Wobble control of steering.

Issue: Overtime our Prius V has a wabble sensation when driving from 0 to 40 on a even road. Kind of feels like might be coming from front right. It rides better on uneven road or with little potholes as soon as it hits something it resets the vibration.

Car stats:
Year:2013
Model: Prius V Two
Mileage: 125000

Replaced parts as part of suspension:

• Front and Rear Wheel Hub Bearings Assembly
• Sway Bar End Link Front Stabilizer Bar Link
• Suspension Stabilizer Bar Bushing Kit

What steps taken to diagnose:

• all 4 wheel balanced
• Inner tie rod and outer test and nothing is moving as expected.
• Wheels rotated.

Symptoms:

• Wabble feeling on steering wheel when going from 0 to 40MPH.
• Wabble kind of shaking in a front right.
• Knocking but not loud sound from steering column on super uneven road.
• Slight squeaking sound when turning to a driveway (
  of when turning wheels while parked)
• look of when parked and turning steering wheel:

I am thinking to replace all 4 struts but I am thinking it could be also rack and pinion or both inner and outer tie rods.

Any help would be apricated.

 

How can you diagnose that ?

 

Thank you. I will report back what I find out about the tires. They are 3 years old but you never know in Florida SUn.

 

Greetings,

I inspected each tire individually by moving them to the rear position to rotate and check for any visible defects. Although I'm not an expert, they appear to be in normal condition to me.

Below you will find me turning each wheel:
https://youtube.com/shorts/_46N_uBmt20
https://youtube.com/shorts/JR8vxZBUlq0
https://youtube.com/shorts/vLEpK2thu18
https://youtube.com/shorts/VxycksB4NrU

(seems like this forum doesn't allow youtube shorts to be embedded as media)

At this point, I hate to shell out $$ on new tires as the one I have are fairly new from TireRack. They are Yokohamas.

Would be worth to start replacing struts with rack pinion, inner and outer rods? Or am I chasing something else? They are all original. Car is a Florida car since the beginning.

Here is a test of the CV axle on the right side, which produced a slight clunking noise that may be worth noting.
https://youtube.com/shorts/YP0QfRysN-U

 

Hello Air_Boss

I do not get that play on the passenger side axle.
The Wobble appears to be coming from passenger side. Also I can feel wobble at same rate when turning left but not so much right.

 

Hope I did this right. Here is a video when in Neutral and turning steering wheel. Hope you can hear noises:

Also when steering wheel been turned, circles on the picture is top of the struts, it moves up and down depending which direction you turn.

Upanddown by GigglingPresident posted Jan 25, 2025 at 11:37 AM

I am guessing that is normal behavior.

 

So I lifted prius again, attempted to make any movement with CV axle to look for any clicking or movement and nothing concerning. Except driver side CV axle just has a little play in and out but not up and down. Both boots for outer tie rods are broken but any other boots are find.

Here is pic of driver side:


and here passenger's side:

 

Greetings Danno5060.

Got answers below:

Does your steering wobble vary with your car's speed? from 0 to 30mph and after that it stops but when I go to 69 it shakes like balance is off.
Is it more prominent when you accelerate? yes up to 30mph and it stops gradually
Is it more prominent when you brake? no
Is it more prominent when you turn right, or left, accelerate on a hard left turn, or hard right turn? When I turn left it seems more .

 

Its a been a while but just wanted to report. I have replaced rack and pinion, out tie rod end, steering column damper, struts in the front and in a back. Took vehicle to get alignment and balance out the tires.

End result: 90% improvement. I can finally ride highway speeds and in town without and significant wobble.

Thank you all for help.