clunking brakes?

[tastyratz]

ok so ive been driving on the highway and noticed steering wheel shake alot. its very intermittent cuz sometimes i brake and its fine but sometimes my wheel moves up to an inch and its kinda scary like a wheels gonna fall off or something. the thing ive really been noticing however is when i engage the brakes (you can hear it more going slower) my car makes a loud clunking sound from the front end. like im not talking low im talking loud and it sounds like something is really smacking hard, almost like im taking a lead p ipe and hitting my brakes with it. it also makes the same sound when i disengage the breaks however. if i engage and disengage but move my foot faster it gets louder. the car was pulling slightly to the left earlier but its not now and if i slam on the brakes it stays straight all the way to stop and brakes fine. id had a feeling that maybe one of my brake pads feel off but i dunno it dont really seem to make sense, if a pad fell off id hear grinding against the rotor and have a significant pull. the sound scares me enough to not drive my car however and im gonna take apart my brakes today but i wanted to know if you guys had any ideas...

[s0ldats]

check your t/c rods and rear subframe bushings. also, diff mounts. (but not usually the case)

does your car clunk on jerky acceleration too?

[tastyratz]

no it doesnt. i have pillowball tc rods but one of the bolts holding it in is slightly smaller than the bolt is supposed to be, do you think that could be it? unfortuanately this car is an auto for right now :-( so it even does it when im coming from a stop and let off the brakes hard, the thing is its not like im really moving much or jerking or anything

edit: i forgot to mention ive been driving on that same bolt for almost a month now id say in lately is when it started really acting up.

[papershot]

check to see if your rotors are warped.

you might want to get the correct bolt too..

[tastyratz]

one of them is slightly warped but not enough to cause something like this! its pretty bad...

[_JDMU]

Check to see if the caliper bolt is broken. I had a simalar problem and it was the caliper bolt.

[thx247]

Sliding pin on caliper stuck? Wrong size bolt on the TC rod could lead to interesting tire wear and braking performance...