Symtoms: shakes violoently at 10-15 mph and then less in the upper speeds. hear a thumping noise when driving (only audible at lower speeds when your head is out the window). Left front tire has bad wear on the outside of it. Can shake the right front wheel. Bleeding red and black.

The first symtom was the tire wear. So i had an alignment done on wed. I knew it needed one after my struts were put in cuz midas never did. that was 2000 miles ago. About a week ago i noticed the thumping and car shaking. Now that the alignment has been done the car seems to shake more, and the car pulls to the right much more than before. When i jacked up the car to show my dad the tranny and oil leaks, he shook the right front tire and discovered that the tie rod is loose, on the gear box side. Shouldnt the alignment dude have seen this? Do you guys think getting the tie rod fixed and a wheel balance all around will solve the car shaking problems? i know it wont do anything for the pulling to one side, ill need new tires for that i think. im a student, so if its new tires, then ill be going on one of those no-food dietsfor a while :(

The tranny leak was new to me when the alignment guy brought me down in the pit and showed it to me. It appeared coming out of the CV unit or something like that, oppiside the boot side, ie tranny side. But today when i jacked up the car, i wiped my fingers across it and it was dry. confusing :?. the oil leak id been wondering about for years now, and he showed me that it was coming from the oil pressure sender unit. im not worried about that though. do seals on that part of the tranny fail often?

thanks for you guy'* imput,
Patrick

The loose tie rod is probably 99% of your problem. There shouldn't be any any play in that part. That part is why you feel all the shakeing. Once you get up to highway speeds it is just forced back by the cars momentum to one position instead of being able to rattle back and forth. That also explains some uneven wear on your tire.

As for the shop, if you can tell it'* loose they should have had no problem seeing it. Did the "thumping" start before or after the alignment? Was the alignment just for the tire wear then?

Either way I would get it fixed soon. The force of the wheel bouncing back and forth may break something permenantly and cause you much more damage than what there is now.

just my $0.02