I bought a 2008 2.3L regular cab, 2wd, coil spring font Ranger with 124K miles a couple months ago and have thought that the steering feels really heavy compared to other vehicles I've been driving recently. Is this a common complaint from other Ranger owners and or is there something common that can lighten the steering some?


I see that both of my bottom ball joints have busted boots which I'll replace sometime soon. It looks like I have too much negative camber on my driver's side as well so I'll align it after front suspension parts are replaced.


I guess I ask as when I was shopping around for a Ranger one guy with a low mileage Ranger advertised saying new Moog ball joints so I asked why with such low mileage and was told that Rangers came with poor ball joints???

 

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My 09 2.3 coil spring ranger's steering is just as light as any other vehicle. Maybe check your power steering fluid and tie rod ends? Do you have larger than factory size tires? I just flushed and changed my power steering fluid the other day and noticed a small difference. I've also got the original ball joints with 60k miles and they show zero sign of wear, never herd of the factory joints being weak.

 

Just to sum up this post for later viewers, I replaced all ball joints and suspension bushings up front then re-aligned and the steering seems to have lightened up a fair amount. I'm thinking the main issue was too much negative camber of my front wheels. I didn't check the caster prior to replacing everything but the camber was -2.25° driver and -1.5° passenger which both are supposed to be at -0.5° +/- 0.75°.


I didn't have adjusters to correct the camber before hand so that and the busted lower ball joint boots was the main reason I decided to replace all the front end suspension parts.