front end vibration 2000 lesabre

Getting front end vibration (feel it in floor pan and little in wheel) but only at speeds between 70-80mph. Vibration lessens if speed is constant (vibrates when accelerating from 70 to 75 then after few seconds at 75 vibration lessens but does not disappear). Have had wheels balanced but problem persists. Ideas?

Many things can cause this, bad mounts, bad axle, bad tire due to road force variation issues. Looseness in the ft suspension or steering, no quick answer here.

Getting front end vibration (feel it in floor pan and little in wheel) but only at speeds between 70-80mph. Vibration lessens if speed is constant (vibrates when accelerating from 70 to 75 then after few seconds at 75 vibration lessens but does not disappear). Have had wheels balanced but problem persists. Ideas?


Most like would be the wheels and tires. How much wear on the tires? How good are they in quality of brand?

Road force balancing would be the way to go to see how much variation there is in each time.

Have you had an alignment?

May I suggest the rear tires because you are feeling it in the floor pan.

Could be a wheel bearing with play in it. How many miles on the car?

The acceleration making it feel more obvious could be mounts as suggested or simply alignment.

My dollar would be on the tires and wheels. Put on new Michelins, which tend to be round and roll round for road force balancing and make sure the rims are straight, and you'll probably have your fix.

If the wheels were left in same position without rotating them, the rears tend to be strangely because of the camber variation they can experience. If tires haven't been rotated religiously, that might be your place.

I had the same problem on my 2000 LeSabre for most of the time I owned it. I installed the aweful stock Michelin Symmetry tires brand new at the dealer and the problem only got worse. When they wore out I put a different set of Michelins on the car, same problem. Finally with the next set I went online and looked up the best quality speed rated super high performance 225/60/16 tire available and came up with the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS. I took all four rims off the car and scrubbed them clean by hand, one at a time. I picked all the chunks off the inside of the rims and then took the car over to a Firestone store. They installed the RE960AS Potenza tires and performed a road force balance. They also installed hidden tape weights which are mounted closer to the centerline of the rim.

The manager at the Firestone store insisted that the W rated tires would ride hard and he tried to convince me to go with some cheaper alternative. I stuck to my guns with the idea that the ultra high performance tires would have much better inherent balance. Fortunately I was absolutely correct. The W rated RE960AS tires were wonderful. They were much smoother and quieter than the stock Michelins and the vibration problem was finally completely gone. The Bridgestone RE960s also provide insanely good handling performance on the LeSabre.

After trading my 2000 LeSabre I bought a 2004 which came with the Michelin Symmetry tires on it. Leaving the dealership after making the purchase I immediately noticed the familiar vibration I had with my 2000. Long story short, I quickly replaced all four tires with the RE960AS Potenza tires from Bridgestone and they solved the problem on the 04 as well. Bottom line is that I recommend you avoid Michelin tires altogether on this car. I used to swear by Michelin but after switching to Bridgestone I'll never buy anything else. The bridgestone tires are amazingly smooth and quiet and provide awesome handling and traction performance.

I'm having a similar issue with our 01 Lesabre. I am headed back to the tire shop to have Bridgestone Insignia's put back on, which is what we had for well over 5 years on the car before moving to a Firestone tire that was on sale about three weeks ago. The Bridgestone's outlived thier service life and never gave us any trouble with vibration. I'm crossing my fingers that this fixes my issue.

We had Michelin Harmony tires put on our 2000 at about 60K. The original tires (can't remember what they were) were almost treadless at 60k. Wear on the Michelin's was negligible when we turned the car in at over 200k. The car ran smooth as silk, and I love those Michelines. Went I bought my new Lucerne, it had Continentals which were crap so I wanted to put the Harmony tires on, but I could not fine them in 18 inch, so went with Michelin Destiny. They are junk. I had them road forced balanced, and they even put little wax balls inside, supposedly to round out the tires, but still they shake. So, IMHO, some Michelins are great and other are not so great. Sorry for rambling.

Got the Insignia's on this morning and the amount of vibration I was noticing is greatly reduced.