red04cavy

My wife and I have had our Grand Cherokee for a few months now. We love this vehicle, but we are having a bit of a perplexing problem.

It seems that at low speeds, the vehicle is EXTREMELY hard to turn to the left. It turns to the right just fine, but to the left---forget it. It takes a great deal of effort for me to turn it and I am 6'2", 245lbs. (no slouch by any means).

Is this a sign of simply a bad steering gear box or is it something more complex? I read about the recall and called Chrysler where I talked to some guy that barely spoke English and I was told that, based on my VIN, my vehicle was not covered under that recall (even though the symptoms seem right in line with that recall).

Any ideas / tips would be greatly appreciated.

XJ Stryker

Wow sorry bout your luck on a 04. My first inkling would be the gearbox.

I guess this truck is no longer covered under warranty. How does the under carraige look. Have your wife attempt to turn the steering wheel while you observe. Then my reco would be to jack up the front pull the wheels and then see if it is easier to turn the wheel without any load bearing on the steering. Post up results

red04cavy

The mechanic that I go to (pretty decent guy actually) said that it is the steering gear box, which is kind of what I figured it would be. So, when I get the cash, I have to buy one and put it in.

red04cavy

Well, i have been driving this thing with this problem now for a few months and it still needs fixed (wouldn't it be great if things would fix themselves)..

Anyway, I wanted to come back and ask if everyone seemed to agree with the mechanic's diagnosis of the steering gear box. It is tax time and I will be making this repair soon and I don't want to waste oney. It seems odd to me that it only happens in 1 direction--to the left. Maybe I don't quite understand how the steering gear box works, but it seems to me that if it was bad, it would affect steering in both directions. It does not seem to show any signs of binding in the other components--they all seem operational.

What do you guys think?


On a side note: Is there any place I can find pictures of the underside of the front suspension and steering components that I can use for comparison and reference?

Thanks

DC202

I was going to replace my steering gear box too and I found them to be cheaper on EBAY.

red04cavy

UPDATE: Changed the steering gear box--fixed the problem.