Going down I-95...anywhere above say, 70-ish mph..but more like 75 and up..the front end shakes and shimmies like it's about to fall off. Now, everyone's going to shout alignment at me...and yes, it needs an alignment. I've got a ****load of play in the steering wheel, and to drive straight I have to hold it to the left..except when I brake, in which case I turn slightly to the right. My question is...these alignment shakes..they come and go. Such as..I'm doing 72-ish, and the front end is just fine...no shimmies or shakes at all. All of a sudden, this horrific vibrating starts up..the steering wheel is shaking, my seat is shaking...the entire car is shaking like a tire's coming off. Then, it lessens, and stops. Little later, it starts up again... What the hell is this? Is something in my front end coming apart? Only new component in it is the idler arm, because I was told it was 'dangerously bad'. Everything else is original to my knowledge...
Help! I don't want something to break off at 70+ mph the next time I decide to see a movie!

 

could be the rims/tires need balancing...
have you checked for any lose components or anything broken.

 

All I can say is, they were balanced on that big wheel thing when the tires were put on the rims. I don't see anything physically broken in the steering, but I've got a ****load of play in the wheel...I think a mechanic mentioned something about my outer ball joints being bad before too..

 

i would change the tie rods both inner and outer, the drag or "center" link and the ball joints to start. after i changed mine, my car handles great.

 

would have to agree with slit1776
sounds like tie rods or ball joints need replaced...

 

Any performance suspension companies sell this stuff? Or would I not notice any difference over cheap stockers with this? I want my car to be one of those that can pull 1 g on the pad, know what I mean? So if I need to replace them anyways, and I can improve handling doing it, might as well! New shocks, sway bars, SFC's, and more are on my wish list already...

 

How many miles on the car & what has been replaced? It may be time to do the whole thing. The stock ball joints don't last 40K miles. By 100K miles the steering linkage (tie rods, idler. . .) will have a bit of play in each part. This is what I did at 100K miles:

Replaced A arm bushings w/poly, replaced all steering linkage pieces (inner, outer tie rods, idler & center link) along with the ball joints. Used Moog for all parts and Hockis (sp!) tie rod sleeves . Replaced struts & shocks. Added steering brace. Replaced stock sway bars front & rear with 1LE/WS6 pieces. Kept the stock springs. Adjusted steering box preload and replaced rag joint. (Also do a panhard bar upgrade, this made a world of difference in handling).

Basically I replaced all the pieces that wear. And it is a lot easier to do it all at once.

The result is that the car is like brand new. Actually better since the sway bars, steering brace & poly is an upgrade. The car corners like it has flanged tires riding on rails. Drives great, no pulling, swerving or surprises. Best thing I ever did for it (besides the turbo, well, maybe some day ).

RBob.

 

i agree. change all the parts at the same time. you'll know they are all new and will have a tighter steering. you can buy kits to replace the part. sphon sells a kit and so does pst. the kits may not have evey part but most of them and then just buy the other parts seperately. moog is a good replacement part and better than stock.

 

I'm in agreement with RBob-
I re-did the entire front end while I had it apart since I didn't want to have to deal with it again. Springs, sways, all steering linkage and bushings and threw in a home-made wonder-bar to boot.

Also, the pull to the right when braking may indicate a some mild brake trouble-

But regardless, try to get it fixed before you lose a wheel at speed (75mph is fast) or something- we'll need you around in 2003-

Happy New Year, all!

S-D

 

The brakes are screwed...yes...I need to have the fronts worked on...backs have been done already. And the car has 106,000 miles on it..I put 10,000 since I owned it, and all I've replaced, steering-wise, was the idler arm..which didnt make a damn of a difference.