Hello,

I have a 2008 Dodge Ram 1500 4WD 4.7L Flex with a leveling kit and approximately 171,000 miles on it. A few months ago I started having trouble with my steering. When I make a turn, in either direction, the steering wheel does not automatically return to center. At the beginning there was no noise (grinding, squealing, knocking, etc) and it was still easy to turn. As time went on it got harder to turn and the steering returnability got worse. I started diagnosing and found that my Power Steering Oil Cooler had discoloration at the end (sign of leaking). My Truck is getting up there in miles and the power steering hoses were pretty rusted so I decided to replace the Power Steering Oil Cooler, Power Steering Pressure Hose, Power Steering Return Hoses, Power Steering Pump and Pulley, and the Serpentine belt. I bled the system of all air and filled it up with ATF+4 (that's what the owner's manual calls for) and it didn't fix the problem at all. I did a visual inspection of the U-joints on the steering column while someone turned the wheel back and forth and everything there looks good. I also had the truck inspected and aligned, alignment was supposedly way off but everything else looked good. Still not returning to center. The only thing I have left to replace is the rack & pinion but I wanted to ask the experts first. What is wrong with my truck!?? Any and all advice would be very much appreciated.

Sean

 

If you've done front end work, be sure that you're torquing things to spec. When I replaced my ball joints, I over tightened them and the steering would not return to center on it's own, till I loosened and retorqued to spec.

 

Very good thought, I made sure that everything was tightened to specs already.

 

Is something binding??

 

I don't see anything binding. I laid under the truck and had my son turn the wheels lock to lock and everything looks like it moving ok. I am almost positive it has to be either the inner tie rods or the whole rack & pinion

 

jackstand the front wheels off the ground...grab by the wheel and move it from stop to stop...if you can move it with moderate effort by hand...engine off..its probably ok. caster is the angle that causes the steering to return to center. larger tires are heavier and drag more...did this problem start immediately after installing the lift kit? Were larger tires installled?

post the alignment printout. maybe it needs more caster angle.

 

The problem didn't start immediately after installing the kit. I had the kit installed in July of 2018 and I drove it with no problems until October 2018. I then deployed for 6 months and the truck was not driven at all while I was gone. I returned in April 2019 and it drove fine until about June of 2019. At first the steering would drag slightly after making a turn but always returned to center. It slowly got worse and now I have to manually return the wheels to center after making a turn. When I did the lift I took my truck from stock tires, P275/60R20, to 33X12.50R18's. The old tires were standard good year street tires and the new tires are Fury Country Hunter M/Ts. So it is a bigger tire with a smaller wheel. I did recently take it to the dealer to have it looked at and they told me it was a combination of a bad alignment and aggressive tires. They said they did the alignment (report below) and it mostly fixed the problem but it would still drag slightly because of the tires. I drove it home and the problem was exactly the same as before, no change at all. I can also upload the alignment report from when I had the leveling kit installed if it would help.

 

they made no caster adjustment...its not in spec on either side.
All i'm saying is the more positive the caster the more pronounced return to center is.

 

Isn't caster supposed to be around 3 degrees? His is currently just barely off of 0.... No wonder it won't self-center.

 

You're looking at Camber, not Caster...caster is 2.8 and 3.2