DMPesso

PLEASE HELP GUYS THIS IS DRIVING ME INSANE!
heres the story... 2001 GS430 140K, all suspension parts changed at 100k
I will get an alignment and it stayed fine for like a month, now my steering is tilted to the right to go straight, whats weird is if I let go of the wheel it does not pull but to make the car drive straight I need to have it tilted alot to the right. If I hold the wheel straight the car basically goes to the left. At the same time I have been noticing a creaking like old stairs sound when im turning the steering wheel when im parking. The ball joints are fairly new just replaced for the second time about 20k miles ago or less so I doubt they can cause this. I noticed when parked and turning my wheel left to right you hear a noise from the steering column as if something is wrong. I know alot about this car but this one is KILLING ME, some mecahnic said it could be the rack and pinion but to me it doesnt seem like that. any opinions greatly appreciated!

DMPesso

Just a side note, the car drives like the alignment is still good, but the steering wheel itself is completely crooked. When the alignment is bad the car drives like ****. It still feels as if the wheels are straight I just need to keep the steering wheel turned to the right for it to go straight. Someone PLEASE help

DMPesso

Could my girlfriend rubbing against a curb when parking cause this? I've rubbed against a curb before and this never happened but at this point im desperate looking at anything it could possibly be?

ttaylor993

Constantly hitting the curb when parking will definitely knock the wheels out of alignment.

Chankeye

get new rack bushings and you'll be good.

DMPesso

I wouldn't say constant. Maybe she hit the curb a time or two. But would tjat REALLY knock out the alignment as bad as it did? I don't remember that ever happening. Maybe something is week. Come on guys I need answers bummmmmpppp

DMPesso

Why would rack bushings let an alignment be good and then go out all the sudden? Doesn't sound like that's the problem

geeznuts

iTrader: (14)

Rack bushings hold the rack. Thus makes the rack move out of place. I would change that since they're cheap

brainsurge

Get it checked at a shop, are your lbj's new? creaking noise is always a warning signal!

repugnante

I remember Jeff Tsai mentioned a problem like this. He had someone torque down that camber bolt and the alignment stayed intact from that point on. I too did this and I discovered that my alignment stayed in place going forward.

You may want to check into that.

DMPesso

Yes they were replaced about a year ago only 15k miles ago that's why I'm going crazy. I know that creaking sound this is different it's only when parking

DMPesso

Can you tell me which one is the camber bolt that I should tell them to tighten? Do you mean the bolt that adjusts camber on the alignment? Like the bolt they use to align it? I think they're gonna tell me they tightened it when they did the alignment but it's worth a try...

DMPesso

I will try this and report back. Your talking about the camber bolt they use to align the car? I'm sure he's going to say he tightened it when he aligned it. Is it another bolt? What exactly should I tell the mechanic to not insult him

mistraspar

Yeah those camber bolts really like to fall if you don't torque em enough. I'm sure if you tell the tech to just re-check your alignment because you feel that its off they'll adjust it for free, especially if you just had it aligned there. Definitely DONT! mention the curbing incident

DMPesso

haha yea definitely wont tell him anything was my fault, ill simply say that I just got the alignment done last month and it is now crooked and I was told by my friend with the same car to torque down the camber bolts. Im praying that this is going to fix it. The random creaking noise when im parking is making me believe it could be something else, but it makes sense the camber bolt not being tight enough could throw off the alignment after hitting a few bumps