Vibration 01 Park Avenue

[xs03mich]

!09,000 miles car shakes thru the steering wheel and the seat on highway driving from appox 60 mph and higher. Needed new tires anyways thought it was tire balance problem. Put on 4 new tires, road force balanced all four still shaking. Road force agian, still shaking. So I am ruling out the tires. All front end parts are fine, rear end parts are fine. Struts have 30000 miles on them, but the strut bearings are shot. Aligment was done 12000 miles ago when I replaced the outer tie rod ends on both sides up front. Not getting any bearing noises with car on hoist and hand turning the wheels. Any ideas where to go next? I need to change the strut bearings out and do another aligment. Any thing else to look at? Just trying to get the ride back.

[maxwedge]

Something is worn or out of balance, jack up the ft and run it off the ground till you feel it or don't, also have a helper look at the wheels as they spin, safely here of course, post back results.

[xs03mich]

Everything seems tight, right now I may be leaning to a wheel bearing up front starting to go bad. I will throw it up on the hoist next week start it up and throw her in drive! Spinning by hand I can not tell any difference. I will know more end of next week.

[HotZ28]

It might be better to use the six/twelve o'clock rock position with the wheel off the ground. If you feel ANY movement, and I mean ANY, chances are you have a bad hub bearing. This movement is hard to see with the wheel/tire spinning!

[xs03mich]

Well it seems that the front end is ok as nothing is worn. Second mechanic confirms shaking in the seat and steering wheel, acts like a bad tire or out of balance. Next up....on the car tire balance. This should get me some answers. I will have it done next week.

[xs03mich]

Friday 11/12/10, back to tire shop. All four tire road force balanced agian. No change in driving at 70 mph. First of the week, on the car tire balance.

[xs03mich]

OK everything is good with the driving over 70mph. Had the tires balanced on the car. Two rears were out, one front was out, the right front they said should not of even been on the car. Rotated right front 180 degrees spin balance and rebalance on the car. OK it rides perfect now, that problem solved. I knew I was not going crazy yet! lol

[auto trainy]

A quick question,is this the same place that installed and balanced the wheels in the first place? Also when you say they rotated the tire 180 degrees did they remount the tire on the rim?

[xs03mich]

Thanks auto trainy, yes it was a different shop that did the rebalancing. Not happy about the extra $$$ but that is the way it is.....at least now it will not drive me crazy. Yes the right front was taken off the rim rotated 180, spun balanced first then put back on the right front and reblanced on the car.

I have used this shop before with on the car balancing in the past with great results. They have balanced my gmc 6500 work truck tires before. Now if they can do something about the roads around here! lol

It looks like the road force machine at the first place needs a balance.....I will stop by the first place that sold me the tires and did the road force balances this week agian and present them with the invoice from the place that fixed thier problem.

[82Stang]

In my experience, a vibration in the steering wheel at 55 or above is almost always an out of balance tire. A balance is only as good as the person doing the balance too. Some kids will say "oh, close enough", but balancing doesn't work like that. On a side note, I have replaced the front hubs on my 99 PA 3 times per side in the last 5 years. It seems they don't make good parts anymore. Or I'm a shotty mechanic.

[xs03mich]

The thing that gets me is the shop doing the road force has been road force balancing my tires for me for years......I did not suspect a tire problem...but that was all there was left. Lets just say as I went back to the road force shop and showed them the bill from the on the car balance shop.....I just got a bunch of shoulder shrugs from them? At that point I wonder if they know thier machine is out of balance or can not balance good. I mean how many folks want their car tires road force balanced in this economy...not many. I have not received a good tire balance from a chain tire store in many years, so I went to this mom and pop place. Bottom line, first shop lost a customer but problem solved and the car will get on the car tire balancing for as long as I own it.

[HotZ28]

Originally Posted by xs03mich

The thing that gets me is the shop doing the road force has been road force balancing my tires for me for years.

With the same person doing the task? Any machine is only as good as it's operator!

[xs03mich]

Yes sir HotZ, same person, manager/owner, same machine.....all the same every time over the years......just when you think you have found the right place.

[airborne1]

I have a 99 lesabre had the same problem for 6 years even bought new rims,put in bearings,struts,upgraded suspension system,tires road forced many times,finally the rack and pinion went out and had to put in new one,(SHAKE AND SHIMMY GONE!!!!)Don't ask me how,haven't got a clue.