This weekend I had my car up on jack stands to check some movement that I heard in the front left wheel. I checked the passenger side front wheel and it had no play. I checked the front driver side wheel, and it had about one 4th inch of play left to right, but no play top to bottom. The brake caliper moved along with the play in the wheel, along with the steering rack having movement near the boot. Since there is no play top to bottom, I threw out the idea of it being a wheel bearing issue. Would this be an issue with the steering rack or what I be looking elsewhere for the issue?

 

Tie Rods? Check inner and outer tie rods. Otherwise recheck your wheel bearing.

 

Check your outter tie rod. that might explain the side to side, but no up and down play in the wheel.

 

Sorry for the bad english, that was all voice recognition texting. But once I get a chance, I will definitely take a look. I also hopefully remember to post a video of the issue.

 

Slim chance, but check if the washer is installed behind the axle nut. IIRC it's about .25" thick and could account for your inboard/outboard play if it's missing.

 

Well, got it up on jacks again this weekend to check all of the bushings and such. Still no play in any of the typical points. The only place that I can see movement is at the drivers-side rubber boot on the steering rack. I tried to get a video of the movement, but I could not get a video that really showed much. But here is a picture with the location of the movement identified.



Has anybody ever had wheel movement or play caused by the steering rack? Anybody have any idea of what the issue could be??

 

Anybody??

 

could be an inner tie rod. have someone pull down on it or put pressure against it and see if you still have movement. It helps diag inner and out sometimes.

 

Inner tie rod, nothing else will have play there.
You can zip the nut off the spindle there and remove the tie rod assembly from the spindle and push it in and out, you'll know right away if it is bad.
These fail all the time on these cars, they are a weak point if the vehicle is driven even remotely hard. You can get aftermarket ones for $10-20 typically.

 

+1 on the inner tie rod. mine has the same problem.