20Bdream

Someone PLEASE help...89 turbo. I have major suspension & steering issues. Someone that works on my car recently pulled a prank on me & then told ppl he knows not to tell me whats wrong. I am not too mechanically educated outside of basic auto classes, so I dont know what exactly he did, or if it was multiple small things. I do know he had my car for about 2 hrs, but when I got my car back, the steering is completely off and possibly the handling as well, but because the steering is so off I cant really push it to find out if the handling is askew too. If it matters, I dont have power steering . when I drive the car I have 5-6 inches of steering wheel play from its normal tightness. what can be adjusted with the suspension/steering to do this? all suggestions appreciated! as detailed and why please. stock suspension besides aftermarket sway bars & racingbeat endlinks, full polyurethane bushing on whole car. please feel free to ask any questions if it will help figure this out. Thanks

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

STOP DRIVING THE CAR UNTIL YOU CAN FIND THE SLACK IN THE STEERING!

Make sure the wheel is just not installed crooked. Easy to fix.

Maybe the clamps that secure the u-joints on the steering shaft were loosened up?

Perhaps the inner tie rods were purposely maladjusted?

You need to perform a thorough front end inspection, or have someone that knows what they are doing perform the inspection.

Then, when you find out what is wrong, file a lawsuit in small claims court with the person who thought this was a good "prank". Because that douchebag is putting you and everyone else on the road in danger. Actually ask a police officer if he can be charged criminally because there is surly a law against damaging someone else's property, and perhaps even a specific law against making a vehicle unfit for the road.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

or ask him first what he did to the car, i can't think of anything that would cause almost 90* of slack in the steering..

Eduardo Santos

If someone really did set a prank (if it's possible to call it a prank, instead of a very childish behaviour), first get evidence that such a thing was done to your car (pictures, videos, a report from a repair shop, anything like that), then fix whatever was done to your car before you, or someone else, gets hurt in a serious way. Then do what Aaron said. File a lawsuit against the one who did that.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

better yet just call him on it if there's evidence. it's too difficult to prove and he would have to take the car to an authorized repair shop, pay to have it fixed and try to recover what he himself paid out of pocket for the repairs otherwise what damages would there be and provable?

i hate the fact that everyone is sue happy these days, best alternative is to make him look like the douchebag he is in whatever way you feel appropriate. worst case, if you KNOW he did it and can't do anything otherwise about it egg his car in the middle of the night, that **** is a pain to get off believe me...

pretty soon we will be getting summons for looking at people the wrong way. when i was a kid we used to do similar things without training ourselves growing up in wasting valuable resources in order to make people pay for mistakes, it was simpler and easier to just make that person learn their lesson without suits and courtrooms.

what happened to the good old days of getting your *** kicked in the school yard? even children are threatening CPS to parents.

Eduardo Santos

I believe there will be shops out there who will do an inspection and write a report, rather than just check and fix.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

perhaps, if you find a midas that does free inspections and will upsell everything under the car.. any real repair shop will charge you a diagnostic fee to find the root problem, i don't work free, no one does. the shops that do upsell things and then it is difficult to determine what is REALLY needed, because the upsells offset the costs of the initial "free" inspections and wasted time looking at cars that don't have any repairs done.

Eduardo Santos

I've written nothing about being free of charge. Neither do I see it written anywhere on this thread other than the post you made.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

anyways, if it were me i would ask him what he did. if he doesn't admit to it then inspect the car and try to figure out what the issue is. if you cannot find the issue then take it to a repair shop with more experience and then have it repaired, at that moment in time when it begins to cost out of pocket would be the time it would be considerable to take him to court to recoup costs.

we DO NOT even know if this person even really did anything at all to his car.. things do fail on their own.

Eduardo Santos

I agree with you

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

Kick the guy in the nuts for messing with the safety of your car.
Then kick Yourself in the nuts for lending it him.

projexladen

lawsuits, repair shops, and nut-kicking aside, the first thing I can think of that would suddenly cause that much free-play is the u-joint on the steering shaft.
I had a beater 89 Nissan Sentra for a while, first repair on it was replacing that 'u-joint' due to the excessive play in the steering, after that, the car was actually fun to drive, and SAFE (as it could be, anyway).
There's 2 u-joints on the fc, upper and lower. Upper is just below the master cylinder. Lower is closer to the rack and would be more difficult to access.
You could get a friend to turn the steering wheel while you check it out. Given your situation, I'd go for the upper first. There's a boot on it, but you can tell it's messed up just by the wheel being turned: shaft going into firewall to the steering wheel would rotate, while shaft going to the rack wouldn't always rotate with it.

Second thought: the steering wheel itself (?) It's held onto the shaft by a single nut...
When key is off and the steering wheel 'locked', does it still turn?