Jerking to side when braking and/or hitting bumps

[St Runner]

Also a good idea to check your Tie rods and steering rack bushings. Both front wheels off the ground and pull and push the wheels at 9 and 3 o'clock

 

[texadelphia]

If the lower ball joints were that loose your tire would be half off. Definitely put the tire up in the air to test the control arm, then you only have the compression of the springs applying pressure. What happens is the rubber in the bushings become broken and worn, but the weight of the vehicle and the compression of the springs keep the inner part of the bushing compressed against the bottom of the outer core. Everything seems to work fine until you hit a bump and the inner part of the bushing shifts. Key signs of the control arm bushings being worn is that it is unidirectional, it can go any direction depending on which way it is leaning. Brake problems usually pull in one direction

Also a good idea to check your Tie rods and steering rack bushings. Both front wheels off the ground and pull and push the wheels at 9 and 3 o'clock

This all makes sense. I figured checking it on the ground probably wasn't a productive thing.

I did do the tie rod 3/9 o'clock shake when I was looking at the front brakes recently and didn't notice any excessive play.

 

[texadelphia]

Lifted the front of the car and shook each wheel at the 12/6 and 3/9 positions. Both felt tight. Driver's side made a very slight "tink" sound at the 3/9 position but I couldn't isolate where it was coming from and I couldn't detect any movement. I pulled on the outer tie rod fwd/aft and couldn't repeat the sound or detect movement. Pulled in/out on the inner tie rod and couldn't repeat sound or detect movement from either the tie rod or from the rack itself. Took the wheel off and couldn't repeat the sound it was making with the wheel on.

Checked the lca and uca bushings with a pry bar. I could get some minor movement fore/aft that rebounded but couldn't get them to move radially in any direction...although there weren't many pry points for up/down movement. You can see the movement in this video.

lca bushing movement - YouTube

Pried between the knuckle and the ball joint and between the ground and the tire and couldn't get any movement there.

I'm curious if the "tink" sound might point to a wheel bearing. But I would expect that to occur in the 12/6 direction as well as the 3/9 if the wheel bearing was bad.

I guess my next step is taking it to an alignment shop. Someone that's seen more of these would probably have a better sense of what could be bad. But I'm also open to the idea that I might just need to get used to how this thing handles and try to forget how my A4 handles.

 

[Bad Luck]

I'm curious if the "tink" sound might point to a wheel bearing. But I would expect that to occur in the 12/6 direction as well as the 3/9 if the wheel bearing was bad.

A bad wheel bearing will make a groaning/humming noise that gets louder the faster you go.

 

[garn79]

I’ve changed most everything on front end. Had bad pul left & right upon braking, crazy unstable braking over bumpy conditions etc.

new on my rig, poly sway bar, end link, steer rack bushings, rack guide, inner/outer tie rods etc.

last wk upper control arm bush, oem - made noticeable difference, actually all the above made noticeable difference.

Yesterday, new lca bushings, whiteline, far and away the best thing I’ve done to date. Braking issues gone, steering play gone, truck tracks true and makes the original struts and coils feel 10yrs younger.

As someone else said you can’t really check bushings on vehicle, but everyone with original lca bushings should chg them asap. Also note, I live in rust belt capital of North america and bottle jack method didn’t even come close to working and I had a steel clamp on them trying to prevent arms from spreading and had to take them to a shop.

that’s my experience/2cents

 

[texadelphia]

I’ve changed most everything on front end. Had bad pul left & right upon braking, crazy unstable braking over bumpy conditions etc.

new on my rig, poly sway bar, end link, steer rack bushings, rack guide, inner/outer tie rods etc.

last wk upper control arm bush, oem - made noticeable difference, actually all the above made noticeable difference.

Yesterday, new lca bushings, whiteline, far and away the best thing I’ve done to date. Braking issues gone, steering play gone, truck tracks true and makes the original struts and coils feel 10yrs younger.

As someone else said you can’t really check bushings on vehicle, but everyone with original lca bushings should chg them asap. Also note, I live in rust belt capital of North america and bottle jack method didn’t even come close to working and I had a steel clamp on them trying to prevent arms from spreading and had to take them to a shop.

that’s my experience/2cents

This is good info. How much of it do you think is the poly bushings and how much do you think is just that everything was worn out? Did you have noticeable wear or play in anything you took off?
I'm generally not a fan of poly bushings but maybe I should rethink that stance.

 

[texadelphia]

So I've watched this video a few times now and I can't wrap my head around something. I don't understand why [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] couldn't use a ball joint press with the screw on the outside of the control arm. Meaning, couldn't you put a cup that fit around the bushing on the outside of the control arm and one that fit inside the bushing hole on the inside of the control arm and then just set it up so that the screw was outside of the control arm? Like this. That would eliminate the need for using a bottle jack or having an arbor press. Is there something special about the geometry of the control arm that prevents this from being an option?

 

[feta]

check back shocks

I had a rear passenger shock rust through and the truck would jump around going over bumps, being near the exhaust speeds up the rust process. Grab both rears and shake them around to see if they are loose.

 

[Grgg1978]

Sounds to me as someone else stated before. Check your control arm bushing both front and rear.


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[texadelphia]

Shocks and shock mounts look good.
Rear trailing arm bushings look good.
Panhard seems solid.
Can't detect any play in rear u-joint.

My money is on tires for now. Might try swapping fronts and rears and seeing if the vibration feels any different. Also need to get a grease gun and hit the driveshaft since I have no idea how good the last owner was about greasing them.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

 

[garn79]

definitely because they’re worn out. Lots on these forums guys have used oem to replace oem they’re just a bit pricey and many here have used the Whiteline with some cost savings and no issues.

 

[yotadawgjr]

I had a similar issue before I changed my rear shocks. I think with big excursions the panhard has more of an effect and makes the rear end kick left and right as the suspension cycles. One I changed the shocks (and possibly the 4 bushings in the lower suspension arms can't remember if i did at the same time), the problem went away

 

[texadelphia]

Just a bit of an update. Had my mechanic give it a once over and he didn't find anything loose or worn in the suspension. He said the driver's side inner tie rod has a very minimal amount of play but that he didn't think it was loose enough to be contributing to my symptoms. He recommended getting new tires and an alignment and going from there. He said some shops might not do an alignment because of the tie rod but said it was so minor that they should. I'm getting my winter tires put on today and am going to see if I can get an alignment somewhere and see where that gets me. Will report back with results.

Now I just need to try and find an alignment shop I trust.

 

[texadelphia]

Just got back from getting an alignment and the winter tires mounted. The truck feels night and day better. No noticeable shimmy on the highway and it doesn't feel like it's pulling during lane changes anymore. The alignment guy said that the camber was pretty off and fixed that. He also said that tie-rod isn't loose enough to mess with yet. Then I went over to Discount Tire and had them mount up some Blizzaks. They have you sit in the car while they work now which was an eye-opening experience. They're definitely not gentle when man-handling your wheels or pounding on weights. They did a Roadforce balance but didn't use a Haweka adapter. Seemed like they were putting a lot of weight on too so I didn't have high hopes that it was going to feel right. One of the wheels took 3.75 ounces which seems like a lot. But it's glassy smooth on the highway. So I guess I'll just enjoy that for now and try not to think about the questionable balancing.

 

[Bad Luck]

Just got back from getting an alignment and the winter tires mounted. The truck feels night and day better. No noticeable shimmy on the highway and it doesn't feel like it's pulling during lane changes anymore. The alignment guy said that the camber was pretty off and fixed that. He also said that tie-rod isn't loose enough to mess with yet. Then I went over to Discount Tire and had them mount up some Blizzaks. They have you sit in the car while they work now which was an eye-opening experience. They're definitely not gentle when man-handling your wheels or pounding on weights. They did a Roadforce balance but didn't use a Haweka adapter. Seemed like they were putting a lot of weight on too so I didn't have high hopes that it was going to feel right. One of the wheels took 3.75 ounces which seems like a lot. But it's glassy smooth on the highway. So I guess I'll just enjoy that for now and try not to think about the questionable balancing.

Most Toyota OEM wheels are hub centric so the adapter is not needed. Glad you got your problem fixed.

 

[texadelphia]

Most Toyota OEM wheels are hub centric so the adapter is not needed. Glad you got your problem fixed.

Seems to be a lot of disagreement on that topic but I hope you're right.