I'm having a problem with my car. It might be the idler arm but I'm not sure. Here's what it's doing:

If I hit a bump or a bad bump the steering wheel will start jumping around (side to side). It also does it sometimes when I brake (just rarely though). This started happening about a week ago or so. I don't drive much because of it, that and the price of gas. But now today there was also a squeeky type sound that happened right before it did it.

Any ideas what this could be? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry didn't know which board to post this on.

 

My wheel does what you described other then the squeaking. I haven't diagnosed it yet. I believe I need an alignment but I'm not going to do it until I get new front tires considering these are shot anyway.

 

if the steering wheel shutters left and right when you hit the brakes, that is most commonly warped brake rotors. It usually happens the worst at high speeds after teh brakes are warm. Yank off the rotors, take em to kragen or wherever and ask them if they are warped and if they can be turned.

john

 

most of the time it is due to bad outer tie rods. lift the front of your car grab the sides of your tire and shake back and forth if you can feel a clunk put your hand on the tierod joint and have someone else shake you should feel the looseness in it. do the same on the idler inner tierods and center link joints

 

Thanx for the reply everyone. I found out the noise was coming from my starter. When I stopped the car the starter just dropped down. Fortunately it didn't hit anything and it's still good. Now the shaking might just be a front end alignment. The tie rods, and rest of front suspension has already been replaced. New tires on the car but apparently they didn't do a front end alignment on the car.

Also discovered I have a slight freeze plug leaking and also a gas leak. Definitely can't have that so I'll be working on it tonight and tomorrow to get her back on the road.

Thanx everyone for your help