Front wheel rocks forward & back.

I noticed the front passenger wheel shake excessively when I remote started my wife's 06 HHR LS 2.2. I then pushed on it with my foot and it can rock forward and back. The drivers side wheel does not. I haven't gotten under it yet to see if I can find where the play is. What specifically should I be looking at? Control arm bushings, balljoints, strut mount, something else??

Dustin

Most likely, to get that amount of play would be control arm bushings or a real bad ball joint.....no noise while driving, especially over bumps?

Thanks for the response Tech II. The only noise is an occasional clunk when I hit a big bump, but it sounds like it comes from the drivers side. I should have time make room in my garage (out of the snow & slush) tomorrow and have my wife shake the wheel while I'm watching. I'll post back what I see.

The clunk noise is probably a worn sway bar link, very common on the HHR. Will you be able to get the front wheels off the ground? Will be much easier to locate the play that way. Even without the noises while driving, you may have a worn out hub bearing also.

It was the control arm bushing. Thanks again for the suggestions. The ball joints were still plenty stiff and I couldn't feel any play in the wheel bearings (grabbed wheel @ 12 & 6 and shook). I pulled the control arms and took them to a buddy's house with a press to swap the bushings. The only problem I had was getting the back of the 1st control arm (new bushing) back in, then I realized that I had the jack stand too close to where the control arm had to go, it was compressing the gap just enough to make things difficult to impossible. Once I jacked it up to get the weight off the jack stand it went in easier, though did still take some convincing with my little 3 lb friend. The rocking and clunk are gone.