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S: Steering feels loose (shifts) when entering a high speed turn.
S: Steering feels loose (shifts) when entering a high speed turn. When going fast (highway) and turning the wheel to follow an arc or turn, car jolts / shifts and makes steering more difficult to keep in line. It feels like car shifted weight for a moment and now it’s moving left or right in terms of steering. It feels like steering is loose during either LEFT or RIGHT turns.
C: Possible FRONT passenger or driver side lower ball joint failure.
Testing: Inspect both front lower balljoints. Usually when you are seeing symptoms when doing a high speed LEFT turn, the faulty ball joint will be on the PASSENGER SIDE. When you are seeing the problem when doing a high speed RIGHT turn, you will likely find the faulty balljoint on the DRIVER SIDE. It has to do with weight shift as you travel fast and make a turn – the faulty ball joint cannot take the beating and starts to loosen up causing that steering “shift” feeling.
Put a pry bar underneath the hub axle and test couple of angles to see if balljoint is loose – side to side and pull up on the axle and see if it pops out. Also visually inspect it for cracks or leaking grease. If it’s either loose or pops out or it’s leaking, replace it.
Solution: If either balljoint is found to be faulty, replace it with a new one.