Last week I was driving and my tire blew. I called my boyfriend and he came to check it out. He jacked it up, took the tire off, and put the spare on. When I went to drive something was wrong. I guess the brake caliper locked up and got so hot it blew the tire. He changed the caliper and everything else that would need changed. Now when I drive it makes like knocking sound from the front and there is a lot of play in the steering wheel. He says the hub assembly is out and shows no sign of wanting to fix it. I'm worried because I drive out of town a lot. My question is... is it the hub assembly or maybe another brake caliper? Could the tires need balanced from the blow out? Does it need realigned? Before the tire blew out it pulled really hard to the right now it doesn't pull any direction but drives weird. It was the rear passenger caliper. It's a 2003 Durango v8 5.9l 4wd.

 

the pulling the right should have been a clue that the brake caliper was not working correctly, it is a classic symptom of either a sticky caliper or a bad brake hose (i hope that those were replaced too)

now im not sure what the knocking sound is like exactly but that could be a cv joint or gear lash if you have a 4x4 if you do not have 4wd then i would look at the wheel bearinga s the culprit.

play in the steering wheel is probably in the steering shaft or gear box, unless the tie rods were bent when you had the blow out i dont see a relationship

 

I had the same issue on the passenger front. my caliper bolts would not stay in becuase the bracket on the spindle was stripped. i tried an oversized caliper bolt and that fell out after about a week. finally i used some nice industrial grade8 bolts and got it to stay. that loud noise is prob. what i had. it was horrible. it was my caliper scrapping the rim.