On my '01 SSEi, there's about 1" of play in the steering wheel. It's there at 80 MPH and sitting still at a traffic light. All ball joints and inner and outer tie rod ends are new and tight. It's just "dead", not like regular front end play. I'm thought it was steering rack play, but I replaced the rack with a low mileage junkyard one. No change at all. I was wondering if the play could be in the steering column. Anybody have this problem?
I have removed the intermediate shaft several times over the years and greased it when I felt that was the problem. This is different. I think the "play" has been there for a while, but has just gotten worse over the years.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.