as i go over bumpy/uneven roads, my steering wheel moves left and right and the car slightly swerves in the direction of the uneven/bumpy road. it happens sometimes when i approach a stop also. what can cause this? bad toe? unbalanced tires? the fact my car is lowered?(its not even slammed) TIA

 

Alignment most likely

 

anyone else has these symptoms?

 

would toe play a role in this?

 

Camber and toe. Alignment

 

Could be what they call bump steer... Or worst case your rack could be going.

 

this might be related also, when i accelerate the steering wheel spins side to side a little.

 

Sounds to me like your lca bushings are bad and who knows what else is worn out, best thing to do is get the car on a lift or up on jack stands. Shake the front end down, make sure there's no play side to side or up and down and just look around. Then report back

 

i read the term "bump steer" and that matches my symptoms...
the spinning of the steering wheel only happens when im at a stop then accelerate and once i get into higher gears it stops.

i did that many times, and my bushings are brand new urethane. i will report back when i take it to get aligned. thanks for all the feedback everyone.

 

no reporting back yet, but has anyone else have had these problems before?

 

I have had problems with the car pulling when going over bump and dips. Got new tires and alignment which that fixed it. When I traded wheels with my cousin his tires weren't in the best shape and my car started doing it again.

 

Im glad to hear that alignment may cure my problem. how about the steering wheel shaking left and right from accelerating from a stop? anyone suffer from this?

 

anyone have a remedy?

 

It's the fact that your car is lowered. Go to an alignment shop and zero out the toe. Depending on the drop it may be something that's always with the car.

 

check your balljoints . upper control arm has a balljoint and the bottom of the knuckle have one if your car has over 160k you probally need to replace them not a rule of thumb but every car i seen over that has had some sort of issue with balljoints, something to lookinto if u havent already..
edit: also the aboved mentioned get it alligned.

 

thank you all for the responds. so the bump steer can be due to the fact of the toe can be out correct? and the ball joint can be the issue for the steering wheel shaking left and right?

 

that is my understanding, shops have told me inner tie rods can have some sort of negative effect too, or if you have power steering something can get ****ed up idk a lot of people have no clue what their saying a lot of people do not. just start saving up and take care of any thing you can find wrong

 

wide rims riding half or less width on a ridge in the road will cause it.
caster changes from suspension movement will cause it.

 

What kind of car is it? My car used to have the same problems you are describing (96 hatchback). My front end was pretty much used up with 200k miles on the clock, so I ended up replacing my inner and outer tie rods, my upper and lower control arms, and my lower ball joints. I also replaced the rack guide bushing inside my manual steering rack. Then I got an alignment. Another thing I did that really helped a lot was a rack guide adjustment on the steering rack. There is an adjustment nut under the steering rack that you can tighten to take some of the slop out of the rack (if yours is manual). Check into that first, as it's free to try, and then take it to an alignment shop and have them take a look. Find out if you need any of the parts I listed above. If you don't, have them do an alignment. My car was REALLY bad with what you are describing. When tie rods and ball joints start going out, the drive can be rather interesting. Good luck!

 

ur wheel turns when accelerating cause u have torque........mine dose this as well mine also has a slight pull all the time and goes craze over bumps ....just got an alignment ....didn't do anything .....the pull when going I don't think u can change but I'm trying to figure out the pull n bumps it's driving me nuts !! LMK if u find anything out