Loose Steering Wheel

My steering wheel is loose to the left. in other words I can turn it about 1/8th turn before the car moves left.

It does not drift to one side or another. My alignment is fine.????

That's a definite safety issue that you should get fixed right away. Maybe the steering linkage is loose. I believe having no more than one inch of freeplay is within normal limits.

1997 alot of miles maybe tie rod or ball joint relate . Find a good frontend shop.

What should I look for in a frontend mechanic???

Sounds like the problem is on the rack. Check the inner tie rods on both sides. I've seen a few A3/B4 Volks develope problems in this area. It doesn't sound to extreme to me though, you might be able to get away with it for quite a while.

My area west of DC has special shops that do only frontend work. May not be the same where you live. But Monro or Firestone maybe better and cheaper then the dealer.

When I hit my brakes at high speeds, highway especially, my steering wheel shakes ALOT and the front end of the vehicle shakes. I recently replaced the factory rotors with Zimmerman cross-drilled rotors. The dealer and various brake places are telling me that my rotors are probably warped, no tests have been performed on them yet. Last time I got my vehicle aligned at Town Fair Tire (where I bought my wheels), they told me that my left tie rod was off. My steering wheel also feels slightly loose. Do you think I could have a front end problem and this is why it shakes when hitting the brakes, or does this sound like a warped rotor issue?

Now that you mention it, I get a rattle feel as I brake too. Almost as if I hit a rut in the road and it looked my wheel in it.