Hi guys!
I've gotten some great advice here in the past and I'm hoping I can get some more now.
My '87 Tbird (a.k.a. "Baby") just had front brake pads put on a week ago. I was told the rotors will need replaced by next Spring and the right one is warped. No problem.
I now get a vibration when applying the brakes; this is expected and smooths out if I release and apply the brakes again. Yesterday on my way home from the store, I had to brake hard for a red light.
About two miles later, I made a slow left turn onto another street. I heard a noise under the car and thought I'd run over a rock with a tire and the rock had popped out from under the tire.
But then, in the mile from there to home, whenever I hit a rough spot on the road (and the whole road is rough!), it sounded as though something was wrong. This car has almost 192,000 miles on her and has some rattles and squeaks as should be expected. But this noise was different.
It still handles the same. It still rides the same. It still 'feels' the same. My friend and I looked underneath and could see nothing obviously broken. We bounced it up and down at each corner and rocked it from side to side. No unusual noise.
This morning I went out and got the Sunday papers and it sounded fine on the new, and smooth road through town. On the other, older and rougher road, it sounds as tho something is 'broke'. When I got home, my friend check the tie-rods (?), and found no play in them. He grabbed the top of each front tire and shook it back and forth and noticed nothing different than before.
I know it is impossible to diagnose a problem like this without actually seeing/driving the car, but does anybody have any ideas of what this might be? As a woman who knows a little about cars and how they work, I hate it when a mechanic says something to the effect, "Well Baby, your framahammer has come discombobulated from the doomajigger and it's gonna cost you $XXX.xx to get it fixed!"
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Gerri