MOTOR NEWS
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NOV. 4
44th ANNUAL INDOOR/ OUTDOOR SWAP MEET, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., Reichard Chevrolet, 575 Arlington Road, Brookville, hosted by the Dayton Buckeye Model A Ford Club. All makes antique and classic cars, parts and related items. Classic cars on display in showroom. Hot breakfast, lunch available. Spectator fee $3; indoor 10-by10 vendor space $15, outdoor vendor spaces, $20. Saturday (day before), vendors only 4 to 6 p.m., set-up for indoor spaces. Free car corral for sellers of collector cars. Mike Bogart, 175 Marybill Drive S., Troy OH 45373 or 937-335-9353 continued from E1 cific problem. If the steering wheel in your hands is not bolted tightly to the wheels, that could produce the abrupt changes in direction you describe. Although you’d experience it continuously. All the time.
There also was a recall to fix the steering gear motor’s mounting bolts, which tended to corrode, leading to a loss of power steering. If you came into our shop and complained about this problem, after I verified that your tires weren’t severely overinflated, the next thing I’d suspect would be an alignment issue.
If you hit a big pothole or curbstone, and bent a tie-rod end, or a strut (or if your 16-yearold nephew did when you lent him the car), you could knock your caster off, which definitely would cause squirrely handling. But you say you’ve had the alignment checked. And a caster problem, if you have one, should have turned up.
So the next step is to convince the dealer to take your complaint more seriously.
If you can find a road in the general vicinity of the dealership where the car will reliably misbehave, take the service manager for a ride. Have him drive and experience the problem. Once he experiences the problem himself, and sees his own life and pleasure boat flash before his eyes, I think he’ll be more open to looking harder for the cause. If he’s at a loss, suggest that the steering rack is the next thing to investigate. Good luck, Rick. Got a question about cars? Write to Car Talk in care of King Features, 628 Virginia Drive, Orlando, FL 32803, or email by visiting the Car Talk website at www.cartalk.com.