Trying To Isolate A Shimmy Up Front

[wantahertzdonut]

Over the last couple months my 96 has developed a bit of a rattle up front at highway speeds. At 65+, the steering wheel oscilates back and forth just enough to shake my arms and drive me nuts. Worse yet, when the road takes a bend to the left, there is a pronounced rattle coming from the front end.

I checked for play in the ball joints and tie rod ends, I couldn't feel anything.

The CV boots are in good shape which would lead me to believe the half shafts are good, but I can't tell for sure.

The struts are original as far as I know, and they don't bounce excessively when I bounce the front of the car. However I do drive over fairly rough roads and there's 117k miles on the car. It may be their time but I really don't want to replace them since I intend to sell the car at some point in the next year anyway, and I only drive it in the winter. It's been shaking for the last 3k or so. Any ideas?

[Huffer]

Could be:
worn out top hat
seized caliper
bubble in the tire

[chuckthefuk]

In most cases the wobble you feel is from a worn out U-join in the steering column.

Have you checked your front endlinks? When they snap the sway bar rattles around during corners.

-Chuck

[wantahertzdonut]

Huffer- By top hat, do you mean the strut mount? I'll check the brakes and tires too.

Chuck- Never thought about the u-joint, I'll take a look at it. If it's worn, is that a dealer only part? I'll take a look at the end links too, I forgot about those.

[chuckthefuk]

I have no idea.. I have yet to change mine and i have about 1-2 inches of side to side play

[Huffer]

Huffer- By top hat, do you mean the strut mount? I'll check the brakes and tires too.

Yep - strut top mount. Check to make sure the bearings in them are good and not binding up.

[ouch1011]

Check the wheel bearings as well. A noise only when turning in one direction can be an indication of a worn/loose wheel bearing.

[mycargoesvroom]

Try swapping your wheels front to back/back to front. It wont fix anything, but if the shimmy is gone then you know its the wheels or tires.

[ScaryFatKidGT]

I have had a shimmy and sloppy stearing forever but the rattle only turning left sounds like u need a new CV axle. Getting ur tires balanced and or an alighnment wouldn't hurt either.

Where can I get a U-joint and how do you go about repacing it?

[wantahertzdonut]

So I got back around to dealing with this, and now I can feel a clunk when I turn the front wheel as if checking for a bad tie-rod end.

The tie-rod is good, but since I had a set delivered I'm going to replace them.

I can feel the clunk when I put my hand on the strut and grab the caliper to turn the front wheel. But there's no way to tell if it's the strut or strut mount. Any suggestions as to figure out which is which?

If it is the strut, does anyone sell loaded struts for these cars? Amazon, Autozone, and Advance only sell struts without springs. I'd prefer to replace the entire unit, but if that's not an option I'll deal with carrying over the old springs.

[chuckthefuk]

Have you checked your CV boot or inspected the CV axle.

-Chuck

[wantahertzdonut]

CV boot is in great shape, no tears, no cracks from dry rot. There is none of the distinct clunking you get with a worn half-shaft (I endured a few of those on my Camry when I had it).

Just a rattle when I hit the 1" curb coming into my driveway and the rattle on the highway mentioned at the top.

[chuckthefuk]

So I'll just throw some possibilites out there:
- Spring improperly seated.
- Ball joint failing
- Endlink bushings worn out
- Anti-Swaybar bent and interfering (not likely for a 21mm+ bar)
- Front control arm rear mount (loss or missing a bolt) The large chunk of metal that holds the arm to the body.
- broken top hat bolts.
- steering rack failing (when turning the wheel the rack shifts left/right and the tierods could be catching or the boot could be getting stuck (pulled in) to the rack body.
- Steering column U-Joint damaged/loss
:-/

[Baddog]

Any DIY's around here for replacing the u-joint in the steering column?

[ScaryFatKidGT]

So I'll just throw some possibilites out there:
- Spring improperly seated.
- Ball joint failing
- Endlink bushings worn out
- Anti-Swaybar bent and interfering (not likely for a 21mm+ bar)
- Front control arm rear mount (loss or missing a bolt) The large chunk of metal that holds the arm to the body.
- broken top hat bolts.
- steering rack failing (when turning the wheel the rack shifts left/right and the tierods could be catching or the boot could be getting stuck (pulled in) to the rack body.
- Steering column U-Joint damaged/loss
:-/
Could all this stuff make my steering sloppy and shake on and off (alignments good, ball joints are good and tires are balanced) where should I start?

[wantahertzdonut]

Well, I'll eat some of my words. I was under the car again yesterday and found a blown RF CV boot. I have a new one and will try to get that in this week.

I still have something else in the front end that is loose in the suspension, I need to take a good look at the sway bar end links.

[wantahertzdonut]

Just to follow up, I replaced the RF halfshaft and there is no more rattle on the highway. I'll probably replace the LF unit in the coming months if I still have the car.

I replaced both tie rod ends as well since I ripped the boot of one while replacing the half shaft.

For now, the car is good to go, until the next item fails!

[chuckthefuk]

The joy of owning a Subaru :-D