Thread: Front end burden..

Greetings! I'm breaking in my first thread with a question, or questions about the front end. I'm clueless to what could be the problem. Twice now my wife has taken her 1998 GTP in to get the breaks done and she still has the problem. Upon taking the car in, nobody ever mentioned that the sway bar is cracked, but on top of that, while you are accelerating it seems like the front passenger side tire starts to wobble around 40 - 70 mph. It also wobbles bad when breaking. Somethings wrong, and I don't need to pitch out more money at a shop, specially when they don't see what the problem is. The hub assembly and rotor have been replaced, and the pads look fine. Back on the road again and after a while its getting worse. I've taken it out a few times and have noticed while taking bends on the road you can hear a humming and hitting bumps there is a bit of a clunk sound coming out of it. While driving I have also noticed that hitting bumps, it feels like the car sways a bit almost like a slight jump and you can feel it in the steering wheel. I've also noticed it looks like the rear end is lower than the front...

Any help would be more than helpful.

I would check the tie rod ends, and maybe the lower control arms. The rear being lower is sagging springs/struts. Have you tired rotating tires to see if the problem follows the tire?

I had the tires rotated after the first time in the shop, and actually just had two new tires put in the front just because I know winter is coming and fear of the front end problems. I will check the tie rods, but how do I check the control arms? I'm going to take the tires off the rear to double check both sides, but it looks like the drivers side is broke. Which brings me to another question. Does the rear have both shocks and struts, or is it just a spring around it? Only reason I ask is I had heard you can get a shock/strut combo replacement, but I have not looked into the rear end yet.

I just posted a reply and noticed I had another response. I've looked at new sway bars, and being strapped for cash, I was told it would be alright for a while to let it slide for the time being, but I only work with the guy. Not long enough to fully trust anything he says yet... Could having a cracked sway bar actually end up making things worse?

Originally Posted by SlowNA06

What are we looking at here? 170,000 miles? Sounds like you need a new sway bar with endlinks, new rear trailing arms (stock ones bend), new lower control arms would be nice (ball joint wears out, cheap enough and easier to replace the whole thing), maybe new tie rods, fresh struts and springs, an alignment, tire fill, balance, and rotation...

I thank you...

Yeah, the sway bar isn't just cracked. There is about an 3/4'' chunk missing from it. Thanks for the information btw. Is there a way to check the control arm as to how bad it is? I plan on hopefully getting the sway bar and rods replaced first, might as well do both.

God my sway bar from a salvag yard for $8.00

I live outside of city limits of Fort Wayne.

Originally Posted by SlowNA06

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Thanks for the help. I wish I had time to get into all this right now, but being the holidays, we are going to be busy for the next week. Hope to get right to it when we're back. Again thanks, and happy holidays.

I would do the dorman sway bar first, you can save a little money by buying them online from advance auto parts, and picking them up in the store. The front is VERY heavy on these cars, and the stock springs are very soft, so the sway bay is a huge help. If you have stock lower control arms and 170000 miles, I would change them as soon as you get a chance, but the sway bar would be the main concern. The sway bars acts like a Spring that connects both sides of the front end together, to distribute the weight evenly when cornering or hitting bumps, without it you will almost definitely destroy your struts and springs in the front in a very short amount of time.