Weird sway feeling when braking

[smokey240sx]

Everytime I brake the body seem to sway side to side the i hear a clunk sound. what could this be?

[aither]

it could be a lot, and it's hard to say over the internet. Generally, check out your tires first, then look at your susp. compnents all around. Next check out your brakes to make sure everything is working right. You might have a tie rod end that wants to kill you.

[Fenvy]

yeah, raise the car up and look at all the bushings, espeically the endlink bushings for your sway bars...

[Nismo_Freak]

Tension rods would be my guess.

[skylndrftr]

Is it coming more from the front end, such as a darty feeling underbraking, or is it more of an unstable tail end of the car...can you tell if the clunk is coming from the same end of the car?. whatever it is its only 1 side in my humble opinion, so the TR would be a reasonable guess in all its viscous idiocy

[Ceptos]

is there anything else you notice the car doing while your just driving or cornering? i had uneven tension rod bushings before, i felt the wobbling sensation under braking, but also got some vibration at highway speeds. and i noticed a rubber noise when going over some speed bumps. these are easy to check, you cant miss the huge circular bushing, if it looks dry rotted or cracked or has rust on it or the tension rod (from the liquid escaping) then it is worn.

an excellent and cheap upgrade would be a set of spl tension rods. and you can install them yourself, tho access to a torque wrench is necessary.

when you say sway, do you mean steer side to side, or actually swaying like in a corner?
Modified by Ceptos at 11:32 PM 9/22/2004

[smokey8890]

thanks guys for all the great input. I guess its really hard to pin point what really throwing off my alighnment. The driver side tires are worn on the outter side. The previous owner had a set of DC trial tension rod but it broke and was replace with a OEM. So this is the plan. I bought Tein Tension rods, Tein tie rods and end, ST sway bars, two new set of tires, and then get a alighnment. Hopefully this would help me narrow down the problems. The only problem is I have no clue how to adjust the tie rod and tension rods. What I did notice was the cars drive fine going straights but once I brake the steering pulls to the left and returns once i let go of the brakes. I keep everyone posted

[smokey240sx]

UPDATE:

this morning I replace the front sway bar and bushing. I discover that the driver side stabilizer link was bent and the bushin was completely destroyed. Also the two front tires was replace with a new set. I didn't change the tension rods due to the fact that one of the bolts was about to strip. I'm heading to the dealers get some spare parts just incase I do strip it completely. The Tie rods and ends will have to wait till they arrive. I did notice the clunking sound is almost gone. Instead it seems to creek when I brake. The problem still there but not as much as before. Hopefully I could get this this resolve before next week.