akafixture

I got an alignment about 2 weeks ago after my balljoint and tie rod replacement. Yesterday I noticed that my car is wandering / swerving at certain points in the road. I havent hit anything or driven over anything in the road. what ususally causes my issue? Or do I just take it back to have them check out the alignment?

Thanks for the help all.

DriftOner

Check the caster arm bushings. If they're bad, not only will they make your car unstable, but they'll also prematurely kill your ball joints. If those are good then take it back to the alignment place.

akafixture

I will check those out since I do have some clunking from the front end as well.

AKS14

Pending on how the car was aligned it will also cause it to have an inclination to 'track' more.

If you are running no toe cars tend to track a little more, also if the tires are worn oddly or are very low tread wear/grippy tire sometimes it can cause this.

Also check that the tie rod ends did not perhaps loosen up.

Another thing to check could be rack bushings, if they are shot and the rack is shifting around it would cause some pretty drastic toe changes which would cause the car to drive really funky, but generally your wheel will start moving around relative to how it normally does (you end up making a turn, correcting to drive straight and the wheel is not straight as it used to be)

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Check your Inner tie-rods. Recently went through the same thing with my car. Passenger side rod was loose and the suspension would cluck every time I drove over a bump. On the freeway, it was wander left and right even after an alignment. I had enough of it so I removed my wheel, held the brake rotor, shook it left/right. Sure enough, there was play in the inner tie-rod. Took off the inner tie-rod and I was surprised it didn't break while I took some hard turns!

akafixture

thanks for the input guys. I will check my tie rods. Come to think of it, I did have to tighten my ball joints after install cause there was some clicking going over bumps. I will just go ahead and order new Lower Caster arms and while Im down there Im might as well do the rack bushings. That will freshen the front up. next the rear.

akafixture

little update. seems to be getting worse and I am thinking steering rack bushings. I can take a turn and I feel a little shift. Then as I start going straight the steering wheel will be clocked some to the right. take another turn and it clocked to the left. Will need to get this done this weekend along with the caster bushings.

AKS14

Yea the steering wheel shifting around definitely sounds like rack bushings.

akafixture

Just an update. Installed new steering rack bushings and it fixed my steering issues. Took about 45 minutes.

offroad200

I'm having the same issues. But I've just replaced the steering rack bushings with poly ones. Right before I bought the car (July) the PO just replaced the upper control arms, lower ball joints and outer tie rods. And had an alignment done. I have all the paperwork that he did in the 4 years he owned the car including the alignment sheet. It all looks good. I was getting a vibration at 70 so I replaced the rack bushings. It helped a little but the vibration is still there and now I have the wandering feeling. The steering wheel will stay perfectly still but I feel the front "swaying". So should I look at inner tie rods? Also the lower arm bushings seem ok. There's no tearing but a slight age cracking.

SC4Paulo

iTrader: (2)

Inner tie rods do not cost that much, $45 bucks a piece for moog's on ebay, if you prefer local with lifetime warranty O'reilly auto parts carry the import direct brand for about 59.99, They are the same as moog, made in the same factory, exact same product. 555 in japan. They do carry moog's for a tad more as well if i recall. Most likely your problem is going to be inner tie rod's ill be doing mine after i do my motor mounts!

salimshah

Dont forget to check the torque on all suspension nut and bolts. I found mine were loose only after getting the vehicle up on the rack.

Salim

2GSTony

iTrader: (1)

I just ordered (2) Inner Tie Rods for my GS300. It came out to $32.85/each which is pretty cheap!

SC4Paulo

iTrader: (2)

recheck your alignment sheet, after i get alignments sometimes the car seems to be worse off than before.