89 vert

on the highway or going down the street with no bumbs my car will ride along good, but will need minor steering corrections to keep it straight. no biggie, its kinda like driving a car with a loose steering gearbox so no big deal, but when i hit pot holes and bumps the car will shoot over in that direction and if im not ready for it, which i always am, it can be kind of dangerous. so what i do is as im hitting the bump im already correcting the steering by turining my wheel about 15 degrees in the opposite direction to keep the car straight. ive had this prob sence i got the car about 1 year ago.

i have replaced the front hub bearings, the entire steering rack and the steering rack bushings, new racing beat swaybar with adjustable endlinks and aftermarket rims. ive had my car aligned twice now.

as far as i can tell everything outside the steering column is metal so no flexing rubber. do you think my problem is the steering column itself?

 

Do you have pictures of your car? Maybe we can solve the problem before you buy a new steering column.

 

hunting is generally caused by toe out or no toe... another culprit is wheels that have too much offset.

howard

 

Bad ball joints.

 

i would feel play if i had bad ball joints right? last i checked its never had any play. i check play by getting the car off the ground and moving the wheel up and down left and right checking for any play. the car does have aftermarket rims so im going to look into the offset issue, guess ill have to google that one. they seem to fit the car well.. ah yes pictures for sure!

 

ok i dont understand my girlfriends computer. its an apple and wont show me a pic i sent to my email from my phone. pics on the wa soon

 

Has the car been lowered? If yes, you have a bump steer issue. This means that when when the suspension compresses (in bump) the tire that hit the bump is changing direction (steering to the right or left)

I lowered my Fox Mustang, which has a front suspension that is similar to an FC, and before I had the bump steer corrected it darted all over the place.

 

i had this in the rear of the car...it made for a dangerrous commute.

i also had this odd slamming noise when id hit a pot hole. it turned out to be DEAD shocks. they were compressing and then locking into position so basically there was no damping provided. but because the internal valves would "shut" it would lock in that compressed position then suddenly release and slam back open to extend. it was really jarring.

id think that if you were already hunting around inside the wheel well, a quick glance at the back side of the shock for oil residue would be worth while.

also if your steering seems to have play, make sure the rack is firmly bolted down. i had a car that the alignment was constantly changing and it turned out to be the rack was a little loose. oops.

 

New rack is bolted down and struts are new and not leaking.
One other thing, when the car hits a hole n the road and the car darts to the right I have to hold the wheel just slightly left to keep it from pulling to the right. If I quickly jerk the wheel left the pull goes away. It's vice versa for left side holes. I'll take a pic of the front of the car and rear so u can see the tires and tell me if I have offset issues.
I have replaced just about the whole front end, struts, bearings, sway bar, control arm bushings, steering rack and bushings, outer tie rods. Only thing not replaced are ballpoints and strut mounts.

 

My vert would drive fine until 60 or so kph.then go nuts.
Bad ball joint.

Funny I checked it twice.

NOW,the good way I found to check it wheel OFF,put a crow bar in between the spindle assembly( where the bolt goes through to secure the ball joint) and the lower arm.
Now push down.
any play,it's shot.

 

and the only way to get a new ball joint is a new control arm right?

 

I'm with howard , TOE will do this . My old miata had toe out for quicker steering response and it caused alot of twichy highway driving ,