Guess my suspension issue(s) with my 240

[Dark-Hawk]

Alright, issue with the car is ultimately just insane vibration through the steering wheel. It feels like the front passenger wheel is vibrating/moving more than the drivers side.
I've recently replaced the tie rod ends, and have had my wheels balanced and know they're not the issue. I have new control arms on order, but am curious what everyones thoughts are on this? The vibration is pretty crazy, there's also a clunking type feeling. The control arms are coming from Canada so hopefully will be here soon, I ordered them last week. Either way, just looking for some ideas on what else it could be. Reason why I ended up ordering new control arms was due to the bushings just being shot on the current ones, as well as the current ones being pretty rusted and I'd estimate about 190,000 miles old. Gotta love New England beaters.

[tickwon]

240SX? Sorry I'm new and don't know what ride you have besides a 240, so whether a Z or SX, I was thinking wheel bearings? That's my suggestion. Have those been checked?

[Dark-Hawk]

Sorry, it's a 240SX . I have not yet checked the wheel bearings. Jack the car up and push/pull on the wheel to check them is the way to go about diagnosing them, right?

[tickwon]

Yes, that is right.

[Hannibalzero]

I had a terrible steering vibration in my stealth. I would hear a loud clunking whenever I went over any type of bump. At low speeds, the steering rattle wouldn't be too bad. At highway speeds, the rattle was downright awful - especially over even the most modest bump. It got to the point where I was afraid to drive the car because of steering.

I replaced the tie rods with no luck. I checked the bushings, control arms, and swams, but none of those seemed loose. I even checked the wheel bearings, but I could find no verticle movement in the wheel hub. Eventually, I ended up replacing my OEM struts and mounts with coil overs. Low and behold, that resolved the problem. Upon further review, the front struts seem to be leaking just a little, and the strut mounts seemed to have a decent amount of give.

Initially, I held off replacing struts for a while. Everytime I used the bounce test on the car, it seemed to be fine. I even had a few other people try pushing down on the corners, and nobody seemed to think the struts were the problem.

[Dark-Hawk]

Hmm, thanks for the heads up. The struts don't seem bad.. I can swap them out from a buddies car and check though. Another thing I noticed is the vibration turns to a worse clunking when the wheel is turned slightly to the right.

[tickwon]

Double check all suspension related parts to make sure they are secured and torqued to specs. Sounds like something is loose. This might be just an easy fix, but start simple get all the easy stuff out of the way before you start throwing parts at it.

[jackhammer]

Not sure about the sx's, but the old z's had a problem with the steering rack bushings going bad

[tickwon]

Hell, I know that's true...which is why I changed mine out.

[EvilNCarnate]

I had a clunking issue when my lower ball joint went on my car (due to someone not tightening the nut down). It would also cause a minor shudder.

[moffman93']

yea my car has a decent vibration on roads that arent paved perfectly. It seems to be only on the passenger side. Also shudders alot over bumps. Tie rod ends were replaced so its not them. Im thinking either stuts, some bushings somewhere(sway bar?). any help guys.

[jackhammer]

check your sway bar end links and lower ball joints

[moffman93']

thanks big jack!

[Dark-Hawk]

[quote=""tickwon""]Double check all suspension related parts to make sure they are secured and torqued to specs. Sounds like something is loose. This might be just an easy fix, but start simple get all the easy stuff out of the way before you start throwing parts at it. [/quote]
Yeah I checked while I was doing the tie rod ends, nothing was lose.

I'll keep the steering rack bushing in mind, I have heard people have had issues with that in the past. My new control arms just arrived today so I'll be throwing this on on Saturday if the weather permits.

[EvilNCarnate]

[quote=""moffman93'""]yea my car has a decent vibration on roads that arent paved perfectly. It seems to be only on the passenger side. Also shudders alot over bumps. Tie rod ends were replaced so its not them. Im thinking either stuts, some bushings somewhere(sway bar?). any help guys.[/quote]

[quote=""jackhammer""]check your sway bar end links and lower ball joints[/quote]



Im with Jack, obviously I already said ball joints but sway bar end links are another possible item. Which reminds me of another item to add to my list..

I had one bad ball joint but bought 2 new ones, 2 new tie rod ends, wheel hub assembly, but forgot to get sway bar end links cause I planned to get a new sway bar (upgrade) anyway. I dont just fix broken shit, I repair around it so I have less chances of anything else going wrong.