Loose steering

[ericsmith32]

Out of all the stiva's i've driven my dad's has to have the loosest of them all. I just replaced the lower control arms, better but not much. Tie rods, steering rack boots everything has been done. The shocks are stockers with 184k but are still firm. The problem is if you hit a bump on one side it wants to move to that side. Corners are little iffy if you're not careful. I can't find my chiltons manual, she decided to clean I think, so I don't know if I tighten the sway bars tight enough. The only other thing I can think of is the steering rack.. i'm going to cuss if I have to replace that. It does need lined up and I thought I heard a wheel bearing. I'm going to repack the rears before I rule on the fronts, but I think it's the passenger front that i'm hearing. That shouldn't effect the steering I wouldn't think.

Suggestions? I'm afraid my dad might try to find him something else if I can't fix this problem... well maybe that's not a bad thing I could always use another :idea:

[getnhi1]

Does the steering have play?
Thats a condition called bump steer, I would replace the shocks, mounts and have it aligned to start with. And while the shocks are off any other worn out parts should be easy to spot.

[mechanicaldj]

replace the struts NOW!

then check to see if the tie rods have any play in them

[ericsmith32]

I was afraid it might be the struts.. but his is the same year as mine and the struts don't seem any weaker than mine. But he does drive country roads and the worst road in misery (missouri) everyday. I don't think he's survived replacing the struts in the impala yet.. hate to have to bear the news. The monroes we put in the impala were awfully stiff I wonder if KYB's are any better?

The tie-rods better not have any play.. they only have a couple thousand of them. I did check them when replacing the lower control arms and they had no play.

[gdawgs]

Check the rear struts. For some reason, they tend to go out before the front ones(at least on all the Festivas in my family). When mine went out, the car acted exactly as you describe.

The rear ones are easy to change out.

[Silv3rBull3t]

The same has been true for all 3 of my Festiva's I have owned... The rears go first... I would check them.. -Kyle