so i have just joined the forum a couple days ago and it seems like not a moment too soon. i am pretty new to car repair and just dealing with things as they arise. yesterday i replaced the lower ball joints b/c they lost their lube. it was a much bigger job than i anticipated. i had to take off the brake caliper to get to it as well. i drove it around afterward and everything seemed fine except that it sounded like air was being released when i pushed on the brake pedal. i don't know if this happened before or not, but the brakes didn't feel any different so i didn't think much of it. today though, the steering wheel seems to be vibrating while driving but jerks back and forth when braking. this seems kinda dangerous and don't want to drive it until i get it fixed. any ideas? i am probably way to optimistic in thinking that it is the aligment.

 

Simple alignment issues usually cause steady pulling to one side or the other. Wobbling can be a couple different things.

First, check wheel balance & straightness. Sometimes the shop guy won't notice a bent wheel unless you ask him to look for it.

But my bets are on a loose suspension component. There's 3 ball joints at each wheel. Lowers are new (right?) & hopefully youinstalled & tightened them correctly... So you have the upper ball joints and the smaller ones at the steering tie rods. Check them for looseness. Then check the radius rod - it goes forward from the lower control arm over towards some rubber bushings where it's attached to the car's structure.

Another possibility is looseness inside the steering rack. There's another ball joint located inside of that rubber accordion boot. Just look for anything that can wobble.

 

thanks for the reply. the wheel balance and straightness shouldn't hvae changed when i did the ball joints right? there was no problem before. to get to the lowers i had to also disconnect teh upper ball joints and the one on the tie rods. but i did that to get the cv joint off so that i could get to the lower. i put these back together and tightened them up i thought pretty well. i couldn't find the torque specs so i just did them up as snug as i could. i will double check them though. anything else i should look for while i am down there? cheers

 

Tightening the ball joint castlated nuts with cotter pins is not the possible issue, the ball and socket could be loose on the upper or the tie rod or the inner tie rod ball is what he is talking about.

I hold my hand on the tie rod and the knuckle together while someone moves the steering wheel back and forth about and inch or so of shaking left and right, if I feel any movement, its bad, I check all components this way.

Jack it up and grab the top and bottom of the tire, shake it inboard and outboard to test ball joints, rocking motion. Top inboard and bottom outboard, back and forth shaking like wheel is stuck on the hub with lugs removed.

 

The "air being released" is likely the brakes resetting to the rotor. Did you compress the calipers to make reinstallation easier?

The steering wheel shaking then getting real rough during braking sounds like you might have knocked a balancing weight off of a wheel when you were working. Otherwise, it could be alignment and shaking during braking usually means warpped rotors.

 

Just a friendly reminder... When you're grabbing that wheel & shaking it every which way, I hope you're not using the tire-changing jack. Make sure the car is solidly supported on jack-stands.

 

Make sure your rotors are on securely and that your lug nuts are torqued properly.

 

thanks for all of the help. i'll have a look at it this wknd and let you know how it goes. thank god i found this website.

 

was this issue present before you did work on the car ?? if it was not,, you need to pay close attention on the work that you did ,, if it was possible warped rotors

 

Vibrates while driving: Wheel(s) out of balance, poor suspension alignment
Shakes steering wheel while braking: Rotors warped or calipers not applying with equal clamp force on both sides.

Rebalance the wheels, set the alignment, and bleed (properly) the brake system. If all done and you still get pulsation through wheel when hitting the brakes, resurface or replace both front rotors.