Vibration... sometimes

[Phreak]

Normally I'd just go and get the wheels re-balanced, but normally the vibration will ALWAYS be there at the same speeds. Mine is not. Sometimes I can be going 60-70 and the car will be perfect. I can take my hands off the wheel and it will go perfectly straight, no vibration, shimmy nothing. Then sometimes at 60-70, the wheel's shaking like I dropped a weight off a tire. I can feel the shimmy thru the body and the steering wheel's giving my hands a good massage.

What would cause this to happen sometimes and not at others? I just had most of the front end replaced, both lower control arms, both tie rod ends... I'm hearing a clunkiness from the front but I thought that was there before the work. Could it be CV joints? I looked at the boots and they're perfect, no tears or leaks or nothing. One thing I've tried to take note of is which way the car was loaded previously. Like if I'm on the highway taking a curve to the left, centripital force is gonna load the car to the passenger side, effectively pushing the passenger wheels towards the inside of the car. This is when the shimmy seems to go away. If I take a curve to the right loading the car left effectively pulling the passenger wheels away from the body the shimmy returns. What could be lose that would cause that? Like I said, would a CV allow that much play? I'm at a loss with this right now.

Normally I'd just go and get the wheels re-balanced, but normally the vibration will ALWAYS be there at the same speeds. Mine is not. Sometimes I can be going 60-70 and the car will be perfect. I can take my hands off the wheel and it will go perfectly straight, no vibration, shimmy nothing. Then sometimes at 60-70, the wheel's shaking like I dropped a weight off a tire. I can feel the shimmy thru the body and the steering wheel's giving my hands a good massage.

What would cause this to happen sometimes and not at others? I just had most of the front end replaced, both lower control arms, both tie rod ends... I'm hearing a clunkiness from the front but I thought that was there before the work. Could it be CV joints? I looked at the boots and they're perfect, no tears or leaks or nothing. One thing I've tried to take note of is which way the car was loaded previously. Like if I'm on the highway taking a curve to the left, centripital force is gonna load the car to the passenger side, effectively pushing the passenger wheels towards the inside of the car. This is when the shimmy seems to go away. If I take a curve to the right loading the car left effectively pulling the passenger wheels away from the body the shimmy returns. What could be lose that would cause that? Like I said, would a CV allow that much play? I'm at a loss with this right now.

check your wheels for snow/ice around this time of year.. and year round for mud .. inside the wheel too... think about it.. if a little weight they hammer on can throw the wheel back into ballance.. what will a huge chunk of ice do .. its very common.....

--Paul--

[Phreak]

Unfortunately there's no snow out right now, and I just put the rims on so I know there's nothing stuck in em. They were balanced right before they went on the car, so I know nothing's stuck to the inside. I really don't think it's a balance issue since it comes and goes. What you said makes sense tho, when we did have a lot of snow I had a good layer caked around the entire inside of my old rims, and that threw the balance WAY off, like I was getting horrid vibration at 25-30. Pulled over and kicked all the snow out and bam, good again.

Unfortunately, not so in this case.

[hindle]

Could be a bad ball joint, wheel bearing, etc. Something in the front end is loose, so you'll have to figure out what it is. Best way is to put it up on jackstands and wiggle the wheel around to figure it out.

[Phreak]

Well ball joints are part of the control arm when you get mitsu parts, so those both were just replaced too. Something about not selling ball joints separate from control arms because of safety issues with the metal on metal press. Whatever, mitsu does what mitsu does. I had the car up one wheel at a time when I swapped the rims and pulled on em, they felt as tight as I would think they should. Wheel bearing came to mind as well, at this point it looks like it could be anything in the front :(

[quasimondo]

Could be the bearings or axles. I had a bad vibration between 55 and 65 mph, and after I replaced the clutch, axles, and hubs, the vibration went away.

[shane]

out of round tires? bent rim? sometimes these can both go away at certain speeds because the tire and rim ballance itself out and those speeds.

[Muggus]

Well my car always drove smooth besides a slight pull to the right, untill i just put new rims and tires on the other. Now it drives a little funny. Will drive straight and smooth for a while and then the wheel will jerk a little left and right. I think its just because of the harder tires. They bounce around a little more on any sort of bumps.

[Phreak]

Tires and wheels I just got from Rene. 80% tread left on em, and he said they were just balanced, so I don't think it's tire related because this happened on two sets of rims.

But shane, if that were the case, it should ALWAYS vibrate at whatever speed it vibrates at no? I mean sometimes it will be perfect, sometimes it will be horrid at the exact same speed.... I mean I just bought these rims because my aluminum ones were warped, they should be perfect. I'm assuming CV joint or bearing at this point. Well find out next week!