Ive been pretty good at doing all the work myself my downfall is diagnosing the problem..

My front driver side wheel has TONS of play in it. i can rock it up and down back and forth. I was thinking its gonna be the LCA Bushings. THis is just a guess.. how can I confirm it? and the play is so bad that when driving on the highway like this for about a week it has cause my rotor to get gouged pretttty bad.

Also is it even worth it to replace just the bushings or do the whole LCA IF that is whats wrong.

 

if the rotor has play in it in relation to the brake pads then your wheel bearings need attention. Or you have to tighten your axle nut.

it all depends on what wiggles and what doesn't.
pay special attention to the brakes, knuckle (the between the balljoints), the LCA and UCA.

 

The axle nut was loose but it has since been tightened..

what can i start checking to rule things out?

 

if it was loose and was tightened, check it again. the bearing can squrm loose, if the nut is tightened it will seem tight ut as the bearing squirms back into palce it will be loose again. It took four times to get the bearing on a friends car to get it to stay tight.

jack car up, wiggle tire, note which things move and which things don't.
the place that connects the thing that wiggles to the place that doesn't is the issue.
sorry I can't be more specific that that, it would be a small novel of typing to walk through every single thing that could be doing this.
If you can't tell what is causing it, post back and here with what willgles and what doesn't and I'm sure we can get it narrowed down quickly.

 

Thanks I will check it out tomorrow.. Hopefully my wheel doesnt come off too and from work

 

If it wiggles left to right it can be either the wheel bearing or axle is loose or your inner or outer tie-rod ends are worn and need replacing. If it has in out play (hold the wheel with one hand on top and one hand on the bottom and push the top in while pulling the bottom out and vice versa if theres play then its your wheel bearing.

 

The axle nut was definately loose again. I tightened it. drove around for a bit and it was much better sound wise.. sound is still there but much better. gonna drive around for a bit more then see if i can tighten it again. there is quite a fair amount of play. I think ill swap the axle when im bored.

and there is play in all 4 directions