It happened recently that at any speed the steering wheel will tug left and right. First comes to mind is wheel balance but I can't imagine it being a problem at 20MPH. So my next thought is the CV joint is bad. I believe this to be the case cause when I turn the wheel in a parking lot sharply that the car will hop a little.

The temperature has finally gotten better on the east coast so when the snow melts I can have a look under the car and see which side is the problem. But from what I understand is that the right side CV joint likes to go bad often on these cars. And there's a bearing for the right CV axle as well. How hard is it to remove the passenger side CV axle with that bearing in there? Also what other areas should I look at that could cause my steering to shack badly?

 

Check inner and outer tie rods, lug nuts, ball joints, spin the front tires by hand while the car is jacked up to make sure it isn't a bad tire. Is there any issue at highway speeds?

 

It vibrates less on highway speeds but only less.

 

Check your tires. Could be a bulge or a broken belt.

 

if it's a low speed 'shake / movement / jerk' of the steering wheel it will more than likely be a tyre bulge.

CV's virtually never affect the car, when they go bad. They either click (or whir), or simply stop working (and stop the car), they never cause vibration (that I know of).
The vibration from 'clicking' might take a bearing out, but I doubt it.

 

Low speed wobble = tire out of round, broken belt or bulge.

Mid speed vibration = control arm bushings or ball joints.

High speed vibration = tire balance.

Do the vibrations / wobble ease as the car warms up? Could also be flat spots due to cold weather.

 

Hadn't thought about the idea of a tire bulge. I will certainly look into it tomorrow. Thursday the car is going to the dealership for a recall service. I noticed the harmonic balancer was wobbling and someone here told me about that recall. Turns out that person saved me a bunch of money and headache with that advice. When the dealership looks at it I can have them check why this happens if I don't find a tire bulge.

ES300NZ it pulls on the steering wheel at extremely low speeds. Like rolling to a stop sign the wheel is still tugging a bit.

 

Took at look at the front tires and didn't find anything bulging. No visible nails either. Took a look at the axles on both sides and the left side had something that looked very wrong to me. I also pulled on it with my hand and would hear a clunk noise as I was able to move the car doing it. To me the drivers side axle looks like something on it rotted really badly. No idea what it is. Took a image of it to show.

What is that on the axle that looks badly rotted? Is that why it shacks when I drive?

 

This is what the axle is supposed to look like. On your car it looks like the boot is completely gone among other things.

 

You might not be able to see it, it could be in the belt, or ... oh never mind. Try this, get a type shop to swap the tyres front to rear. Low cost I'm betting the shake moves to the rear at which point you can safely say the tyre is shot.


Ok, that should move back and forth. It's the half shaft, (CV either end). They play would be between one inch and two (less than two). That's the depth of the CV receiving cup, which are the parts that allow the suspension to move up and down and still have a driving force, think of those parts as the slip joint on a rear wheel drive cars drive shaft. So, .. that 'clunk' is normal.


No. Sorry. Would'nt that be nice and easy. That's just a rubber protector which is there to stop the shaft being damaged when the cars suspension 'droops' to the full extent. You can safely ignore that, no matter how imbalanced that shaft is (and it wont be), it would never affect your steering feel.

Others might not agree with me on that, but I'm 100% sure that shaft is fine.

if you turn your head down on the left shoulder you get a in perspective view of the photo, the CV boots are fine (the one I can see).

 

The boots look fine but that one part looks like an old boot that was destroyed. Maybe someone in the past replaced the boot and didn't take the time to clean the old one off?

My next idea is to just swap the front wheels with the back ones. If it's the wheels this will at least tell me one of the two wheels is bulging a little. I may also see better once the wheels are off.