[deltadart]

07 Kia Sportage 4WD- 95,000 miles. This car has had this problem since we got it 4 years ago with 36,000 miles. Problem is it was not that noticeable. The front end(I think)has a low speed wobble that you can feel in the steering wheel. Once you hit 30mph it disappears. The only thing the car has done that tells me there is a larger problem is I pulled out of a carwash and did a hard right turn(low speed) and the steering wheel wobbled really bad then it just stopped. Since then it's just got the very slight wobble.

That is the only real noticeable thing that it has done. I just got done rotating the tires,made sure a wheel weight had not fallen off,air pressure was good,the tires as far as I can tell do not have a steel belt slipping,inside of the rims are clean. Rotating the tires did not help. What do you think is the problem? Could it be something as simple as a tire is out of balance and it does not matter if the tire is on the front or rear of the car? Bad ball joint? Struts were replaced last year. Thanks for your help!

 

[chuzz]

My first thought was a bad tire, but since you rotated them and it still does it, I'm guessing you've got a bad axle. Now, I'm not a mechanic, but based on 40 years tinkering with cars, that's my guess. Is it more prevalent one one side or the other? If so, that's the side you need to be looking at. Axles can wobble at certain speeds and once you get above or below that speed, even out.

 

[ImperialCrown]

+1 on the axle. More specifically an inner CV joint. Inspect the boots for leaking grease. A bent axle may show with the car in gear on a lift. It can be a side-to-side wobble or an up-down wobble.
Many CV joints fail that are very close to a hot catalytic converter (generally the right, inner). Carmakers aren't using heat shields like they used to.

 

[deltadart]

Just checked and the Sportage has both front and rear CV joints. Since I can feel it in the wheel does this mean it's a front axle? When I was a rural mailcarrier I drove Dodge Spirits and in all those miles I only needed to replace 1 axle. How I knew it was bad is it would click like crazy when I made a right turn. A little off subject but the Dodge Spirit with the 3-speed auto trans is still the best most reliable car I ever owned.

I think you guys are spot on about the axle. Checked O'Reillys and you can buy a new one for $80. I have changed them before(4WD Subaru)and for me it was not an easy job. I have a mechanic close by so i'll let him take a look at it. Would he be able to pinpoint the bad axle? I'll jack it up here in a few minutes and see if it's something obvious like a torn boot. Thanks!

 

[chuzz]

If he's a competent mechanic, then, yes, he should be able to find which one is bad. I'm more likely to believe that it's one of the front ones, but I'm not at all familiar with Kias.

 

[deltadart]

Problem solved. Took it to the tire dealer and he said the tread was separating. Pretty bad on 1 tire and the other 3 were close behind. It was a 70K mile tire with 50K on the tires. So I got the warranty for the 20K miles and a new set of tires. That fixed the problem.