My car goes to the right after hitting bumps

* check by having someone watch at the point of the jerk back. Mark the tire position with chalk. (use the same reference point. IE relative to ground, etc.
* place the front end (both wheels up) on jack and safety jacks.
* Hand rotate wheels and check especially when chalk mark is in the down position (or your reference point)
* Your looking for bumps in wheel (bulge wheel), Bent rim, Loose or damaged bearing, front end steering linkages, alignment, etc.
* Dangers of curb hits; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBN0dqyWB7w
* checking undercarriage; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=406l4wMLXfc
* Inspection (after replacing wheel);https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSWdf_7HcqI&t=425s
* When do I need alignment; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW4E2AxNijk&t=108s
* Be safe, have the auto shop check.
Aloha, ukeboy57

Any time you mess with those parts your messing with the alignment, just for the sake of your tires you should get an alignment. Have the alignment done then see if the problem is gone!

How new are your tires and when was the last time for a front end aliment?That might be it.

You need to take your car to a suspension specialist and also get them to check the front and rear wheel alignment.

Your front end alignment is out. It could be something as simple as a toe setting that needs adjusting. It could also be caused by worn or damaged front suspension parts. And, you can't rule out low tire pressure. One extremely low tire,esspecially if it is a rear tire will cause the car to wander. If the steering is pulling to the right or left, it could have a bad radial tire. If a radial tire goes bad, it loses it's grip, causing the car to pull toward the good tire. Unless it's on the rear, in which case you would not feel it pulling, rather it would be more like the rear was slipping or "fish-tailiang". If the problem came on suddenly, and you haven't hit any curbs or huge potholes, I would think it is a low tire. If you don't find a low tire, then you need to get to a front end alignment shop. Make sure they inspect the suspension for worn or damaged parts.

You want real advice? Get rid of your car. Its a pile of trouble.

The bumps do initiate the shaking. When my 2006 Ram 2500 4x4 started shaking, I had just had it aligned that morning. A month or so before that alignment, my passenger side outer tie-rod broke while driving down a rock road. I replaced it with a heavy duty MOOG tie-rod end. Anyway, the same day I had it aligned I was driving back home from a job and towing my bobcat behind me. I hit a bump and the truck did the "death wobble" with the front end shaking violently up and down in an alternating fashion (one tire in the air while one tire on the ground and then vice-versa). I changed the tires first (which were worn-out 305/75/17 mud tires). Since the day I bought the truck new in Jan. 2006, I've had larger tires on the truck than the tiny 235/75/17s that came with it and I've done a lot of heavy towing with it and never had a problem until this alignment was done at Sears. I;m still trying to figure out if it was the alignment specs that they used or if the problem coincidentally started that same day. I also changed the steering stabilizer. Neither the new tires nor the stabilizer/damper helped the problem. So I changed the other outer tie-rod end and the upper and lower ball joints (all MOOG with grease fittings). I turns out they were worn out. So, the truck no longer shakes violently up and down when I hit a bump. That problem seems to be in check. However, now when I hit a bump the truck's front end wobbles side-to-side. I can do a few things to recover from it. I can hit the brakes pretty hard and sudden (which can cause an accident on the interstate), or I can **** the steering wheel side-to-side a few times (from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock) and that stops it immediately...until the next bump in the road. Also, if I let my foot off the accelerator just before hitting a bump and let the truck coast over it instead of power through it, sometimes the truck will ride over the bump without incident. I found out yesterday on a 5 1/2 hour road trip that if I did 80 to 90 miles per hour and powered through every road blemish, the truck rode fine...no shaking at all. I suppose the high speed forces the tires to stay straight when they hit a bump. Lastly, to confuse my problem solving attempts further, sometimes the truck rides like a cadillac (for an hour or so) at regular speeds and no matter what bumps I hit. Then without worning, the front end will loosen up and get that sloppy feeling again and the wobbling comes back at every bump...until the next time it feels like tightening up and driving right again. I have no idea what to do now. I'm going back to Sears today to have them check their alignment. Other than that, all I can think of is to change the rest of the steering components and check the steering box for malfunction. I hope someone can help all of us Dodge owners out off of the road tested info that I've just provided. Dodge doesn't seem to care to address the problems with their trucks front ends, and we need a solution before people get hurt or die. I was almost run over by an 18-wheeler trying to figure out how to handle the shake. I can't afford to buy another truck. So I need to fix this one so I can keep working. If anybody has a concrete solution to these problems, please let us know. I've read 20 different opinions from mechanics on these blogs, but nobody has said yet that they fixed someone's truck with these problems and have since heard from that customer and everything is still working fine. Opinions are helpful sometimes, but they're also confusing when they're conflicting.

My opinion, not a good car. But that is a different story. It would be easiest to bring the car in for an alignment. The technician will tell you what the car needs to do the alignment. But if you want to do it yourself then you will need to inspect all the steering componants (tie-rods,struts, lower ball joint, wheel bearings, brakes, wheels, tire wear,tread pattern, and tire pressure, and lug nuts (loose or overtightened). Good luck.

replace the idler arm that connects the steering linkage to the frame on the passengers side,heavy duty part is about$90.00

It could be the steering rack but the first thing you should do is have an alignment job done. Even if there is another problem, the hit would almost certainly knocked your suspension out of alignment. So you'll probably need to get this done anyway. If there's still a problem after that, then I'd have your steering looked at. But the alignment may fix it entirely.