Quote:
Originally Posted by BoSDunfor
I keep forgetting to ask but can the suspension throw everything off too? Because I know my front left shock is blown. Its sitting all crooked and it bounces pretty weird lol.
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Yes, the suspension being blown/half destroyed/generally derped can throw everything out of whack. Basically, most of what you feel
through the car, especially the steering wheel and drivers seat is because of the suspension (ignoring any motor vibrations).
When you've got a blown shock or two, then that corner of the car won't be handling loads correctly, meaning that the car will respond like that corner is significantly 'different' than the others. Depending on how bad it is, and what exactly is going on, this could make the car seem like it's got one 'light corner' or one 'heavy corner' - almost as if the frame were twisted in such a way that would cause this... It also doesn't help that you've got undampened motion in the suspension which can/will exaggerate the feeling of any dynamic alignment changes.
It's also worth noting that our cars do have a pretty significant bit of flex from the factory, and it only seems to increase with mileage. When you've got suspension problems - especially anything that can cause one end of the car to 'droop' or 'sag', the chassis can/will twist a bit. I know that both my S13 and S14 will twist noticeably when one of the front tires is loaded up more than the other (like when going up an inclined parking lot from a flat road) and it feels weird as all hell.
So yeah, start digging into stuff, check your bushings, springs, struts, ball joints, etc. Anything that is obviously worn could be contributing to the problem - but if replacing the wear items doesn't fix your problem, then you might have a bent subframe or other chassis member like someone mentioned about. (Odds are, you're going to need to pull the subframe at one point or another to change the bushings, so check it for bends/cracks prior to replacing stuff)