sometimes i have to hold my wheel to the left, sometimes to the right. if I let go of the wheel, it'll drift to the right or left, respectively. My balljoints don't have slack, as i lifted my car and the only time my wheel moved back and forth, i saw the tierod and other wheel moving with it (i did this from both sides.)

known issues:
my LH balljoint boot is cracked and a little of the grease leaked out, and my LH tierod boot is torn too, and my RH rear LCA bushing is shot to hell (i had 2 chunks hanging out of the joint there, with the consistency of those sticky-hands you buy out of the 50cent machine at the grocery store).

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also, exactly how free-spinning are the front wheels supposed to be when the car is jacked up and in neutral? the parking brake was set but that's only for the back wheels. it took a good deal of force to spin it, not quite as much as, say, turning the steering wheel while the car's off, but it still took more force than I expected. no matter what I did, the motion stopped cold as soon as my hand was off the wheel (unlike my grandpa's RWD car where the wheel will spin on the bearing for a bit before stopping). Is that normal, due to driveline friction, or are my brakes dragging a little bit? both wheels felt the same, and i'm not sure but i may have heard a slight dragging on the brakes but again, i'm not entirely sure.

 

Fix the power steering leak that you showed me,then replace the control arm bushings,or just buy a whole new c/a assembly...

 

sounds like a sticking caliper

 

on both sides? couldn't that possibly be a proportioning valve problem or something?

i need new brakes up front anyways. the rotors are junk, the pads were cheap crap put on by the PO (that, or they just simply cannot conform enough to the crap-rotors to have maximum surface area contact). can i 'test' the calipers when i'm doing the brakes or what? or should I just go ahead and get new ones and be on the safe side..

 

i degreased it today. hopefully it's dry.. i'm already late for work as it is.
i guess i'll just replace those 2 C/A bushings and the swaybar link rubber portion. and those other boots i mentioned as torn, but I don't know of the leaked grease from my balljoint has damaged it/worn it excessively, or not. steering doesn't always come back to center as fast as i'd like, so i'm guessing it has worn down a bit.

 

if you already have a bad ball joint AND bad control arm bushings, you'd be best to replace the whole arm

 

Just "degreasing" the effected area will not help,the p/s leak must be fixed before you replace the control arm/bushings,or the fluid will just ruin the new control arm bushings quickly..In short,it would be money wasted..

 

replace the pads and rotors, bleed the brakes, then replace the ball joints, tie rod ends, and control arms.

those are ALL wear items and can cause your problem. I know that's a chunk of change, but if you do that, you won't have any front suspension issues for the rest of the time you own the car.

 

7890

 

Hey I'm somewhat in the same situation... I got pretty much most of my front end suspension replaced last year except for struts/mounts.. I did get new tires/ alignment after installing ALL my new suspension components (and some steering parts aka tierods) but Just Tires could not get the steering wheel straight even after going back 3 times. They told me it'd be fine and would not wear down my $144 x4 tires but the steering wheel would be a little off center.

Am I in the same boat as CapedCadaver? If not, what can be my problem?

 

Go to a different alignment shop....

 

pull the steering wheel off and turn it

 

Is that a ghetto sulotion or are you being serious?

 

a little of both.
I'd find a real alignment shop to do it personally.

 

Yea I will but for now I'm gonna keep it like this since I'm getting new front struts, I'll do it once they're installed.

Thanks guys

 

If you can read a spec sheet and ask for one when they're done you'll know how good of a job they did.

I finally found a good shop (been to 6 different ones in GA) and they only charge 50 bucks.

I found is you say what you want your camber set on, they are much more careful.

If your wondering, my rears are set at -.9 and fronts are -.5 Factory tow.

 

Understeer much?
They should be the other way around.



If you go to an alignment shop and your wheel was off-center when they were done, it's simply because they were lazy arsehats. when you do it right, you actually use a small 'clamp' (for lack of better terminology) to hold your steering wheel straight while they adjust both sides of the toe in order to make the car go straight when the wheel is straight.

most shops that are lazy will just align it so the toe is correct, but they neglect to hold the wheel straight when they do it. so if it's at 30 deg off when they line it up, that's how it's going to be and they tell you it "can't be straightened" pure bull****.

now..... if your suspension is so FUBARd that your tie rod is bottomed out on one end and they can't adjust it more, then that's a different story.... but if you're in that position already, you have other things to worry about.

 

the busted [tierod and balljoint] boots are on the opposite side of the car from the leak/bad bushings...

well sometimes it is crooked to the right, sometimes to the left. so that wouldn't work in my case. maybe in his.

yeah i knew that...

i just wanted to see how fast it'd get wet again, and exactly where it was all coming from. i have drips on the 2 big bolts located between the front and rear bushings on the RH arm, and the strut-mounted PS bracket is dripping, which is the source. the return hose to the tank isn't leaking anymore since i tightened the clamp.

i may be dumb about some things, but i'm not that dumb

 

Why would I understeer? I feel alot more planted on corners.... From my reading and playing with different settings it's just about perfect. Now with wide 18's it'a another story....

 

with all the setup work I've done on these cars, you want more negative camber in the front, and ~2 degrees less in the rear. when I was running a track-only alignment, I was running -3.5 in front, -1.5 rear, and still needed more front camber to correct tire wear.

For a street setup, you might be okay, but if you really want it to handle, you're going to need more front camber than you are in the rear.

 

Thats a whole new concept to me... By no means do I run on a track or have the experience. But this seemed to eliminate the understeer. Never took it past -1.5 degrees in the front. Any negetive effects on steering at higher speeds with your cam settings?

 

I have the exact same problem. My alignment is good and I have replaced both outer tire rod ends and lower ball joints. anyway my thinking is that the control arms are what causes this, because everything else on my car seems fine except for those control arm bushings, mine are shtty too, but I dont have enough money to throw new control arms in, and I dont have the ***** to take the old ones off and put new bushings in unless someone were to help me over the weakend or something, I would know what I was doing if I tried it alone.