Tonight my car started swaying back and fourth hardcore while doing 50+. I don't really know why, it's scary though, any ideas as to what I should check out to solve this? Thanks.

I'd start by inspecting all steering and suspension components. tie rod ends, ball joints, struts, shocks. in that order. then look into tires, maybe sway bar bushings, etc.

if its really bad sway and it still steers you may have poped loose a ball joint, should be easy to spot if you jack it from the center

First thing I'd check would be tire pressure, then the lugnuts, then I'd jack it up and check the tie-rod ends, ball joints and struts - then I'd check where the front suspension bolts to the underside of the car and make sure nothing came loose (the FS is just bolted to the underside of the pan - 17 or 19mm bolt heads IIRC). I know one thing - I wouldn't drive it again until I figured out and resolved the problem!

Mine had a worn out ball joint and the front wheel went into the death wobble when going around a curve above 45 mph. It was almost too simple to fix. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Mark

Since you live in PA, how is the rust situation on your car? Your rear trailing arm crossmember could have given out due to rust. I drove one home 30 miles like this. They will go along fine, but there is increased sway, particularly when braking.

 

Andy

I jacked it up and everything seemed to be okay, I put some air in my tire(i think my problem) and tightened the bolts up, I think it just seemed really bad because I had around a thousand pounds worth of people in my car. We'll see if something comes up . I'm actually pretty good on rust, surprisingly. Thanks for your input guys.

Swaying how? Was it not holding a straight line for you (steering) or was the car actually rocking side to side on the suspention? Swaying is a bit ambiguous... explain to us what it's really doing?

 

GD

Not rocking, steering itself to the left and then to the right pretty roughly.

Tire pressure, ball joints, tie rod's/ends, struts. Check all those. You'll probably find that each of them played a part in the car's overall poor handling. It's just old.

 

GD

My guess would be the extra weight.

I used to get all the guys in the car for golf games and it was a heavy load. My 88 Wagon would slosh around the road quite badly. Almost as though the tires were going flat.

 

Hope that's all it was!

 

Marko