Steering is suddenly feeling strange. I can hear a soft knock noise when turning, and handling is less than optimal. I was concerned about outer tie rod wear, but I checked today and confirmed that they are tight and in good shape.

The car is definitely out of alignment and the outside corners of the front tires have been ground down. I'm not sure if bad alignment accounts for the poor handling, but I will note that I installed brand new TRW ball joints, BOGE struts, IPD poly endlink bushings just recently. Handling actually improved quite a bit with those repairs.

I also have an IPD lower chassis brace and IPD blue poly cone bushings.
I checked the inner and stay control arm bushings and and they look OK, but I can't rule them out as I've never replaced them.

I've also run with Magnefine filters on my transmission and Power Steering system for several years.

I'm getting the car aligned ASAP next week, but I'm concerned that there's something more serious failing - i.e. Power Steering Rack.

Any thoughts here? My wife uses this car for her daily driver and I need to make sure its safe for her.