Narrative:

Weather in local area; specifically thunderstorms and heavy gusty winds out of ssw. Set up maximum power takeoff for precautionary profile due to west/south advisory in ATIS. Long line of aircraft for runway. Shut down number 1 engine while waiting for departure corridor to open. Restarted number 1 when flights started moving again. Number 1 had been stabilized for 10 minutes before taxi into lineup and wait. Captain appeared to do good job centering aircraft nose on runway centerline. Given takeoff clearance; captain ran engines up to 40%; depressed toga; engines growled and nose immediately yawed to the right. Captain appeared to counter with tiller. Encountered major 'chattering' as nose continued to veer off; and then captain immediately pulled throttles to idle while nose started to come back to the left and once again parallel runway centerline. We stopped parallel to runway centerline; offset by about 10-12' and what seemed to be 50-75' down the runway. We agreed our takeoff attempt was over and elected to exit the runway at closest intersection. Whole event lasted just a few seconds; probably never got faster than 10 knots. Another carrier airbus at hold short said over tower frequency that smoke came from nose wheel during the event. We taxied off runway; faced west and held our position for a few minutes while we assessed the situation. We agreed to taxi back to gate slowly and have maintenance take a look. Coordinated with operations to effect plan; and captain assessed nose wheel steering on the way back; fully prepared to stop immediately if need be. Aircraft was pulled from service. After talking with company safety the next day; they believed it to be a nose wheel steering hydraulic metering valve issue; which caused the nose wheel to remain cocked out of commanded position. Check the engines/eec's to make sure it was not an engine issue. Then have the nose wheel steering hydraulic cylinder from the event aircraft evaluated. It was such an out-of-the-norm event following textbook execution of normal procedures that there isn't anything I can think of to prevent it.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-700 nose wheel steering metering valve apparently malfunctioned as takeoff thrust was set which caused the aircraft to veer off centerline and resulted in a low speed rejected takeoff.

Narrative: Weather in local area; specifically thunderstorms and heavy gusty winds out of SSW. Set up MAX Power Takeoff for Precautionary Profile due to W/S Advisory in ATIS. Long line of aircraft for runway. Shut down Number 1 Engine while waiting for departure corridor to open. Restarted Number 1 when flights started moving again. Number 1 had been stabilized for 10 minutes before taxi into lineup and wait. Captain appeared to do good job centering aircraft nose on runway centerline. Given takeoff clearance; Captain ran engines up to 40%; depressed TOGA; engines growled and nose immediately yawed to the right. Captain appeared to counter with tiller. Encountered major 'chattering' as nose continued to veer off; and then Captain immediately pulled throttles to idle while nose started to come back to the left and once again parallel Runway centerline. We stopped parallel to Runway centerline; offset by about 10-12' and what seemed to be 50-75' down the runway. We agreed our takeoff attempt was over and elected to exit the runway at closest intersection. Whole event lasted just a few seconds; probably never got faster than 10 knots. Another carrier Airbus at hold short said over Tower frequency that smoke came from nose wheel during the event. We taxied off runway; faced west and held our position for a few minutes while we assessed the situation. We agreed to taxi back to gate slowly and have Maintenance take a look. Coordinated with Operations to effect plan; and Captain assessed nose wheel steering on the way back; fully prepared to stop immediately if need be. Aircraft was pulled from service. After talking with Company Safety the next day; they believed it to be a nose wheel steering hydraulic metering valve issue; which caused the nose wheel to remain cocked out of commanded position. Check the engines/EEC's to make sure it was not an engine issue. Then have the nose wheel steering hydraulic cylinder from the event aircraft evaluated. It was such an out-of-the-norm event following textbook execution of normal procedures that there isn't anything I can think of to prevent it.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.