89 lesabre making clunking noise in front end

[crarchu]

hi, i am new to this site and i was wondoring if you guys could help. i bought my car a little over a year ago and i noticed after making a sharp turn left or right i would hear a clunking and after going straight about half block the the steering would jerk and you can see the steering wheel move to different position and stay there and no problems until you turn again. also did going down interstate and taking a curve it would jerk.i thought it might just need an alignment but the guy said my struts were shot.but i have not replaced them yet.oopps.now.... the car after turning won't straighten out and all you hear is clunk...clunk....clunk until you turn the wheels a certain way. i stopped driving the car after this happened. i checked cv joints and they seem fine no tears or grease splattered.ball joints seem fine too, no play,but when tugging on the strut it has some play is it supposed to,not much but i can wiggle. are the strut bearings and what not just so worn out that its creating this noise,or is it something else? i will try just replacing struts and see if that eleminates the noise, i hope cv joints are fine. any extra in put will help.

[93buicklesabrelmtd]

Get a Haynes auto manual for that car. Dont waste any money guessing. The book is at Autozone or Advanced for about 20bucks. It could be a loose tie rod, or extra play in the steering system itself.

[Lasota]

If you are going to change the struts then change the top mount bearing also. This could be what is giving you the clunking sound. If the bearing is seized it will wind up the strut spring when you turn the steering wheel until the force in the spring overcomes the seized bearing then you get the clunk and the steering wheel jumping in your hands. Only doing a visual on a CV won't tell you if it is good or not, you have to check for play in the joints.