car moves right when stopping

junior19

New Member
Nov 27, 2007
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i have a 95 v6 auto and i've had this problem for a while. every time i come to a stop my steering wheel shakes then the car starts shaking and pulling to the right. i thought i was the the brakes so i replaced every thing. i bled the brakes just to be sure. it still continued so i decided to change my tires because they all had different depth went from a yokohama to generals and still nothing. i even took it to another shop to have them rebalanced but sadly nothing changed.
 
New brakes? Did you replace the rotors also? Does any of the front rotors , primarily the right side, look discolored or real shiny, almost like a mirror? Unless you replaced the calipers (which sounds like you did from the bleeding) then you may have a sticking caliper prematurely wearing the rotor surface and warping it all over again.

I also would highly suspect the inner tie-rod on that side. The tie-rod inner ball joint might be worn from hitting bumps excessively. I had this problem. Not the actual ball joint on the control arm, but the joint on the inner tie-rod where it connects to the steering rack. What will happen is the joint on mine had prematurely worn from me hitting speed bumps at my work everyday. Instead of stiffly moving up/down/left/right, the whole tie-rod just fell down limp. And there was so much freeplay in it. It moved in and out by an eigth of an inch (BAD) . So, my steering had tremendous slop, often trying to steer itself and hitting the brakes often caused it to pull to the right and shudder.

Do a simple test. Jack the front of your car up, put the key in and turn it so the wheel is unlocked, but dont start it. Now grab each tire from the left and right sides and move the wheels like you were steering them. It should move in and out without any clunks or clicking noises. It should be rather stiff and no loose spots in the turn should not be present. Absolutely NO freeplay should be present. If one of the wheels has freeplay then either the inner tie-rod joint or the outer tie-rod is worn. I would check this before anything else.

There's also a possibility that the strut is blown out on that side. Excessive vibrations and some pulling may be observed if the suspension system isn't balanced out. Do the push test, go to that side of your car and push down hard. Try to make it bounce. It should not move up and down more than twice. Stopping at the end of the second spring back. And the movement should be quick but soft (like something is trying to resist the movement ....the strut ..duh :p )
 
i have a 95 v6 auto and i've had this problem for a while. every time i come to a stop my steering wheel shakes then the car starts shaking and pulling to the right. i thought i was the the brakes so i replaced every thing. i bled the brakes just to be sure. it still continued so i decided to change my tires because they all had different depth went from a yokohama to generals and still nothing. i even took it to another shop to have them rebalanced but sadly nothing changed.

I had this same problem on my wifes '08 Escape. The RF caliper was not fully releasing. Found that Ford has had many models with this problem. I replaced the caliper and machined the rotor. Problem disappeared and it behaves very well.

My daughter has a '00 Taurus that exibits the same exact thing on the RF. Has for years. It gets 2 new front calipers and rotor re-surfacing tomorrow.

It's odd. Running around on the surface streets, it's fine. If you travel on the highway for some distance the rotor gets hot. It kinda feels like a slight tire inbalance. But when you get off an exit and touch the pedal to brake, the steering wheel shakes and it beats the hell out of ya!

GT
 
potholes..sounds like Michigan. I can almost bet its a bad inner tie-rod. Those will KILL tie rod joints in no time flat! If you've been hitting them often, then most likely. These steering racks dont take kindly to heavy bump hitting, unless you upgraded the struts to better absorb the shock. I replaced my struts in 01 and now it looks like I'll be doing it again. They've seen better days, thats for sure.

As for the rotors, The new ones are most likely fine. I've never once had a bad new rotor, and I've replaced them 3 times ( I never turn my old ones). Probably 4 times thinking old ones were bad once from some other vibrating problem (like you)