Am I cursed

[ayousef]

Well kidding aside, I wonder why I always get weird stuff, perhaps I notice stuff more than others?

Anyways, for those who remember my rough choppy idle where I posted a video of the issue. This remained for 5500kms until some idiot rear ended me in the gas station. Sent the car to the bodyshop for about 10 days, got back the car and voila problem gone!! The fact that they disconnected the battery for perhaps a few days while all the parts were disconnected caused something to reset and my car now idles like it should, and even drives better go figure!!

With that out of the way, two new problems to tackle.

This is also a problem I had from day one, its just that its starting to bother me more than before. Looseness in the steering wheel! So despite all this steering input the car still tracks straight ahead. Nothing explains this better than a video:


https://youtu.be/wjbYXnbVt7Q

Speed is in KPH, the effect is worse the higher the speed. Alignment specs are 100% as per SRT specs.

The second problem seems to be bump steer! I wouldnt say my car is super low, its 4" from the ground in front and 5.5" in the rear. I plan on removing and selling the Tractives and installing the stock dampers to see if this changes. If not then Ill have to buy a bump steer kit and figure out how to make it work :t0122:

What do you guys think?

[SNKEBIT]

Black box?

[Martin]

Weird - if the steering issue has been like that from day one, I'd suspect an issue that happened when the car was in shipping. Even here in the States, cars sometimes get to their destinations with weird steering issues that need to be fixed. When you add a trip all the way to Dubai, the first thing I would look at are all the usual mechanical suspects - bearings loosened up, tie rod ends loose, steering rack loose, and U-joints in the steering column having play in them. If there's no movement of the car side-to-side with that much steering input, you've got issues that need to be sorted out. If it is something that loosened up and there's enough play to allow for that much dead-wheel, it could be a safety issue. I'd have it gone over from front wheels to steering wheel to figure out where that play is coming from.

[Arizona Vipers]

Well kidding aside, I wonder why I always get weird stuff, perhaps I notice stuff more than others?

Anyways, for those who remember my rough choppy idle where I posted a video of the issue. This remained for 5500kms until some idiot rear ended me in the gas station. Sent the car to the bodyshop for about 10 days, got back the car and voila problem gone!! The fact that they disconnected the battery for perhaps a few days while all the parts were disconnected caused something to reset and my car now idles like it should, and even drives better go figure!!

With that out of the way, two new problems to tackle.

This is also a problem I had from day one, its just that its starting to bother me more than before. Looseness in the steering wheel! So despite all this steering input the car still tracks straight ahead. Nothing explains this better than a video:


https://youtu.be/wjbYXnbVt7Q

Speed is in KPH, the effect is worse the higher the speed. Alignment specs are 100% as per SRT specs.

The second problem seems to be bump steer! I wouldnt say my car is super low, its 4" from the ground in front and 5.5" in the rear. I plan on removing and selling the Tractives and installing the stock dampers to see if this changes. If not then Ill have to buy a bump steer kit and figure out how to make it work :t0122:

What do you guys think?
Next time I drive mine i'll see if there's that much play

[Scot@Prefix]

We had a 2015 Viper that was delivered to us from the factory with 5 miles on it and had a bad inner tie rod end.

I would agree that having the front end and steering checked out.

[sharmut]

Well kidding aside, I wonder why I always get weird stuff, perhaps I notice stuff more than others?

Anyways, for those who remember my rough choppy idle where I posted a video of the issue. This remained for 5500kms until some idiot rear ended me in the gas station. Sent the car to the bodyshop for about 10 days, got back the car and voila problem gone!! The fact that they disconnected the battery for perhaps a few days while all the parts were disconnected caused something to reset and my car now idles like it should, and even drives better go figure!!

With that out of the way, two new problems to tackle.

This is also a problem I had from day one, its just that its starting to bother me more than before. Looseness in the steering wheel! So despite all this steering input the car still tracks straight ahead. Nothing explains this better than a video:


I don't have my headphones handy, is there a clicking sound in the background when you rock the steering back and forth?

[ayousef]

Weird - if the steering issue has been like that from day one, I'd suspect an issue that happened when the car was in shipping. Even here in the States, cars sometimes get to their destinations with weird steering issues that need to be fixed. When you add a trip all the way to Dubai, the first thing I would look at are all the usual mechanical suspects - bearings loosened up, tie rod ends loose, steering rack loose, and U-joints in the steering column having play in them. If there's no movement of the car side-to-side with that much steering input, you've got issues that need to be sorted out. If it is something that loosened up and there's enough play to allow for that much dead-wheel, it could be a safety issue. I'd have it gone over from front wheels to steering wheel to figure out where that play is coming from.

I will definitely look into it, except I cant find a good shop here in Dubai yup it sucks. The only guy I know who knows all this stuff inside out is probably not in the mood for me.


Next time I drive mine i'll see if there's that much play

Id appreciate it, but I doubt any car on earth should have this much free-play in the wheel, unless you own a Mercedes G-Wagon of course.


We had a 2015 Viper that was delivered to us from the factory with 5 miles on it and had a bad inner tie rod end.

I would agree that having the front end and steering checked out.

I will look, but I honestly dont know where to look. If it were a bad tie-rod I think the alignment guy would have noticed it immediately especially since ive done two alignments already and havent heard of anything wrong in that department, a bad rod end would seem like an easy fix though so im hoping its something as simple as this.


I don't have my headphones handy, is there a clicking sound in the background when you rock the steering back and forth?

Very interesting question, now while there is no clicking in the wheel in this video I could tell you that the steering made weird clicking noises that seemed to come from behind the steering wheel for the first say 2000 KMs, the sound disappeared by itself. I still wonder what that was all about. It sucks to have problems and not know where to fix them. We do have a Viper dealer here but they're clueless.

[stradman]

Seems like this might be the upgraded Parkinson's safety option. It gives the steering a bit of a buffer to stop any tremors or shakes from being transmitted through the steering wheel to the road. :lol2:

[mblgjr]

I am also on tractive dampers and can tell you if I moved my steering wheel that much you would be changing lanes.

You have an issue in the steering assembly. (Column, steering shaft, or as mentioned inner/outer tierod).

[ayousef]

Ive been wondering if I should try to set my front toe settings to zero to see if it improves the feel. I am currently running as per the recommended settings which is a total of 0.12 degrees of toe-in on the front axle. :t0135: Ideas?

[ayousef]

found the problem, its a damaged steering u-joint. Seems ill have to replace the entire steering rack which looks like quite the procedure.

[Topplayer]

Wow that sucks, if you decide to sell the tractives lmk!

[ViperGeorge]

found the problem, its a damaged steering u-joint. Seems ill have to replace the entire steering rack which looks like quite the procedure.

What tells you the steering u-joint is damaged? Hard to tell in the picture.

[ViperGeorge]

If you mean that the u-joint bearings are shot then I would think that could cause the looseness in the steering wheel. Not sure how that would happen on a relatively new car. If the u-joint was bent somehow (like from an accident) I would think the steering wheel would bind in certain positions.

[ayousef]

What tells you the steering u-joint is damaged? Hard to tell in the picture.

Sorry the picture doesnt say anything. But when I try to turn the wheel, the upper part of the shaft which is connected to the steering wheel responds to all inputs, but the part connected to the wheel doesnt. I can clearly see one move and the other not move, there is alot of free-play in it. What caused this I dont know but I also noticed this weird steering problem since day one, I always thought it was a Viper thing until I started to experiment more and show more people. Its just a bad part, cant think of what would cause this.

[Martin]

I kind of thought this might be the problem. The car actually has two U-Joints to get the steering column around all the other stuff in the engine bay - so if one of the U-Joints goes, you'll get play in the steering wheel. Did you have work done to the engine (like headers installed)? I haven't done headers on a Gen V, but there have been cars where I needed to pop the U-Joint in order to get the steering column out of the way and get the header in. It's possible that the U-Joint was damaged at that point, or it just wasn't put back together properly.

It's also entirely possible that you got a bad part from the factory, or somehow things got tweaked during transit. Fortunately, replacing the steering column isn't super difficult - but it is time consuming if it's like anything else in these engine bays.

Before driving it, definitely try and have a 360 degree view of it. Turn the steering wheel lock to lock in stages so that you can see what's going on. Better yet, have someone slowly turn the wheel back and forth while you look at the U-Joint. If you do it with the engine off, it'll put maximum torque on the U-Joint and you'll see if something is broken, and where the looseness is coming from.

[ayousef]

I kind of thought this might be the problem. The car actually has two U-Joints to get the steering column around all the other stuff in the engine bay - so if one of the U-Joints goes, you'll get play in the steering wheel. Did you have work done to the engine (like headers installed)? I haven't done headers on a Gen V, but there have been cars where I needed to pop the U-Joint in order to get the steering column out of the way and get the header in. It's possible that the U-Joint was damaged at that point, or it just wasn't put back together properly.

It's also entirely possible that you got a bad part from the factory, or somehow things got tweaked during transit. Fortunately, replacing the steering column isn't super difficult - but it is time consuming if it's like anything else in these engine bays.

Before driving it, definitely try and have a 360 degree view of it. Turn the steering wheel lock to lock in stages so that you can see what's going on. Better yet, have someone slowly turn the wheel back and forth while you look at the U-Joint. If you do it with the engine off, it'll put maximum torque on the U-Joint and you'll see if something is broken, and where the looseness is coming from.

Thanks for the advice Martin, this is exactly what ive done. Had the engine shut, so there was resistance in the wheel from having no powersteering. I then had someone rock the steering back and forth while looking at the u-joint. One part moves freely with the wheel and the other one just doesnt even budge, so I narrowed it down to this. I found the part number to be 4865588AC its a cheap part, but I dont know how hard it is to install.

[ViperGeorge]

Sorry the picture doesnt say anything. But when I try to turn the wheel, the upper part of the shaft which is connected to the steering wheel responds to all inputs, but the part connected to the wheel doesnt. I can clearly see one move and the other not move, there is alot of free-play in it. What caused this I dont know but I also noticed this weird steering problem since day one, I always thought it was a Viper thing until I started to experiment more and show more people. Its just a bad part, cant think of what would cause this.

Well that will do it. Good luck with the replacement. Do you have any Dodge dealers where you are? Any qualified tech can actually work on a Viper, they aren't that complicated. Alignments can be tricky and space is sometimes tight but seriously a really good mechanic with access to the online FCA manuals should be able to handle the repair. Main thing is I want someone that will be careful with the car.

[ayousef]

Well that will do it. Good luck with the replacement. Do you have any Dodge dealers where you are? Any qualified tech can actually work on a Viper, they aren't that complicated. Alignments can be tricky and space is sometimes tight but seriously a really good mechanic with access to the online FCA manuals should be able to handle the repair. Main thing is I want someone that will be careful with the car.

I do but they sell the parts like 5x what they really cost lol. I will hopefully figure it out :) Thanks for the help!

[Steve M]

What was the exact history of your car? It seems like you've had a lot of random issues that should have been caught during QC. Was it bought new? Modded before being shipped? Did something get jacked during the shipping process? I get your frustration, but keep after it...Vipers are really cool cars, and once sorted, should be damn near bullet proof. They are also pretty damn easy to work on. Provided you can get the right parts I guess...

[ayousef]

What was the exact history of your car? It seems like you've had a lot of random issues that should have been caught during QC. Was it bought new? Modded before being shipped? Did something get jacked during the shipping process? I get your frustration, but keep after it...Vipers are really cool cars, and once sorted, should be damn near bullet proof. They are also pretty damn easy to work on. Provided you can get the right parts I guess...

Bought the car new from BJmotors and modded at Viperexchange before it was shipped to Dubai. Shipped in an enclosed container, not sure why I should be having these problems to be honest?

[Martin]

Problems like the steering issue are super common. It could have happened on the way to BJ Motors, or it could have happened when securing the car in the shipping container. They often tie the front tires down with way too much force, and at best they'll throw the alignment off. At worst, they'll break components. Also, if work was done (like headers) it's definitely possible the U-Joints could have gotten damaged.

That really is the only big problem with shipping one of these cars overseas and not having a warranty. All the little problems become big ones because you don't have manufacturer or dealer support like you would have if you lived next to one of the experienced Viper dealers.