A couple of weeks ago i replaced my struts (just basic monroe sensatrac), right away i took it to a repair shop to get the car aligned (it did it on the way to get the car aligned as well). every day i drive the same stretch of road, and before i changed my struts it was fine, since i changed them... on certin stretches of road, the car is almost uncontrollable, the back end swerves back and forth badly, it is almost like driving 65 and jerking the wheel back and forth really fast. i have checked the strut towers, and the mounts, and all the topside bolts are tight, and so are the lugs, and i know the struts are tight, cause i had to use an impact gun. any ideas? kind of scary considering all the ice we have up here right now.

 

You mentioned the back end swerves.... When you did the struts, did you just do the front or did you do all 4? As I recall, these cars I believe also require a rear-end alignment if you do anything like the struts on the back end. If you did all 4 and the shop only aligned the front of the car, you may have your problem.

Other things to check:
- Make sure all 4 tires are properly inflated.
- I believe you said you also verified the wheels are on tight
- Did you have the tires rotated while in the shop? Perhaps a tire with a problem is now being "exploited" since it's on a different wheel AND the suspension has had some work.
- Also, if you had the tires rotated, I know my Monte has directional tires. This means the tread MUST face a certain way. I can only rotate my wheels from front to back (I cannot do the traditional "X pattern" otherwise the tread pattern will face the wrong way). Perhaps that is a possibility.
- Inspect the front and rear sway bars and connecting linkages. Make sure none of them broke (I know my father has a broken front sway bar on his '98 Grand Prix, so it does happen).

If none of those suggestions help final two are:
- Think about all the work you did and anything that was changed. Anything in the area where the car was aligned should have been "check" a little by the shop (but is no guarentee they would notice it).
- Take it back to the shop. Your alignment should be under "warranty" (most places do 6 months or 60K miles, whichever comes first). Tell them what's going on and see if they can provide some answers (this is the types of problems those shops work on, so I'd hope they can find what's up).

 

thanks for the feedback, took it to the tire shop today, and they told me it was the product of poor quality tires on the water channels in the road. they rotated the tires, and it seems to have taken care of the problem, i have been putting off better quality tires until i figure out what rims i want, but by the sounds of it, i had better get movin!

 

I would recommend a higher profromance tire. The water channles are better designed to push away water.