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Hi,
just registered to this board, in hoping to find help to solve a really weird problem...
Sometimes when accellerating or slowing down I feel a sight hit in the steering wheel, accompanied by a clacking noise. Taking the car up on a lift it becomes obvious that the steering linkage is sometimes touching the car's frame.
I can not really explain how this can even happen to myself. The car got an alignment some days ago so a slight steering geometry change is to be expected...
The frame consists of two layers of steel, one slightly larger than the other. The "Roadkill" solution would be to take an angle grinder and simply cut the longer layer down to match the shorter one. But I would rather find a "real!" fix...
Last edited by Dr_Grip (May 31, 2017 2:17 pm)
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It wasn't designed to hit the frame, so what changed? It doesn't look like there were any new parts installed, so maybe the new contact condition is the result of worn parts getting too close after being adjusted during the alignment. I wonder about tolerances from a series parts stacking up enough to create the condition. If it happens under acceleration and under braking then it could be in the suspension. Under acceleration the front lifts, load comes off the suspension, and under braking the front dives, increasing load on the front suspension. If the control arm bushings are worn they will move under changes in loading conditions and the spindles will move and the connected steering linkages, etc. At least all the oil and grime on the parts will tell you where it is making contact.
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I replaced the control arm and stabilizer bar bushings before the alignment. The tension rod bushings are still unchanged, possibly even factory-installed, but look fine to me:
But yeah, the thick layer of anti-corrosive agent gives a good indication of where contact happens.
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Yes, anti-corrosion coating is great name for it!
I'd agree that the strut rod bushings should be fine. With new bushings in the control arms you'd expect there to not be any lateral, or fore-aft, movement in those areas. I'll assume the tie rod ends and drag link and pitman arm were checked. If everything is tight and the interference continues, then clearancing the cross member would seem like a reasonable and prudent way to prevent the steering linkage for contacting the cross member. Remove as little material as necessary, over a wide area, to keep it looking as if it had never been touched. After some anti-corrosion coating builds up no one will ever know.
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Thank you for your reply. I'll probably won't use an angle grinder but try to make some more room with a hammer, in the name of removing as little material as possible.
Also, she's a California car and came to me with a completely dry and lightly surface rusted frame, so I actually had her sprayed with sticky, deep-creep oily coating to protect her from water and road salt.
See this partly and badly translated website:
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I'd use an angle grinder, a hammer would leave unusual marks and I'd be concerned about being able to hit it hard enough without taking the engine and steering linkages out. A good flap disk, and maybe finish with a finer grit, and you should have nice clean, smooth surface, which should be better looking than hammer dimples. The cross member steel is pretty hard stuff and it should take some mighty swings to move the material, and then it would only bend and fold and look like it was hammered. I'd say the grinder will be the simplest, easiest and least obvious method.
My engine bay had plenty of anti-corrosion coating from many decades of road grime and an engine that eventually leaked from just about every place possible to leak from. The steel looked great when I could get in there and clean all the protective layer off. LOL
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