explorer sport front end "earthquake"

[crich09]

hey everyone! Im new to this site, i just came across it and was hoping i could get some help. I have a 1998 explorer sport that every time i hit 60mph the front end starts shaking pretty violently. Or if i slow it down to 55mph and take a gradual turn like on a highway it starts to shake during the turn. IDK WHAT IT IS! the tires have been rotated and balanced. Could it be a bearing? A bushing? Also while its shaking there seems to be a real heavy rattle coming from what sounds like the front left wheel... idk... any help or suggestions is appreciated!

[shorod]

Welcome to the forum!

This sounds important enough that you need to get it checked out immediately before any more highway driving. You need to make sure the wheel lugnuts are properly torqued and that there is no play in the steering or suspension. I would hope that whomever did the wheel balancing and rotation would have noticed play in the suspension and steering, especially if they knew why you were having them balance and rotate the wheels.

Did the vibration change in any way following the wheel balancing and rotation? Did they use a bubble balancer or a dynamic balancer? Did they actually move wheel weights around?

-Rod

[crich09]

hey thanks... The lugnuts are torqued properly i made sure of it when i got home after having the tires balanced. Im weird about that lo. I haven't noticed any play in the steering. I rotated them myself before taking them to get balanced hoping to solve the problem. The vibration got worse which caused me to think that maybe its a bad tire? I don't know if im right in my thinking but its the first thing that came to mind. They said at the shop all four looked ok and showed normal wear. Oh and btw it was a dynamic balancer.