Hello, Thanks for adding me to the group. I have a question about my 2003 Hyundai Elantra sedan with 160k kms. The steering wheel shakes when driving down the road at any speed and worse at faster speeds. It also makes a knocking sound when the left side hits a bump. It has got a lot worse lately and needs fixing ASAP. I jacked it up and took a peek at all the bushings, ball joints and engine mounts. I found out that when I changed out my strut assembles a few months ago, I may have destroyed my front lower control arm rear bushings. And yes they were both partially torn on both sides. Also I found a torn rear engine mount. Now my question is, would partially torn control arm bushings cause a bad shake going down the road (Im thinking yes)? Also Im going to replace both of these control arms but wondering if the cheapest ones I found online will suffice? They are called Prime Choice. Or should I spend three times more moola and get some Moog ones at my local parts store? Thanks so much everyone.

Josh Marxen: When you have more than one bad bushing or mount, they have a tendency to fight against each other and wear things out faster so yes that can not only cause shaking it can wear out other parts like ball joints to tires. Try Rockauto.com for the Moog as they are sometimes half the price of parts stores. if you put the prime choice next to the Moog you would be physically able to see the difference and thats why the price difference. The cheap ones will get you by but the Moog are better than stock and if the cheap ones fail they will take more parts with them which wipes out any real savings in my book. Ive learned the hard way to use Moog suspension and BWD electronics unless the price of parts exceeds the cars value 🙂

RockAuto
rockauto.com

Brandon Hips: Solve the case. It was a bad front tire that was causing the vibration and rough ride. Ive been driving with this bad tire for a long time and thought the vibration was just because it an old car. I was wrong, now it drives so smooth. Still have the bad bushings that have to be changed but those had nothing to do with this problem.

Josh Marxen: Whenever any the mechanics mentions a possible bad tire people seem to believe new ones cant be bad or insist that cant be the problem so we a cautious to even mention it so thank you for the update. Even new are susceptible to pot holes and curbs.