Torque Steer and other various noises!

Greetings! I've been getting terrible torque steer on acceleration and a vibration when depressing the brakes at first. Vibration goes away when you bite into it and the car drives straight when cruising but I'm stumped! Last year before I put my 98 (White Riv) with 200k on it away, I did the struts, ball joints, bearings, tie rod ends and half shalfts along with new pads rotors and alignment. I've had a clank in the front end when making a right and putting a load on it for quite some time and have had the subframe removed and the entire front end ripped apart looking for this and have found nothing. . I changed motor mounts and kept looking. All I found was my sway bar jammed up against my downpipe. I made reference to my green car and it was spaced properly with stock links. The White car had stock links as well but needed 2 1/2 inch spacers to push it back to normal. No breaks or anything visible on the sway bar. The only thing I haven't replaced down there is a new rack. Could it be that the rack is clunking this bad, causing torque steer and a slight vibration when first braking?
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

A bad rack won't cause torque steer, and would more than likely clunk 3-4 times during an entire steering sweep, not just once when you hit the "stop".

You had the cradle removed? Did you replace all the bushings while you were in there? Did all the cradle bolts go back in all the way?

I see that you didn't mention Lower Control Arms....you had the BJ's replaced, but on the old Control Arms? At 200k, it's MORE than possible that the bushings are shot. I replaced mine at ~160k, and I'm glad I did. It tightened up the whole front end.

I don't see an LCA bushing really causing torque steer though, unless one of the LCA's is moving enough to point one of the tires in the wrong direction on accel. During initial braking, the LCA wants to move backwards towards the center of the car, and absolutely cause a vibration that will "go away".

I'd have another look....

Ok Had control arms replaced and now mass shaking upon acceleration especially when turning right. My mechanic and I are both stumped. He said he would warranty the half shalfts but why weren't they doing this before the control arms were put in? Things that make you go hmmmm. Your thoughts were much appreciated!

fighting same problem... replaced cradle bushings new struts, new control arms, bushings on the sway bar new cv shafts bad torque steer to the right on acceleration and horrible vibration starts at 65mph. The vibration on the highway has always been there since I got the car and it feels like it changes sides and starts and stops randomly, It does this in or out of gear. I had to hood up today and I notice the passenger side motor mount looks fine but I can take a large screw driver and jam it between the motor mount bushing and bracket I can then move the motor forward and back fairly easy. But some times when driving at say 35mph I get a wobble on the driver side like its out of alignment or its a bad tierod Iv had the damn thing up on jack stands supported under the control arms and steering all seems pretty tight. I'm going to dance a jig when I solve this problem. It has to be that passenger side motor mount or the rack and the inner outer tie rods or a combination of both.

I went out and started the problem child and had a listen to it while rotating the steering wheel in the drive way I can hear a slight clunking sound from drivers side so Im hoping its just the inner tie rods. ill replace the inners and outers and see where that gets me.

sloshua wrote:

I went out and started the problem child and had a listen to it while rotating the steering wheel in the drive way I can hear a slight clunking sound from drivers side so Im hoping its just the inner tie rods. ill replace the inners and outers and see where that gets me.

I highly doubt that a tie rod is causing this clunk of yours. Have somebody else turn the wheel while you inspect.....unless you plan on replacing it all for no reason. Just grab the tie rod while the other person is turning the wheel. IF it knocks in your hand, figure out if its the inner or outer, THEN replace it.

A bad tie rod isn't going to cause a horrendous vibration on the freeway unless its horrendously loose to the point of leaving you stranded.

Btw, you're fighting something many of us have (aside from the torque steer). Some days its ok, some days its not. mine is worse with my factory wheels/tires on. When I put my 17"'s on, it pretty much all goes away.

EDIT: There's an "updated" PROM on the '95's that relates to a vibration above 37mph. Something to do with the transmission. No clue if it's even available anymore.

There's also a bulletin for '95 regarding a "popping/clunking" noise when turning the steering wheel while not moving. The strut jounce bumper slip/sticks against the strut rod making an audible pop. Just sayin.....

We're going to swap out the half shaft on the right side and see where that goes. Should be done by tomorrow and will update