Recently I started noticing my car feeling a bit loose sometimes as I go over bumps. It's most evident when I change lanes and go over the markers in the road where, occasionally, the car feels like it wants to slide the front end in one direction. The effect is pretty subtle, and it doesn't seem to affect cornering but I'm wondering what the issue is.

I've checked the droplinks (swaylinks) and they appear to be fine and snug and I did a cursory glance at the rest of the internals (wheels on, so it wasn't that thorough) and they seemed ok.

I'll probably try checking for play in the wheels (to check the tie rods) over the weekend. And if none of that works, maybe try getting an alignment. The suspension is bone stock. Any other ideas of what it might be or what I should check?

 

Not to insult your knowledge or experience, but did you check drop link with both front tires off the ground? If you check with only one off the ground you will never see bad droplinks because the swaybar keeps the links loaded. Also, with the front on jack stands put a socket and breaker bar on the front drive shaft nut in the hub. Carefully load the suspension at 12,2,4,6,8 and 10 o'clock by using breaker bar by pushing breaker bar towards the car. This loads the control arms and tie rods in a way you can't always duplicate by rocking a wheel by hand. You don't have to put a ton of force on the breaker bar to duplicate this. You may risk knocking the car off the stands. Any worn out bushing should be felt and can be seen while loading in this way. The different positions you load will help identify which component is in need of attention.

 

VAGscum, You're totally not insulting my knowledge or experience. As far as both go, i have very little! I've just recently gotten into fixing and messing with cars so I'm a noob just figuring things out as i go along. Thanks so much for the pointers.

You're indeed right that I didn't properly check the drop links. Would bad droplinks just be overly loose and not taut? I imagine they'd be strained and basically get elongated.

Thanks for the advice on checking the control arms and tie rods. I'm doubtful it's a tie rod or bushing (the car only has 25k miles, though it's 10 years old, that still seams a bit young for those to go), but better safe than sorry. Incidentally, I just ordered an x73 suspension kit, so if it isn't one of those, i may forgo the alignment til after I install the new kit.

Again, major thanks for the pointers man!

 

No worries.The bushings will become elongated and have been know to cause a clunk sometimes. What end of the car feels loose? Front or back?But the loading of the sway on the compressed suspension on the ground will often times load the drop link against the force of the extended suspension that is in the air. This makes the movement of the link almost impossible to diagnose.

 

That's good to know. It's the front suspension. Basically, sometimes I feel like there's a mild loss of traction as i hit a small bump (usually a lane marker) and the front feels like it slides a bit. It stands to reason (for me, at least) that a slightly elongated droplink might cause this. Under load (eg in a tight turn), this would be less apparent because it would still transfer large amounts of load, just not small ones... I'm just guessing here. I'll definitely check this this weekend.

Thanks again!

 

the bushings also can tear and just become loose too. So It may not be something visible until moved.