whining at all either. The weather has been below freezing (between 9 and 29 degrees Fahrenheit) for the past couple of days, could this be the cause?

 

[CalcityRenegade]

The only issue I have had is snow/ice packed in the rims throwing them out of balance and causing a wobble/shake. Seems to be much worse with the 20's on my Titan. I suppose if you had a lot of ice packed somewhere it shouldn't be and it freezes solid it could be a cause. I would take your KJ to a carwash and let it warm up and wash it pretty good and allow for it to dry a bit before taking it back out into the cold and see if the problem persists. I was out mudding once and got mud packed in the rims and she shook so hard I thought parts were going to fall off lol.

 

[jharrisliberty]

The only issue I have had is snow/ice packed in the rims throwing them out of balance and causing a wobble/shake. Seems to be much worse with the 20's on my Titan. I suppose if you had a lot of ice packed somewhere it shouldn't be and it freezes solid it could be a cause. I would take your KJ to a carwash and let it warm up and wash it pretty good and allow for it to dry a bit before taking it back out into the cold and see if the problem persists. I was out mudding once and got mud packed in the rims and she shook so hard I thought parts were going to fall off lol.

I think I am going to do as you suggest and take it to a car wash and get all of the ice off of the steering, suspension, and front end that could possibly be causing this and see if it fixes the problem.

 

[jharrisliberty]

So I have washed off the ice and although it has helped to make the problem less of a problem it is not completely fixed. So it doesn't seem to be the power steering pump. I just changed it last Friday. Also now that I think about it this started when I had my jeep in 4-Hi. Also as soon as I press the gas just a little bit or am going at any kind of speed, even when slowing down, there is no problem with the steering. When I am at a dead stand still or almost stopped is when I start to lose my steering. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[KJ604]

well, and im not a mechanic however, it sounds to me like 2 possibilities. Could be air in the system. Even a bubble that was trapped somewhere could cause an intermittent issue theoretically. try bleeding again. or, and if it is directly related to speed of the motor this issue acutally does make sense, the pump is not spinning fast enough at idle. if you get proper steering when adding throttle or driving at speed but not at idle then the pump is just not spinning fast enough. so possible causes could be loose belt, wrong size pulley(somehow), or just a faulty pump. just my .02

 

[jharrisliberty]

well, and im not a mechanic however, it sounds to me like 2 possibilities. Could be air in the system. Even a bubble that was trapped somewhere could cause an intermittent issue theoretically. try bleeding again. or, and if it is directly related to speed of the motor this issue acutally does make sense, the pump is not spinning fast enough at idle. if you get proper steering when adding throttle or driving at speed but not at idle then the pump is just not spinning fast enough. so possible causes could be loose belt, wrong size pulley(somehow), or just a faulty pump. just my .02

So due to what you said, it got me thinking that maybe the serpentine belt or the tensioner pulley assembly could be the problem. So I just picked up these parts and am going to see if this fixes the problem. I will post the results once I have a moment to change these out and see if the problem goes away. Thanks for the input.

 

[uss2defiant]

might as well check whether all the pulleys are good as well.