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Greetings from Virginia!
With the help of the posts and videos in this forum, I changed out the sway bar bushings in my 1997 XK8 convertible this morning. I had serious clunks and the occasional metal on metal noise prior to this. Now, she’s handling every bump beautifully with no noise...BUT... now she’s pulling every slightly to the right. Can a wheel alignment be needed after changing out these bushings?
Looking forward to your collective wisdom and thanking you all in advance
Vibration and pulling? Sounds more like you've been accosted by a pothole or a curb, and that an alignment plus wheel balancing may be in order. Knowing that my barn-find XK8 would be requiring a lot of suspension parts replaced as I restored it, and, that I would not be replacing them all at once, I bought 5 years worth of unlimited alignments from my local Pep Boys. With their coupon, it was very inexpensive and has proven a wise investment.
Do check tire pressure, tho. Low pressure alone can cause the pulling to one side... For 18" rims, it should be 26 psi front, 28 psi rear.
Doc, no I can't think of a way your changes cpuld do this. It'll change the feel for sure though. Wonder if that could be part of it? Nick I wish I could point to something for you.
One thing puzzles me. Of all the treads I’ve read, one said to tighten the brackets holding the bushings with the car off the jackstands. So it installed them, tightened the bolts slightly, lowered the car so the full weight was on the wheels, then tightened them fully.
Think I should have tightened it all with the car in the air?
I'm sure you would have mentioned hitting something had it been relevant. Replacing worn stabilizer bushings, links, and/or other suspension parts usually cures issues, not cause them. The worn stabilizer parts themselves wouldn't induce vibration or pulling, but replacing those worn parts may well have stopped the masking of the issues you're now reporting, which would allow for the pulling and vibration to become more noticeable. Age of the tires is not given in this thread, but age alone could account for both issues, as could over-inflation of one or more tires. There could well be other worn suspension parts contributing. You could possibly have internal tread separation from a defective (or damaged) tire. Also, roads and streets are often "crowned" when made so as to help with rain water runoff, and guaranteeing that a car will try to drift to one side or the other. If you haven't done so, you might test drive it on a large vacant parking lot, which are usually flatter than streets/roads.
Morning folks
So I decided to crawl under the car to have another look. Yesterday I loosened the lugnuts on both front tires only removing the drivers side tire during the sway bar replacement. Guess who never tightened the passenger side lugnuts when the job was all said and done? They were finger tight. Problem resolved!
i swear I’m better with spines than I am with mechanics...I really am...cross my heart and hope to die (which I was close to doing).
Nick, 95% of us are smiling to ourselves thinking of one or two of our own mistakes. We've all done it before one way or another.
I respect the hell out of you for the follow up. Sometimes I wonder if folks abandon posts that we've put time in to help with because it wound up being operator error or a super simple fix.
Thanks again for the follow up. Itll help someone out down the road .
Thanks John. Last night I was wondering weather I tightened the bolts because the ride felt eerily similar to the time I forgot to do it a couple months back 🙄.
Wow, usually when someone forgets to tighten their lug nuts after a tire rotation or wheel well repair and they wind up driving the vehicle with loose lug nuts and therefore put their life in danger, they never make that mistake again. I admit that I am a member of that club. It happened to me back in the late 1970s when I was rushing to finish a tire rotation before darkness set in. I was very fortunate, quickly realized my error, and have not made that mistake since (knocking on wood as I type)....
Here is a sure-fire tip to keep that dangerous situation from ever happening to you again: After you loosen/remove your lug nuts, place your lug wrench on top of an old towel squarely in the middle of your vehicle's drivers seat. You cannot drive the car again without removing your lug wrench, and that will clue you to tighten all of your lug nuts before you stow your lug wrench away where it belongs....
Good catch! Glad to know it happens to someone besides me, but it's one of things that truly do happen to you sooner or later (but hopefully only once).
Sway bar bushings
