2001 Tsb

[jwitmer]

Does anyone have information for the following Technical Service Bulletin:

00-03-10-007E APR 03 Tires/Wheels - Vibration/Shake at Highway Speed

Thanks,
Jack Witmer

[apostolakisl]

Jack,

I don't have info on that specific tsb, but I can tell you I have been through hell and back because of vibrations in my 01 aurora. There are two issues.

Number 1, you have to have road force balancing done by someone who really knows what they are doing. The tires have to be way under specs to soften the vibration. Definitely no more than 10 pounds on any wheel with 5 or 6 pounds preferred. You may have to replace the tires, and if you do, I would stipulate that you will only accept tires that are road force balanced to that extent.

The second issue is that gm has redesigned the lower control arms for the front end to dampen vibration. The real problem with the car is not the wheels, but rather the design. The weights, arcs of rotation, stiffness of bushings, etc has resulted in the slightest imperfection in the wheels setting up an oscillation that feeds on itself.

I have had the road force balancing done many times and did not get a satisfactory result until I went up the gm chain and contacted regional managers. I also got the control arms replaced via this same method. I had to do a lot, and I mean a lot of bitching to get this stuff done under warranty, but I did get it.

With this stuff done, the car mostly does not vibrate. Some days it does vibrate a little at 65mph or so. I have no idea why some days it does and others it does not. Could be the temperature, barometric pressure or something crazy like that.

[dsatt12]

Storm's a coming ma... my cv joints actin' up somethin fierce

[jwitmer]

Thanks for the replies.

I had some vibration in the front end between 60-70 mph. I just bought the car, so needed it inspected and had the tires balanced and rotated at that time. That seemed to help, but I have not driven the car over 60 for more than 5 minutes since the balancing. Hope to take a drive on an expressway soon to check it out.

In the meantime, I'll keep your info in mind.

Jack Witmer

[RobertHammen]

If they did just a regular balance, it may have helped but it won't resolve the problem. You need a road-force balance (where a counter-weight is applied to the spinning tire), along with matching the high point of the rim with the low point of the tire, and vice versa.

You can find a list of shops that use the Hunter GSP 9700 machine at

http://www.gsp9700.com

Hope this helps,

--Robert

[rwagoner56]

Had the same problem. Almost bought new wheels on recommendation of discount tire. I decided to try the local tire/repair shop. they balanced and took care of 98% of vibration. I could not figure out why Belle tire and Disc Tire could not balance them correctly. I attributed the success of the local shop to more experienced mechanics.