Greetings everyone,
So I have been reading posts here for a while and finally decided to register and share my situation to get some advice from you guys.
Here’s the deal, it’s a '94 V6 LE, 3.0l 1Mzfe, 220K. Still runs great, but about a year ago I started experiencing quite a bit of looseness in the handling. The steering reacts but the chassis itself feels like it’s floating when you turn the wheel back and forth. No unusual noises of any sort, btw. I shed $600 for repairs by a *recommended* guy who neither fixed it nor gave me my money back. I am not even sure he actually did anything, but I was moving to a different town pretty much the next day so there was no time to deal with it. I brought it in to another *recommended* mechanic and was told that an oil leak had caused the lower control arm bushings to soften up-hence the looseness. $ 1000 he said, to fix it mind you. I decided to postpone fixing it and deal with quickly wearing tires for the time being
My experience with car mechanics has always been bad (those are just two of many) so i started taking matters into my own hands by slowly learning and doing repairs with a manual and good ole internet help. Eventually I got to replacing the control arms and bushings myself. Now don’t get me wrong, they were oily and soft alright but the new ones did NOT make any difference; car was still floating. Another misdiagnosis to add to the list i guess...
I proceeded to replacing other components that I felt could be the culprit, figured most of this stuff should probably be replaced anyway due to the mileage. So after new lower ball joints and new tie rod ends, new tires and alignment still nothing. For a while I thought it might be the steering rack itself but it seems fine, no leaks, pump works alright, and there’s definitely NO delay between the steering and turn response. After further inspection I had my brother slowly drive the car down our quiet street and turn the wheel while I was sitting on the body with the hood open looking down into the steering rack ( I know sounds dangerous but we were barely moving hehe). Then we parked and I had him turn the wheel back and forth so that the tire pressed against the curb. After much observation I eliminated the possibility of the steering rack mounting grommets-no play there. Here’s what I did see though, the rack itself was not moving but the entire subframe was, quite a bit too, I’ll say about 1-1 1/2 of play relative to the chassis.
As far as I am concerned that’s definitely excessive play of the subframe relative to the chassis, which would point to the subframe bushings giving way. Now the manual doesn’t even mention the subframe, much less the bushings, but I can see all 4 of them where the frame is mounted to the chassis plus the central members and cross members providing additional support for the frame. As mentioned there has been a lot of oil there from an old leak so they are probably too soft.
What do you guys think, does that make sense? Is that too much play and could oil have softened the bushings to the point where the subframe is just floating sideways when there's any pressure? I went to the junkyard and inspected a gutted ’96. Removed the subframe to inspect it and see the process as I could find no help online. So time for questions:
Do you guys think from what I have said that my diagnosis makes sense? Should i still look into replacing the steering rack/pinion? I can’t find anyone anywhere selling subframes or bushings, can you point me? Can I replace just the bushings or do I need the whole thing? Is it worth it to pick one up from a junked model to save the bucks considering this is an unusual problem and even a used part should last for a long time? Is there a way to replace the subframe w/o hoisting engine, my feeling is no since all the mounting bolts have to be removed and supporting the engine/tranny from below would make maneuvering the frame out impossible.
Any comments/suggestions greatly appreciated. I also have a bizarre intermittent electrical/transmission problem that no mechanic has been able to diagnose, but that’s a completely different thread
Thanks in advance, peace.
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