FSU944

Started getting a wobble in the steering wheel at ALL speeds , shakes pretty good. Also noticed a deep groaning or popping sound the other morning backing out of driveway with wheel turned. Along with a pretty good pull to the left, and something is severely out of whack.

Struts were replaced 3 yrs ago and all control arm, sway bar, etc bushings look good. I did disconnect the control arm to check the ball joint on the driver's side as Travis has detailed before and it's in there snug (no play), however I can move it in a circle pretty freely. Should I be able to move them around at all?

Other than that, what else should I look at? Tie rod ends?

ilikepinkcrayons

Do you/did you ever have a power steering leak? I had one...messed up my ball joints and bushings.

drift a 944

This happened recently on my daily driver 1983 BMW.
It would shake like CRAZY unpredictably around the 30 to 60 mph range, as well as various popping and other noises.
I ended up just replacing the tie rods, and everything went back to normal.

I have had a ball joint go bad and get loose on the 944 once, and it always made loud bumping noises, but never shook the car.

Just my 2 cents!

FSU944

About a year ago I had to replace the p/s hose from the pump to the rack. But all bushings appear to look good, no cracks, tears, all seem solid, etc.

I'm concerned about ball joints since I was able to move them, although they had no wiggle room in there. But with the pulling to the left, I'm thinking tie rods. Is there a way to check them?

Frustrating.

roman944

now do you have to replace both sides at the same time?

I gota take a picture of mine so you guys could see, I saw a torn boot on 1, and there is rust on the steering column in the engine bay , is it supposed to have a rubber boot just like tie rods?

drift a 944

Im not sure if replacing both is necessary, but on my bmw both sides were completely destroyed so I replaced both.