Pulsating steering

Darren Calbero DarrenC at ampartners.com
Sun Oct 28 19:31:44 CDT 2007


My '91 SE-R hit finally hit 200k miles last week.  As a celebratory gift, the steering began heavily pulsating to the right 200 miles later (Friday night).  I believe it started when I had to brake a bit hard on the freeway from about 60 to 10 and in the process experienced what I first thought was a gust of hard wind blowing from the rear of my car (the car shuddered).  Pulsating at the steering wheel began as I exited the freeway and slowed down to a near stop.  I pulled into a nearby shopping mall and checked what I thought may be a flat tire.  This was not the case and I proceeded home, a mile away.  The pulsating appeared primarily when I was turning left or slowing down.  When I got home, I checked the car and found the following problems:  driver side tie rod end boot blown;  driver side ball joint boot blown;  passanger side outer CV boot blown;  boots on stearing rack torn.  I checked the bolts on the struts and they were nice and tight.  All other connections seemed good.  Tires looked good with no feathering or blisters (thank God because this is my last set of 15" S-03s).  I test drove the car today to see what may be the problem.  The pulsating did not occure right away, in fact I needed to drive at least a 1/2 mile for it to start.  My thought was that it needed to warm up to start before things began to happen.  My neighbor did a visual check as I drove by and said that the passenger side wheel seems to slightly toe in and out.  I considered the power stearing and checked the fluid level and found it was ok (boots have been torn for years and my tectom has long indicated that the P/S switch is off anyway).  The pulsating seems to be coming from the right side which leeds me to believe that this a seriously failed CV joint.  I ordered a replacement half shaft through PartsAmerica/CSK and it should be arriving on the 31st.  Cheap I know but they do have a lifetime replacement warranty which means this is a free part.
 
Any thoughts of what it may be other than what I think and pray it is?
 
TIA,
DC


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