01 Elantra Swerves when hitting pothole/uneven pavement

[shinman8]

I recently purchased a used 2001 Elantra with 138k miles. When i am on the highway at higher speeds, hitting potholes and/or uneven pavement will make the car swerve. This is a bit unnerving when driving. What could be the problem? And what would be the cost of fixing ?

[stevenkates]

Check your struts, you may have a broken strut, you can check this by going to the front of your car a pressing down on the driver's side front fender, then the passenger's side front fender, when you press down and there's no movement down, then you have a bad strut which needs to be replaced quickly, a good strut when you press down on the fender and release will spring back up into place smoothly. You can replace a strut yourself fairly easily if you have the right tools and some level of mechanical skills, I just replaced one of mine a few weeks ago, I got the replacement strut online for about $53 and it took about an hour or so of time to replace it on the car. There are videos on You-Tube that show you how to do it.

[rprough]

You're first problem is you live in a pothole ridding northern climate. I know, I live in Pa. Replace both struts with a good quality gas strut and have your front wheel bearings checked also.

[Jrs3800]

You also need to look at the lower control arms, these have a tendency to break the rubber bushing causing issues with steering and alignment as well...

If you have a bad strut this could also be part of the problem as well..


These are great little cars, but as the miles add up like say over 100K, I would replace both front struts, and inspect the lower control arm bushings as well as the ball joints... If the ball joint or bushing is done, in some cases its easier to replace the entire lower control arm..