I have a 1993 4x4 Explorer. When I turn my steering wheel all the way
to the right or left and then start driving, there's a binding. It
almost feels as if the tires are running into something. This only
happens when I turn my wheel all the way to the left or right and
start driving. It also seems to happen a little when I make a very
sharp turn. When I look under the car there's nothing getting in the
way of the tires. Please help. Thanks in advance

<nelsonbond (AT) epix (DOT) net> wrote

Maybe it's a crazy idea but why don't you smear some brightly colored chalk
powder all around the tire, crank the wheel hard over, drive a few dozen
yards and then look to see if any rubbed off on the car and, if so, where?

And this will sound crazy, too, but you might do the test at night or pull
the car into a darkened garage and look for the chalk smears by UV light.
Some bright chalks are fluourescent and a blue or violet LED keychain light
might give off enough UV to help you spot chalk on the car. Seriously, I
bought some keychain LED lights at CampMor.com and one of them (can't
remember if it's the bright blue or the purple one - one of the kids has it)
gives off enough UV to make a plastic hi-lighter pen or other common
household objects fluoresce.

Another option might be to use water-soluble paint powder or paint, like
they use in grade school, on the tire. Some of those fluouresce really
well. You might be able to beg a bit from a local public school. Be sure
to test putting it on and washing it off some not-likely to be noticed spot
before you commit to this. Worst-case, I suppose, is that it will take a
while to wear off the inside of the tire but on the inside it won't be very
noticeable.

My guess, though, is that you're unlikely to find any rub marks, unless this
vehicle has fairly wrong tire sizes mounted, and you're getting a noise from
some other source, like the power steering pump (and only when revs go up as
you start to move, put it in neutral, rev it and see if you get a fairly
similar noise) or serpentine belt or something. Read the tire size of what
you've got mounted and compare it to the owners' manual.



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