Over the past few months I've been rebuilding the front suspension.
The symptoms I was tackling:
I started with replacing the control arms, strut bearings/mounts, outer tie rod ends, and links.
The car felt better, but the above symptoms were still there with the exception of the clunk. That was resolved by the strut bearings. I didn't do the inner tie rod ends because they "seemed" fine. Same with the sway bar bushings and steering rack braces.
Last weekend I finally broke down and replaced the inner tie rod bushings with a set of US made Moogs. They were cheap and relatively easy to replace.
DING DING DING!
I can drive over a rough road now with my hands off the steering wheel and it tracks straight. No more rapid vibrations from the bumps.
While the ends felt tight, the rubber was crumbling inside. The repair was cheap and easy.
The only tricky part was putting the lock washer thing over the nuts. I found putting a 19mm socket on a 3/8" breaker bar with a cheater, and placing that socket over the nuts then levering against the intake manifold made quick work of snapping that on. Of course it took an hour of me trying to do it by hand and with pliers to think of this...
The symptoms I was tackling:
- Clunk at acceleration from stop
- "rattle" feel when going over bumps or rough roads
- Steering wheel gets yanked every which way when going over bumps or rough roads
I started with replacing the control arms, strut bearings/mounts, outer tie rod ends, and links.
The car felt better, but the above symptoms were still there with the exception of the clunk. That was resolved by the strut bearings. I didn't do the inner tie rod ends because they "seemed" fine. Same with the sway bar bushings and steering rack braces.
Last weekend I finally broke down and replaced the inner tie rod bushings with a set of US made Moogs. They were cheap and relatively easy to replace.
DING DING DING!
I can drive over a rough road now with my hands off the steering wheel and it tracks straight. No more rapid vibrations from the bumps.
While the ends felt tight, the rubber was crumbling inside. The repair was cheap and easy.
The only tricky part was putting the lock washer thing over the nuts. I found putting a 19mm socket on a 3/8" breaker bar with a cheater, and placing that socket over the nuts then levering against the intake manifold made quick work of snapping that on. Of course it took an hour of me trying to do it by hand and with pliers to think of this...