XTerra lurching when backing up and making tight circles
Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 7:22 pm
I don't know if I have a problem or not. I'm having some unexpected behaviour so I want to ask YOU, fellow XTerra owner, if this is normal or something to be concerned about.
It's a 2007 XTerra Offroad that I bought used in 2016. It's always used on the street, not offroad. (I truly wish I could go out with you but I just can't afford all the gear I'd need to get myself out of trouble if and when something went wrong.) I drive in RWD all year except when there's snow on the road; then I switch to 4WD/HI. I'm running Goodyear tires, fairly knobby.
Late this past winter, while in 4WD/HI, I started noticing some odd behaviour when I'd back into parking spaces. (To be clear, I would drive just past the parking space, then make a sharp turn to my right to back into the spot.) One or the other of the rear wheels would "buck" as I was backing in. It would try to spin, as if it was on a slippery surface. The parking lot was free of snow in most of those cases and I didn't see any ice either. It struck me as odd that one wheel would start doing that.
I was describing the problem to one of my friends who is pretty knowledgeable about cars and he gave it a try himself while we were over at his place but we couldn't reproduce it then. We shrugged and let it be.
Ten days back, my ABS, SLIP and VDC lights suddenly came on simultaneously just as I was coming off the 401. Long story short, I took it to one of the local dealers and I'd lost a left front wheel bearing which had caused other problems. When I was describing the symptoms to the service people, I made sure to mention this "bucking" problem while backing up. They replaced the broken wheel bearing and replaced the related damage to the brake calipers, road-tested it and assured me that all the problems I'd reported were fixed now. Sure enough, the ABS, SLIP and VDC lights are off and the brakes are working better than ever.
After I got it home, I took the XTerra into a local parking lot to see if the "bucking" problem was truly solved. Much to my surprise it was worse if anything. But my friend had suggested that maybe this behaviour was actually normal for a vehicle like this so I thought I'd ask here.
I did a number of tests and found the following:
1. the bucking happened whether backing in from either side in FWD/HI and FWD/LO but was non-existent or negligble in RWD
2. the bucking while backing up sometimes involved a front wheel too
3. I got similar behaviour even going forward if I tried to make a very tight circle; again any of the wheels might try to spin at any point. This happened even in RWD but was less the wider the circles.
4. I don't think I've ever experienced the bucking at normal driving speeds on the road, just at very low speeds.
So is this normal or do I have a problem? I don't remember any of this bucking in the first two years that I had the truck and I've backed into parking spaces since my first car. This is my first truck and all of my cars have been either rear-wheel drive or front-wheel drive; I've never had a four wheel drive before.
It's a 2007 XTerra Offroad that I bought used in 2016. It's always used on the street, not offroad. (I truly wish I could go out with you but I just can't afford all the gear I'd need to get myself out of trouble if and when something went wrong.) I drive in RWD all year except when there's snow on the road; then I switch to 4WD/HI. I'm running Goodyear tires, fairly knobby.
Late this past winter, while in 4WD/HI, I started noticing some odd behaviour when I'd back into parking spaces. (To be clear, I would drive just past the parking space, then make a sharp turn to my right to back into the spot.) One or the other of the rear wheels would "buck" as I was backing in. It would try to spin, as if it was on a slippery surface. The parking lot was free of snow in most of those cases and I didn't see any ice either. It struck me as odd that one wheel would start doing that.
I was describing the problem to one of my friends who is pretty knowledgeable about cars and he gave it a try himself while we were over at his place but we couldn't reproduce it then. We shrugged and let it be.
Ten days back, my ABS, SLIP and VDC lights suddenly came on simultaneously just as I was coming off the 401. Long story short, I took it to one of the local dealers and I'd lost a left front wheel bearing which had caused other problems. When I was describing the symptoms to the service people, I made sure to mention this "bucking" problem while backing up. They replaced the broken wheel bearing and replaced the related damage to the brake calipers, road-tested it and assured me that all the problems I'd reported were fixed now. Sure enough, the ABS, SLIP and VDC lights are off and the brakes are working better than ever.
After I got it home, I took the XTerra into a local parking lot to see if the "bucking" problem was truly solved. Much to my surprise it was worse if anything. But my friend had suggested that maybe this behaviour was actually normal for a vehicle like this so I thought I'd ask here.
I did a number of tests and found the following:
1. the bucking happened whether backing in from either side in FWD/HI and FWD/LO but was non-existent or negligble in RWD
2. the bucking while backing up sometimes involved a front wheel too
3. I got similar behaviour even going forward if I tried to make a very tight circle; again any of the wheels might try to spin at any point. This happened even in RWD but was less the wider the circles.
4. I don't think I've ever experienced the bucking at normal driving speeds on the road, just at very low speeds.
So is this normal or do I have a problem? I don't remember any of this bucking in the first two years that I had the truck and I've backed into parking spaces since my first car. This is my first truck and all of my cars have been either rear-wheel drive or front-wheel drive; I've never had a four wheel drive before.