92 SHO with several problems.....

[qwik huh]

After a lot of thought I have decided to keep my SHO instead of picking up a car payment. It has around 120,000 on it and is in need of a little care. I have several problems that I cannot figure out and need to be addressed. The car has a pro-M meter, tokico struts, eibach springs, SFCs, new subframe bushings, tierods, etc K&N, shortbelt, and hollowed out cats.....

Problem 1 - when ever I go into a sloped driveway or hit a bump the wrong way I hear a loud creak from the fron right corner. Everything looks good to me in there....bad strut maybe? They are practically new....Any ideas?

Problem 2 - Whenever I drive in the rain I lose my power steering. I checked the fluid and it looks good. My car also tends to wander in the front. Sometimes the sterring wheel is straight and the car goes straight....other times I have to hold the wheel to the right to go straight....could this be my steering rack?

Problem 3 - On the highway I get a noticable vibration from 60-75 mph....over 80 it goes away. Its much worse when I have 4-5 people in the car.

Thanks in advance for any help!!!

 

[AutoSHO]

Sounds like your SFBs either weren't installed correctly or weren't torqued to spec. That would account for the creak and the wandering steering.

As for losing PS in the rain, check the electrical connections on the rack itself, they open valves as the wheel moves off center. The PS switch may be corroded or have a bad connection.

 

[91taurisho]

What Chris said!
The vibration might be caused by an unbalanced wheel or tire... You also might need an alignment! When the subframe bushings were replaced it is likely that the subframe moved and the bushings were installed wrong. It is also possible that the reason your steering wheel sometimes is straight and sometimes is crooked is the subframe could be moving during turning(the SFB's not being torqued). I don't know about the rain stopping it though shrug .
Good luck! thumb

 

[MotoArts]

The creak could be a broken front strut rod mount, also. The rod goes horizontally from the lower control arm to underneath the rad support. It's about as big around as your thumb. At the rad support, the end of the rod has rubber bushings and is held on by a big nut. Inside of the rod bushings, there's a plate that needed welding on my '94. It creaked and snapped pretty loud before the fix.

 

[sdpatt]

The most common cause of front end squeaks is the OEM tie rod ends. You can check this by removing the tire and rotating the tie rod with a wrench or pliers. It will be obvious if this is the source. You can **** the OEMs with a grease-filled syringe punched through the rubber boot on the rod end.

Your subframe is moving to let the steering wheel change angles.

Check the tightness of the power steering-water pump belt. When wet, a loose belt can slip quietly and result in a loss of steerig boost.

A vibration is caused by a dynamic imbalance - an out of balance tire. Loose suspension parts can exaggerate the amplitide of the bounce, but there must be an imbalance to create it in the first place.

 

[qwik huh]

Thanks for the quick replies....I will be doing some more inspection tomorrow....What is the torque spec on the SFBs? I also installed the SFCs before the SFBs which in hindsight may have been a mistake....The tires have about 4000 miles on them and have been re balanced already....I was wondering if the flywheel may cause my problem? Thinking it may be an RPM thing and not as noticable in lower gears?

<small>[ January 20, 2004, 09:08 PM: Message edited by: qwik huh ]</small>

 

[SolidState]

if your sfbs are bad, it can cause the steering rack to bind. this will feel like the loss of power steering.

 

[autobahnsho]

I get an awful vibration around 65-76mph. Faster or slower it goes away.

I've balanced and re-balance my tires- I still get a vibration. I've ordered wheel bearings since the front left makes a loud grinding sound when I turn left. (The axles seem ok.)

Would bad wheel bearings make vibrations at speed?

 

[Markus]

autobahnsho:
I get an awful vibration around 65-76mph. Faster or slower it goes away.

I've balanced and re-balance my tires- I still get a vibration. I've ordered wheel bearings since the front left makes a loud grinding sound when I turn left. (The axles seem ok.)

Would bad wheel bearings make vibrations at speed?

Mine did.

 

[qwik huh]

First off a big thanks to all who chimed in....Replaced the SFBs today and the car drives like a dream....goes straight, no vibration, etc. When I replaced them the first time for some reason I only replaced the fronts. The rears were wasted to say the least.....almost no rubber left at all....thanks again!