Will rotors cause high speed vibration?

[yardmechanic]

I have been fighting a vibration on and off for a year on my 93 lesabre. I have read every available thread and there seems to be a lot of them on this subject.
Can the rotors cause a vibration from the 50 to 70 mph range?
Or how about rubber engine/trans mounts?

I was a the last draw and bought some rims and new tires. NO LUCK. The local chassis mech saw the right axle wobble. Installed a new cv axle assembly. No luck. I just talked with him and told him about one of the threads that talked about rear wheel alignment. He is going to load it on the rack now and check.

[ChemMan]

Have you checked for codes? An engine misfire could cause a vibration like that and will set a code.

[Bassasasin]

Seems to me you jumped over front end allignment..

I have heard of CV boots vibrating, allignments, tires with bad belts that seem to get worse at high speeds, water in tires, differentials, but no rotors unless broken.

Have a on vehicle wheel spin done. Occasionally a severe enough tire vibration can be seen with an expert watching from another car.

Where does the vibration show itself? Does steering left, right, touching brakes, throttle, effect the vibration?


Good Luck

[yardmechanic]

When I turn left and then run straight down a road the car will pull left fairly hard. If I turn right onto a road then travel straight the car will track very straight with no pull. That spooked me enough to drop it off at the chassis shop. They still did not put it on the rack yet as I explained above.
The vibe will start at 45 and get worse with speed. The vibration really feels like a heavy out of balance or broken belt, but I had new tires and 4 reconditioned rims installed. And nothing changed. If I steer on a highway bend the steering wheel will pick up on more wobble.

It must be mechanical. I'll update as soon as I can.
Thank you.

[cahdummy]

I just started having similar problems with my 96 LeSabre. My daughter bumped a tree Saturday while backing up and with the wheel turned hard. No visible damage to the car. After that bump, the car started to vibrate. We put the spare on the front tire where she bumped and the ride smoothed right out, so we thought a tire weight must have gotten knocked off. So we had the tire rebalanced, put it on and the ride was still great. We went about 50 miles, made a stop, got back in and it was vibrating again. When we hit the interstate, it was "jumping" pretty bad, so we pulled off at a rest stop,got out and took a look, but nothing obvious. Started back up again and it smoothed out gradually. Seems to be over 55 it gets in synch in some way and smooths out.

Totally freaky.

We're going to keep an eye on it and see if we can figure it out. Do post if you figure your vibration out.

[Bassasasin]

Originally Posted by cahdummy

I just started having similar problems with my 96 LeSabre. My daughter bumped a tree Saturday while backing up and with the wheel turned hard. .

Sounds like you bent or damaged the steel belted radial tire..


Good Luck

[cahdummy]

Originally Posted by Bassasasin

Sounds like you bent or damaged the steel belted radial tire..


Good Luck

We checked the tire and it looks good. Took it out yesterday for about 50 miles total, up to speed on the highway and no vibration. We're thinking maybe a strut might have gotten stuck and is now ok. (fingers crossed)

This stuff always seems to happen when the temperature is below zero with the wind howling, doesn't it?

Cold weather/frozen slush might have been part of the problem?

[Bassasasin]

Oh yah.. all the outside accessable stuff breaks in the worst weather. All the inside stuff breaks in the summer on a hot day when you cant run the AC. LOL..

Im hoping your right but a little sceptic.

Quite often a bad belt looks good until the road load and car weight and highway combination reveals a problem. Rotating the tires may help diagnose this.

Good Luck

[yardmechanic]

I did not check for codes for the engine, but the engine will cause a vibe/consistant bounce. As for the wheel bounce feeling, if I let off the throttle at high speed the bounce stays. The alignment checked out good and was not changed.

I have been following the previous similar threads and I came to the conclusion that this car cannot handle cheaper tires that may be less than perfect.

When coming down an off ramp and the wheel feels to be bouncing at a constant frequency and I hit the brake the bounce will stay the same untill slowed. The next day it may not bounce and be a smooth stop. The brake pedal will never pulse as in a warped rotor.

I asked the local parts store about struts and they claimed to have a Gabrial strut that was heavy duty and less of a cushy ride. Does any one agree that a more heavy strut will hold the bouncing suspension more stabil??? Or how about some strut input.

[lesab92]

We had vibration issues also with our '92 Lesabre. These are comfortable cars but they develop a lot of issues over time. We replaced our tires last August and the vibrations went away. We did have warped rotors at one point but only felt vibration when braking from high speed. We've also had a heck of a time with front brakes, having replaced hoses 2x, rotors/pads a bunch of times, calipers, you-name-it. We also replaced the master cylinder once which was really scarry cause we lost the pedal totally which I thought was not supposed to happen. My suggestion would be to never cut new rotors. And don't cut rotors to true up unless the shop can cut the rotors on the car. A few years back we had a really sloppy handling front end. We replaced front struts, but more important, there are some spacers or mounting plates at the top that could also need replacing. When we replaced those, the front end was really tight and the car handled beautifully. My opinion on our '92 having owned it for about 7 years is that the front is too heavy. I personally feel the suspension and braking system is under designed for the size and weight of this vehicle. Maybe these would have been just as good as rear wheel drive cars.

[NoddaMechanic]

YardMechanic, I have a 97 LeSabre and I am having the exact same vibration problems. Did you end up fixing your problem? Did you find the root cause? I would appreciate any advice.

[3echo9]

I have been battling the same issue with a 92 Lesabre with 115k miles. I get more vibration at 11:00 and 1:00 on the steering wheel. I can get vibration at speeds as low as 35mph but more noticeably over 55mph. I have replaced front motor mount, rotors, ball joints, tie rods and tires. Each time a lift into the air and bring it back down it seems to subside for a few days. Then the vibrations come back.

I'm sure struts need to be changed as the Dyna Ride is more like a Dyna Bob-up-and-Down.

Any suggestions appreciated.