My daughter's 190K '96 has a strange looseness in the steering where the center position of the steering wheel moves back and forth depending on road conditions. You can watch this happen by looking at the tires while going dowen the road. I inspected everything underneath (Ball joints, struts, tie rod ends) but cannot see any looseness. Whatever it is affects the entire linkage so it has to be a central problem in the column, rack, or rack bushings. Has anyone experienced this? TIA for any advice!

 

I had this issue at one time. My problem was stabilizer link bushings were shot. This is a common issue with our cars. Inspect these..chances are the bushings are ripped. The parts are not expensive to fix this.

 

Start with the steering rack bushings. They are the only element that would explain the wheel getting knocked off center and back again.

But while your'e in there inspect the control arm bushings, stabilizer links, and swaybar bushings too.

 

Was hoping to not hear that it could be the rack, and was hoping that it might just be rack bushings. Thanks!

 

I have the same problem even after I replaced control arms , tie rods, sway bar endlinks and bushings.

Where are the steering rack bushings located and how hard are they to replace ?

 

do you mean the steering wheel moves left and right or steering wheel move up and down

 

Mine moves up and down

 

i had that problem, ichanged the rack and pinion mounts,sway bar bushings and sway bar link bushings now it is perfect.....