Friends:

Will you please give me your thoughts on a steering problem I'm having?

My 1990 Brougham Limousine has 168,000 miles on it and has always handled very well.

Last week I took the car into my mechanic, who is a reputable guy, and he recommended a lot of repairs to the front end, which I authorized and he completed.

When I dropped the car off, it drove very well. When I picked up the car, it now absolutely drives all over the road and is borderline dangerous. The car driftsfand floats in the lane, the wheel doesn't want to return to center, the car serpentines down the road, I have the fight the wheel, etc. The car is an absolute nightmare to drive now. One very noticeable symptom now that is much different than when I dropped the car off is the steering is very, very stiff. Much stiffer than before. I wrote that off to new parts, etc. but I think that issue is at the heart of the problem. The car also as a wicked shimmy at about 64 mph, but mellow at at higher and lower speeds.

When I took the car in, I knew that the steering dampner was shot so that was on the top of the list of things to replace. When I picked up the car and found out that it drove like hell, I looked under the car and didn't see a dampner in place. So I took the car back and the guys said "oops" and put a new dampner on. I thought that would fix the problem but not even close.

Here's what my mechanic did to the car:

1. New rear air shocks;
2. Replaced right ball joint;
3. Replaced idler arm;
4. Replaced center link;
5. Replaced gear box;
6. Replaced steering dampner.
7. Wheel balance and rotation
8. Alignment.

He also noticed that one of the front wheels was bent but he said he was able to balance the wheel and he moved it to the rear.

So the way I left it with my mechanic was that I would drive the car for awhile to see if there was possibly a "break in" period for all of the new frotn end parts, and then bring the car back for more troubleshooting. I think we were both hoping that the problem would just fix itself. No dice. The problem is worse than ever.

In doing some research, I'm guessing that my problem is in the new gearbox. So that's probably what I'll have my mechanic replace first. Maybe it was faulty right out of the box or maladjusted or something?

But I'm not sure how that gearbox problem would relate to the wicked shimmy problem.

Maybe I have two independent problems. The gearbox and something else causing the shimmy.

Thank you for your thoughts on this. I want to be able to have an intelligent conversation with my mechanic. He is committed to making this right, but I'm not sure he knows whatw the problem is.

Dan.

 

Dan,
The only thing I can see that might cause those issues would be the Ball Joint but the alignment should fix it. Hard to believe that a shop would give the car back in those condition? Have you taken it back for him to fix the issues?

Now I had a stiff steering and it turn out to be the rack have you looked into that yet?

 

Thank you for the reply.

It looks like the issue causing the wild steering is the gearbox, which was installed new but defective. it was way too tight and cant' be adjusted. We're changing it out. Probably defective right out of the box.

As for the wicked shimmy at about 60 mph, it look like that's gonna be the upper control arm bushings. Changing those out too.

Let's see if that fixes it.

 

I just cannot get my head around the fact that the mechanic didn't take the car for a test drive after the repairs, He would have seen the problem right away and a red flag should have went up then, thats a puzzler.

 

I know my 90 Deville has a Rack and I had to bleed when I replaced it maybe he forgot to bleed? If he did not take it for a simple test drive after he might have just replaced and not bleed. As for the ball joint why did he not see that at first?

I would stay away from that guy and go else where...

 

Usually they are attached to the side if someone installed a fabric top or some attach it to the fender or door right under Cadillac. We have a guy at our shop that installs the rag tops & installs whatever emblems they want attached to it.
Bellaplex