tankrat29

My truck has 210K on it and has a rather odd suspension/drivetrain problem right now. When I take off from a stoplight the truck wanders to the left severely, to the point that I have to correct with the steering to stay in my lane. Here's the parts list so far, everything that was replaced was due to a previous owner having a snow plow on the truck (why would you do that to a 1/2 ton?) All this was done less than 5K ago.

Front suspension/steering:

-shocks

-upper & lower control arm bushings

-upper & lower ball joints

-inner & outer tie rod ends

-both half shafts

-sway bar bushings & end links

-brake pads & rotors

The rear shocks were just replaced as well (they had no rebound at all) and I'm not seeing any evidence of anything (front or rear) in the suspension moving but yet the problem persists! The only thing I haven't replaced yet (it's on my list) is the idler arm, it has a little play in it but I don't think it's enough that it would be causing this drastic of a problem. In addition to the wander at stoplights the truck turns normally when making right hand corners in town but when I take a left turn while accelerating thru the turn it feels as if I have 4-wheel steering! I can actually feel the back end of the truck swinging out during the corner. I don't know if it's related or not but at speeds of less than 20mph the truck kind of 'surges', almost like when you have a warped rotor and you gently apply the brakes only I know my rotors are true and the calipers aren't dragging or anything like that, it feels like it's coming from the right front but everything feels/turns/spins normally. A couple times when I back into my parking spot at work or in my driveway something 'locks up', again feels like the right front, to the point that when I go to drive forward the next time I get in it I put it in drive and the truck just sits there, I have to tap the gas to get it to 'break loose' whatever is catching. This is driving me nuts! There's no evidence of movement on anything that shouldn't move but something's obviously wrong! Help!

I've got a 1997 Chevy K1500 Z-71 with the "R" VIN Vortec 350 and I'm getting a P0306 code (cylinder #6 misfire) and it's definitely not a false code, the spark plug had serious carbon build up when I pulled it. All plugs and wires were replaced about 6 months ago, #6 wire Ohms tested within 0.020 of the other 3 wires on that bank. I swapped the plug with #2, cleared the code and ran the engine, CEL came on again with same code. Pulled cap and rotor, normal wear and build up so I replaced both. Cleared codes, ran motor, CEL with P0306 again. Performed compression test on all cylinders, #1 - 184, #2 - 195, #3 - 190, #4 - 180, #5 - 180, #6 - 175, #7 - 178, #8 - 180. All within normal range and all close enough to each other to not cause any concern. I'm running out of ideas and things to check. Anybody got any other ideas? The engine has 204K on it, leaks a little oil but doesn't burn any and until about a month ago ran like a champ!

I bought a '97 Chevy K1500 last winter knowing that it needed some front end work, I'm pretty sure whoever had it before me had a snowplow on it and all the bushings, ball joints & tie rod ends were tore up. I replaced all the bushings in the upper and lower control arms as well as the sway bar ones with poly bushings. I also replaced the upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends and shocks. Everything went together nicely, I torqued everything according to the book (some torque values seemed a little high) and set the torsion bars back to where they were when I took everything apart. Went to take it for a test drive and now I'm a little confused. It rides horribly rough, like it's not using the shocks at all, every little bump makes the front end bounce bad. At first I thought maybe the previous owner had cranked up the tension on the torsion bars to help compensate for the weight of the plow so I backed them off 3 turns and drove it, it made a little difference but barely enough to be noticeable so I backed them off another 4 turns (there's only about 2 turns left before they're completely backed off) and it got only marginally better. Has anyone had this happen to them before? Is it because the poly bushings are that much harder than the regular rubber ones? Is it something that will get better after I "break" everything in? Any help would be appreciated.

My friend has a 2002 325i that is acting up. When he went to accelerate from a stop the car sputtered and died. He noticed a strange smell, like burning fluid, so he popped the hood. The smell was very strong but there was no smoke or steam. All fluid levels were normal. Tried restarting it but it wouldn't crank. Replaced the battery and it still won't crank. When he turns the key you can hear the starter engage and see the engine move very, very slowly (after 5+ seconds the top pulley moves maybe an 1/8th of a turn). Any help would be greatly appreciated as we live in ND and the nearest BMW repair shop is a 5 hour drive! Thanks!

~Lucas