Steering Rack may be loose?

[ice745]

I had front suspension done; got the car back and the car would wander a little bit. They said it was the steering rack, and replaced that. It fixed the problem for a while. Now as I turn the wheel sometimes I hear a loud thud from under the car. When this happens the alignment will change a little.

An example is during a turn THUD! Then the car started pulling outside the turn and I had to steer more to correct.

I'm going to see if I can tighten the rack mounting bolts if I can find them without having to take anything off. I'm a lot more an electrical mind than mechanical, but I can handle basic stuff. Is there anything else I should look for?

Edit: It's a 94 Camry, forgot to mention. And I just layed under the car while it was on and reached up and turned the wheel (probably wasn't safe) but as I got to the end turning right I watched the Rack bounce about 1/2 an inch (and thus heard the thud). I'm gonna take it back to the garage that "put" the rack in. Is this definitely mounting bolts? This way I can tell them exactly what's what; so they don't try to pull one on me.

[RIP]

Hard to say it's anything but a loose bolt based on your desciption. I wonder if the threads were striped and they didn't bother installing a heli coil to fix it. They probably need to reaccomplish the alignment too.

[ice745]

Thanks for the answer. I'm thinking the bolts are loose too. I couldn't really get at them cuz the stabilizer bar is in the way. I could fit a box wrench in there enough to check them; and I was able to turn the driver's side bolt about 5 degrees (with one hand). I didn't want to keep doing that myself, because it's supposed to go to 134 foot pounds, and I'd likely slip and round the head of the bolt. But I'm assuming since I could turn it 1 handed with only a box wrench, that it's probably not 134 foot pounds. I'm taking it to the shop soon, I'll let you know what they say, and if it fixes it.

The garage called me: I knew the rear suspension was bad, but I didn't think it was this bad. Apparently all the oil leaked out of the right rear strut; and it needs new swar bar links in the front and rear. I think the sway bars themselves were fine, I forgot what he said exactly. They didn't say anything about the steering rack bolts (but they're the ones that put it in, so they probably tightened them and didn't tell me "oh ya, last time we didn't do it right") Hopefully this will take care of all my problems.