Question On Steering

[Roy W]

My '05 truck has 8000 miles on it and I am noticing a "thunk" in the steering linkage. I have read about the problems with the intermediate steering shaft making a noise, but this is more something I can "feel." In actuality it feels like a loose tie rod end does. It only occurs when driving on uneven pavement, seems to be worse going around corners, and is at it's worse on a rough dirt road. If I move the steering wheel back and forth I can't feel it. I can only feel it when it originates at the wheels, and it doesn't make any noise. My question is: Is this what the bad intermediate shaft is like, or do I have another problem?

[Bill Knieper]

With my intermediate shaft problem I could feel it, but only when turning. I never felt it when going straight forward even on gravel road. The dealer will be happy to replace the shaft and see if that clears it up.

[DA BIG ONE]

There is a problem GM does not like to talk about w/steering linkage 2000 forward, the inner tie rod has an issue w/limited travel "less than control arm movement" because of design issue. I'm not saying this is your problem but consider it could be. When off road, or hitting a big enough bad bump could cause the suspension to travel past the inner tie rods travel limit damaging the inner tie rods ball socket by expanding it resulting in slop @ inner tie rod clunk.

More than a few aftermarket companies offer a fix over stock setup.

http://bulletproofsteering.com/gmifstierod.html

[dodgerfan]

Roy,
What you're feeling is exactly like my experience - for a few thousand miles I was feeling the knock, not hearing it, under the same road/turning conditions. Then after a while it got bad enough to hear as well. Got a new intermediate shaft last week, it's like a new truck!