I have overhauled the suspension on my 96 hatchback over the last year with new shocks, upper and lower control arms, new lower balljoints, inner and outer tie rods, and a new steering rack bushing. I have also had an alignment and have new tires. Unfortunately, my car still doesn't feel quite right. The steering response is not as crisp as it should be and the car still feels a bit 'squirrely' at highway speeds. The only bushings I have not replaced yet are the compliance bushings. I'm pretty sure with 230k miles, they should be replaced. My question is would these bushings being bad cause the problems I am experiencing? There's nothing else I can think to replace other than the steering rack itself, and I've had the car realigned twice with no difference in performance. So what's the story on these bushings? Should I replace them? Will they make that much difference? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

You say the front LCA compliance bushings are the only things left to replace, but you didn't mention replacing any of the other bushings. Did you get brand new OEM front LCA's with new bushings installed in them already? Maybe you need to do the rack guide adjustment, there's a writeup around here somewhere.

 

How is your caster?

Maybe bent subframe, would explain the lame steering response.

 

Yes, I have all new upper and lower control arms with the new bushings already in there. I have tried to do a rack guide adjustment more times than I care to mention, and that hasn't helped much at all. This car has never been wrecked and I've had it for 9 years now. This problem just started showing up last year. Could the actual rack be bad? I have already replaced the rack end bushing and that helped a little. This is driving me insane.