94 Town & Country front end shake

My grandparents have a 94 T&C with a 3.8 engine. The van only has 57,000 miles on it. This thing has been maintained and babied since day one. The car still even has the new car smell in it. But anyway they just ran into a problem with it. The steering wheel shakes at all speeds. It just shakes faster when you speed up. It seems to go away on turns. It will even shake very slowly back and fourth when the car is rolling with your foot off the brake. When my grandparents have their first problem with their cars, they give them away to someone in the family and they offered it to me. I just don't know if this is something I want to get involved with. Anyone have any ideas on what this could be?

The first suspect would be out of balance or out of round front tires. I would take it to a PepBoys or Americas Tire shop and have them rebalance the tires and check for out of round condition. Shouldn't cost more than $20 total. If that's the fix you got one hell of a deal.

20 bucks total? mmmmmmm. I think it would caust a little more then that. i beleve about 50 or 60 or so. I go to NTB, that what they charge. I got that road hazard thing so i dont have to pay every time. Maybe state from state, prices change.

vamc - Good Lord bud. You better change shops. I just got off the phone with Americas Tire in southern California who said $10 per tire, $20 total. Maybe you should move.

Well i got that road hazzard thing and i dont have to pay anything for balance or rotation.

I rotated the tires. Didn't fix the problem. It didn't get any better or worse. Are there any common problems with this van that would cause a symptom like this?

Good move on the tire rotation. By shake I'm assuming you mean the steering wheel rapidly rotates slightly left and right. I'm also assuming the shake is always there, ie it doesn't come and go. Does the shake get worse when you apply the brakes? Could be warped brake rotors. If you pull the wheels and rotate the hubs you might see it if it's bad enough. Put the wheel nuts back on to hold the rotor in place. To know for sure, you either have to check them with a runout gauge or remove them and have them resurfaced. While you're there try to pull the hub in and out to check the bearings. If the rotors are good, I would put it on ramps and jerk and pull on every part of the suspension you can get your hands on to see if anything moves. Look at the steering gear assembly. I've heard of them go bad but never seen one. I'm wingin it here and maybe somebody can rule this out for you but, it wouldn't be inconceivable that it could have gotten weak and any slight shock in the steering makes it oscillate. Thats just a theory. Look it over for torn boots and leaks. It's at the bottom of the firewall. No common problems I know of. Keep in touch.

If you read the reply I had here before I wrote this, diregard it. I had my head up my hoohaa.

The shake is always there no matter what speed it is. From 1 mph-on it shakes back and fourth but not rapidly unless you are going highway speeds. And yes what I meant was it rotates slightly right and left. The brakes do no shake at all when applied. The car has been driven by 73 year old people that won't even do the speed limit. This is something that suddenly went wrong from what i was told. It was being driven on a highway and it was fine. About half way home from getting off the highway It became noticable and got worse as they drove home.

Is there a spring borken? I know that is a stupid question to ask, but im just elimenating(sp) some things. How are the shocks. What does the stablelizer bar look. Is it broke?

How old are the tires on this car? With only 57,000 miles on the van, it is possible they are the original four, if they have been rotated properly over the last 12 years. The older the tires, the more prone they are to belt shift, bulging or tread separation, all of which can cause your symtoms. Tires have manufacturers date codes molded into the sidewalls. On one side of each tire, look for a set of numbers that read "DOT****". Each * represents a digit. The first two digits represent the week of the year of manufacture (01 through 52). The last two digits represent the year of manufacture (93 through 06). For example, if your tires are marked with "DOT3598", the tire was manufactured the 35th week of 1998. A matched set of tires will be the same make and model with identical date codes. Mismatched tires will have different date codes. If the tires on the van are over ten years old, I would replace them all on general principle.

By the way, what is the remaining tread depth of each tire? A good thing to know.

You say that you rotated the tires. Well, did you check the tires for bulges or bubbles in the tread? I have had buldges occur suddenly on a single tire and I have had these develop slowly over time on one or more tires from the same tire lot. Sometimes these bulges are easy to see and feel. I suggest you put on some latex gloves and feel the tread surfaces of each tire with both your hands. If you find one tire with a bulge, I would suspect any other tire with the same date code to be ready to bulge at any time.

How long has it been since the tires were balanced? As tires wear, they slowly lose balance. Sometimes the balance weights fall off, causing a sudden imbalance. Most tires have balance weights installed on both the inside and outside of the rims. If you see a tire on the van without a balance weight on either side, I could have lost a weight. Unbalanced tires will also cause your symtoms.

As someone mentioned before, a rim may be out of round. This can be checked by spinning the tire on the van and looking of a wobble.

Verify the integrity of the tires and the rims first before going any farther. I think you will find your problem there.

I checked all of the tires for bulges. Tires were replaced last year at about 56,000 miles so the tires are in near new condition. I am convinced the problem is not the tires or the rims. To tell you the truth I don't know the condition of the suspension. I don't know what I should be looking for. I don't know what could be causing the symptom.

If only Scotty could beam us there...There comes a time in every DIYer's efforts to keep his machine running when nothing seems to work. You do this, you try that and it seems like the machine just says "screw you, I' don't want to work anymore".

It's time to let some knowledgable eyes look at it. Ask around and find a good reputable repair shop. Not guaranteed but, look for one that's family owned and been there forever for a better chance of getting it fixed for the right price. Have them look at it and get an estimate. Be sure to let us know what the culprit was. There's a group of us out here scratchin our heads and wondering. If it turns out to be something you missed and don't want to let us know, just keep this in mind - we've all been there. It's called an "Ah s..t"

Nobody caught on to this yet....

57,000 miles....94 Town and Country.
this Vehicle is almost new and hardly driven....

So, IT SAT a LOT.....

My first guess, given that the tires are "new" would be Front Wheel bearings, from sitting, check them! They'r easy to replace (about $100 each and a few tools and a jack). 2 hours to change both, tops.

OR,

Did somebody put Cheap crappy Tires on it? I had a set of four "cheapest available" tires from NTB on one of my Vans. The front end shook like this. Went to Michelins, no more problem.

so what was it?

Tom

I'm just going to take it to a repair shop to have them diagnos the problem. Hopefully it's something I can fix. I'll let everyone know what the problem is when I find out in case anyone else runs into this problem. Thanks for the info.