Cockeyed Steering on Saturn Ion

I have a 2004 Saturn Ion which now has 5,000 miles on it. My problem,
which I noticed when I first got the car, is that the steering is
cockeyed. By that, I mean it's easier to turn the wheel to the left
than it is to the right. When a car has the correct balance it should
always try to center itself so that it wants to go strait ahead but my
car always wants to nestle itself a bit left of center. Every move to
the right is met with resistance immediately but it can go a ways to
the left before any resistance is felt and when the resistance is
finally felt (to the left) it's a smooth gradual increase. Going to
the right, I feel a knot of resistance right at the center and is not
smooth it's just a bit tougher to move all the way over. I've had it
in to the service department several times. It's been aligned twice
and they tell me it's in spec yet it's still cockeyed. Most messages
that I've been reading in which someone has had a problem with steering
envolve the powersteering unit. I do not believe that is my problem.
I think it is the suspension bushings. I believe they are too soft.
They (I believe) are allowing too much unintentional movement to the
point where the unequal length shafts of the drivetrain are effecting
the suspension geometry. Prior to buying this car I test drove another
Ion and it did this as well. Just as a frame of reference, I have had
some other cars with the unequal length driveshafts but they had stiff
bushings. There steering was not only strait (balanced) but tight, no
where near the slop of the Ion. The cars I'm referring to are the
Honda Civic and the Mazda 323. Both of these were the standard models
not the sport versions.

If your still with me after all that, I have a question. Does anyone
else out there with a Ion notice the same cockeyed steering?

On 10 Jan 2005 18:06:29 -0800, "DaGuy" > wrote:

>I have a 2004 Saturn Ion which now has 5,000 miles on it. My problem,
>which I noticed when I first got the car, is that the steering is
>cockeyed. By that, I mean it's easier to turn the wheel to the left
>than it is to the right. When a car has the correct balance it should
>always try to center itself so that it wants to go strait ahead but my
>car always wants to nestle itself a bit left of center. Every move to
>the right is met with resistance immediately but it can go a ways to
>the left before any resistance is felt and when the resistance is
>finally felt (to the left) it's a smooth gradual increase. Going to
>the right, I feel a knot of resistance right at the center and is not
>smooth it's just a bit tougher to move all the way over. I've had it
>in to the service department several times. It's been aligned twice
>and they tell me it's in spec yet it's still cockeyed. Most messages
>that I've been reading in which someone has had a problem with steering
>envolve the powersteering unit. I do not believe that is my problem.
>I think it is the suspension bushings. I believe they are too soft.
>They (I believe) are allowing too much unintentional movement to the
>point where the unequal length shafts of the drivetrain are effecting
>the suspension geometry. Prior to buying this car I test drove another
>Ion and it did this as well. Just as a frame of reference, I have had
>some other cars with the unequal length driveshafts but they had stiff
>bushings. There steering was not only strait (balanced) but tight, no
>where near the slop of the Ion. The cars I'm referring to are the
>Honda Civic and the Mazda 323. Both of these were the standard models
>not the sport versions.
>
>If your still with me after all that, I have a question. Does anyone
>else out there with a Ion notice the same cockeyed steering?

If your car only has 5000 miles on it, it's still under warranty and
you should take it to the dealer if you think something is wrong with
it. I suspect you are merely trolling because nobody can really be
that stupid. If you thought the car was no good at test drive, did you
also think it would magically get better if you bought it? You should
have bought the honda or the mazda if you thought they were so great.

--
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2)What's mine is hers.
3)If she's happy, I'm happy.
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