I have a 2008 Pontiac G6 GT, 3.5l V6 with 172'000km and an automatic transmission. With it being my first car purchased almost 2 years ago for a cheap price, I have replaced front wheel bearings, the starter, as well as the front struts. I have a slight leak in my power steering system which I have decided not to fix at a dealer but instead used Bluedevil stopleak. After using it once and flushing the system it no longer leaks. However after discovering the leak I noticed a creaking sound coming from my front tires while driving. The steering wheel also shakes when braking at speeds over 80km/h. My brake pads and rotors still appear to be good, rotors dont seem warped. This lead to me having the struts replaced with brand new OEM ones. This did not fix the problems. As the struts were replaced by a local GM dealer, they had a 2nd set installed under warranty a couple weeks later when the creaking sound came back. When this still did not fix the problems, they took another look and decided that both issues were caused by play in my steering rack that came from driving with low power steering fluid before I found and fixed the leak.
With the car being an 08 beater, I am not looking to sink any more money into it, I plan on trading up to a newer Japanese model in the future. My question is should I be worried about the play in my steering rack? I know it is not ideal, but I drive somewhat conservatively with it and check my power steering fluid levels every couple days and keep a spare jug of fluid in my trunk. I wont get very much for the car if I traded in, $1000 CAD or less. I planned on driving it into the ground while saving money then buying a new car, but would it be better to get what I can for it right away? If anyone has any advice id appreciate it.
sounds like the inner and outter tie rod ends are worn out. these being worn will give you a vague steering feel, maybe wanders through the lane due to wear and the "play" that your steering has.
Thanks for that. I'm sorry I forgot to mention that the steering actually still feels pretty solid, still pretty responsive and the creaking mentioned is only heard when I'm making low speed turns
if everything checks out fine in regards to the "creaking" noise, i would assume there are dry joints somewhere around tie rods or ball joints. all my years on tinkering with cars i have come across a few with the same issue, all i done was spray some lubricant around the pivot points, not in the into the rubber boot. or the grease may be dried up in the joints. if the boots for ball joints and tie rods ends are split/cracked dirt and road debris could get inside and the grease could have escaped. need to have a good look at the rubber boot condition, that is a good starting point.
as for your "wobble" under braking it could be one of two things, if it is only a wobble i would be looking at tyres to see if they are out of balance. this can cause wobbles from my experience, if its like the front of the car "shakes" i would be looking at brake rotors and possible brake pad "knock".