It's been like this a while (a couple of months) but lately it has gotten worse. I was on the highway earlier tonight and when I centered my steering wheel and let go it pulled left pretty quickly. Ok I thought i'll just turn the wheel a little more to the right and see if it goes straight. NO GO. It started to pull a hard right :fawk:. No matter how many times I centered my wheel and let go it went both left and right. On flat roads! It has never been this bad before. 15k miles ago I replaced simple things like inner and outer tie rods, upper control arms (Need to replace these again! Damn cheap parts!) and I had new tires put on at the same time. I'm thinking maybe the steering rack is going bad? I know my power steering pump is loosing fluid and is loud as hell but I have never let it go low (I always top it off). Could that be what's causing this? I also know my lower ball joints need to be replaced as well but I don't think them being bad would cause erratic steering of this magnitude. I don't know much and am a semi-noob so please help point me in the right directions guys!
One last thing... what are symptoms of a steering rack gone bad?

 

I wouldn't drive it until you get whatever it is fixed; you're going to hurt somebody if the part breaks. I'm not sure what the signs are for a bad steering rack, but I would check your rods.

 

Maybe alignment, than swap in a new or rebuilt powersteering pump. I bought mine for 50 bucks plus core.

 

Take it to a shop so they can diagnose it for you.

 

Bad ball joints can cause the wheel camber to "sit funny". Additionally, bad tie rods or alignment will cause the tires to not track straight. The result is that the tire push against each other (left and right). So, if the road changes pitch and more weight goes on one wheel, it the car will follow that wheel. Now when the pitch changes, or wind, etc - then the car follows the other wheel.

The likely problem is a bad or damaged alignment, but it cannot really be fixed until the basic players (ball joints, tie rods, steering rack, etc) are tight and don't wander. Without those items, an alignment is just throwing money away.

 

Oh - while they have all that crap apart - change the struts if they are bad. It can be done trivially while lower ball joints are off.

 

shocks are like, the easiest thing to do on a car, no sense in replacing them if they don't need it.

but did you get an alignment when you replaced all those parts in the first place? and if you did, and haven't done an alignment in 15,000 miles, i'd suggest getting one.

 

OP, when it ends up being your tie rods, go with a sturdier set. Do you do any road racing, on or off the street? If so, your quick steering is bending your tie rods.