So the teenagers' car is a beater old Altima. 1998/200,000k miles/5 speed.
I replaced the motor mounts and that helped a bunch but there is still something going on. Off and on the throttle and there is just an unpleasant amount of slop (lash?). The suspension is original and really knackered. Would bad struts be causing this? Worn CV axles? Where should I look to bring back some tightness to this tired old nag. It's a $1,000 car so I don't want to spend a ton on it. It fixes under a couple hundred bucks are doable.
Worn out control arm bushings could do it too.
Pull the wheels, grab a prybar, and check everything in the front end. Bad control arm bushings are pretty easy to spot, it will be super squirrely when braking on account of all the toe out.
So I ordered new front control arms and 4 new complete strut assembly's. Today the car went into the garage for surgery and I found that both lower ball joints were totally shot and the left side control arm busing was falling out. Today got both front end struts and control arms replaced and one of the rear struts replaced. Tomorrow should finish it up.
I don't know if I'm getting better at wrenching or the car gods are just being kind to me but so far (for a 19 year old Nissan) this hasn't been too bad a job. Just a bit slow and a skosh rusty.
