i have an 02 4wd f-150 when i drive around 35 the steering wheel shakes not really bad till 55-70 its worse now my first thought was the tires were outta balance so since winter is here and it might snow i put my other rims an tires on an figured that id just get the other set rebalanced but the problem is still here oh an before i forget to mention there is a weird sound and feel when i hit small bumps so not being a mechanic i figured id replace the shocks(they had 32,000 on them) and added a steering stabilizer. stabilizer works great but the weird sound and steering wheel wobble are still there so my next thought was front wheel bearing. but those thing are a little pricier than i thought they would be so what im asking is does this sound like a problem that a bad bearing would cause? and just how do you check to see if a bearing is bad or going bad?

 

That doesn't sound like your problem. Wheel bearings make boise when going around turns. If you are going around a left hand turn you will load up the right hand bearing and it will make noise, The same for the other side(if the bearings are bad.) or you can just jack up the truck in the front. Grab the tire at the top and the bottom, and then try to push and pull. See if you have any movement

 

The steering geometry on your 02 has recirc ball gear and idler arm configuration. There can sometime be an issue with the idler arm. Take it to any alignment shop and have em check it out.

 

thanks for the responses. now my next question is there anyway that i could check to see if that is whats wrong.seeing as im going to have a shop fix it id like to at least know how to tell if the idler arm has gone bad rather than having a mechanic tell me thats what it was and its fixed.ive read through the haynes manual and there really isnt any info on the idler arm cept how to replace it. im begining to think that the haynes books are almost worthless