Front end vibration 86

[tripletdaddy]

1986 wagon, 1.9, 2brl eng, auto, 140k. The front end has a vibration that shakes the car and especially the steering wheel. It isn't evident until around 40mph and peaks around 55 - 60mph. It seems clearly tied to wheel speed. It's been an ongoing problem, and when it seemed to get worse after pulling the tires to check things before annual state inspection, I replace the right half-shaft. It needed it, but it didn't get rid of the vibration as much as I hoped it would. The left shaft is plenty tight, so not a suspect. No unusual sounds coming from the drivetrain stopping, starting, turning, braking, bearings, nothing.

Just recently, I discovered that when going 50+mph around hard turns, the vibration favored one side. So, trying to see what happens when driving even harder turning, it is much worse turning one way, typical vib straight, and near gone the other way.

So, tires and wheels are my first thought, but I thought I had rotated them with no improvement. However, they can still be suspect. I'll have to recheck their condition for bad wear or bulges, but at this point I'm just guessing what it could, since I feel I have ruled out a lot of the typical vibration sources.

Thanks for your help!

[mightymoose_22]

Make sure all tires are balanced. You may have lost a weight.

[tripletdaddy]

They had been in the past in trying to eliminate this problem, which it didn't, but I have considered doing it again. But it's at the point of doing that and being pressured by the tire guy to by new tires for a car that doesn't get used much and may not last long. And it could very well be that the tire or tires are the problem. I've also removed the chrome rim trim, but didn't help.

[AzTumbleweed]

Did you rotate the tires? If you do and it changes things then that could be the problem. If it doesn't change then I'd jack it up and check the tie rod ends.

[bne74honda]

Jack the front end up so the tires are off the ground. Gently pull the rear of each tire towards you while pushing the front towards the car. If there's movement back and forth, you probably need tie rod ends. I had the same vibration at similar speeds on my 95 and that was the problem.

If that does turn out to be it, check your ball joints as well - they're generally affected by this condition. Check them when you check the tie rods. Just pull the bottom edge of the tire towards you - if there's movement, you need 'em.

[tripletdaddy]

I guess you guys didn't catch the part about my pre-inspection before the state inspection recently. Everything is and had to be good and tight. So, I'm looking for the less obvious or something that you may think is ok that isn't. I haven't totally ruled out some things, but I will investigate those things as soon as I can. I am going to run it with the one side off the ground with and without the tire on. Based on what I experienced with the right shaft, I don't think the condition of the left shaft would produce this vibe. Tire seems fairly uniformly round. I'm very interested in what will testing without the tire produces.

[zzyzzx2]

Wheel balance, tie rod ends.

[tripletdaddy]

Well, I spent a fair bit of time on this testing with and without the tire. I had my suspicions about the tire and the axle, so I spun the tire on the car with a stationary reference and noticed it had some high spots, so it appears to be out of round. I secured the rotor with the tire off and had less but still some vibe. I them removed the caliper and rotor to test it with just the half shaft. Then it ocurred to me when I saw how far down the axle hung, I should also jack up the suspension so the axle was as straight as it could be to eliminate any vibration that may be due to the angle of the shaft. I had virtually no vibration. Put the rotor back on and also no vibe. But then I started getting a wierd new vibration that only ocurred in third/high gear. I got scared I'd loose the trans and thought maybe I had run it too long with just one side spinning, so I did everything thereafter with both sides spinning and the new vibration went away. Whew!!! Anyway, I was convinced I had identified the problem, so I put a different tire on, checked it for roundness and it produced some vibration. I put the original tire on and it was much worse. So, I reinstalled the previous tire and took it for a test drive and it is much better. Not perfect, but much better. One thing I did not verify, was if the rim was out of round too on that tire. Unfortunately, in the process of all the checking, I discovered two other problems. Sigh....

One seems to be contributing to the observed vibrations. Apparently the engine does not run smoothly from 2000 rpm to 3000 rpm. Unfortunately, that is the main speed the engine operates at while driving. The trans likes to shift to 2000 rpm so it tends to bog down and struggle after a gear change. While jacked up with no resistance against the trans, it would upshift just above 2000 rpm, but the engine had a real hard time getting past 2000 rpm to get the trans to shift up. I did check the cap and rotor. They were ok. I cleaned them but no improvement ocurred. No readily apparent vacuum sounds. I need to investigate this further, plugs, vac sounds, air filter region, this things has a friggin ton of emission crap on it!?! I'll post this under a new title as this is now a different problem. The other issue is just a sign of old age, though the motor only has 143k and one head replacement that I did. It leaks oil everywhere and is more noticable since the oil is getting on hot surfaces like the exhaust that it can be seen and smelled. Sigh...