Stupid vibration. Help!

[Pretzellogic]

I just returned from having all four wheels balanced in order to fix a vibration problem I've been having. A little shimmy, felt through both the wheel and the frame. I found that a front and rear wheel had both thrown some weights, so no big deal, right? Just get it balanced and it will be right as rain.

Nothing doing. Problem still persists. The balance was, as far as I can tell, well done and not rushed. As I said, it's a shake in both the steering wheel and in the frame. It gets worse with speed, and I would swear I could feel in in the accelerator as well.

Any thoughts?

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

Take it someone that knows what they are doing.

 

[Pretzellogic]

Well, I still owe you those wheels, Brian. Would you say you know what you're doing?

 

[Action Jackson]

Alignment? Steering rack and connectors? Bushings?

Wouldn't hurt to have the wheel bearings checked too.

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

Bring them down sometime, we'll go for a ride see whats going on.

Alignment will not cause a shimmy unless it is a broken or damaged part. Wheels that are out of balance usually only have a vibration in a certain mph range. Brake rotors warped can cause a shimmy all the time, if you feel it in the steering wheel means its usually coming from the front. Also a tire that balances good can still have a high or low spot in relation to the wheel. This can also cause a vibration. A tire that has an inconsistant sidewall strength can also cause a vibration.

All these things can be diagnoised by a Road Force Balancer. Which, I might add, we just got a brand new one (15 thousand dollars). It takes a long time to do though, and is kinda pricey.

 

[Pretzellogic]

My alignment is fine, and it wouldn't cause vibration anyway. There is a slight vibration in the pedal when braking, as well. It does vary with speed. Rotors was my next guess. I suppose I could have them machined. I'd buy new rotors, but I'm broke.

Maybe sometime this week, if I get a goddamed break, I'll come up and say hi. In the meantime, I'll rotate my exhaust bearings and refill my blinker fluid.

 

[cbcbd]

I'd say rotors. Go 80mph and brake hard. Does it shake?

 

[AznXstazy]

dam i got that same thing. my i think its my front rotors though. when im going about 50 i hit the brakes a little hard, but not like slam it to the floor hard. sometimes i get a vibration in my steering wheel(thats why i think its the front rotors not the rear) and my whole wheel and my freind in the front passenger seat says he can feel a vibration. i have the stock oem mp3 pads in the front, but my rotor seriously looks like it needs reurfacing. i checked all the parts and everything looks good, even sprayed some silicone in some bushings to make sure. hope that helps

 

[Pretzellogic]

Yeah, I'd say rotors too. I've driven cars with warped rotors before and never felt it as predominately as this one.

 

[girth]

It's most likely out an out of balance wheel, even though you had them rebalanced. Tire shops can't balance wheels for s*** now-a-days. It took me FOUR ******* balance attempts before I could find a place that did the job worth a damn.

 

[Mike R]

Bent wheel(s)? Could be why the wieghts were gone. Try rotating the fronts to the rears.

 

[WeaDD]

I had the same problem with the vibration. Had everything checked out and wheels balance 3 times and still nothing. I got fed up with it and put my stock wheels back on.
Stock wheels got rit of the vibration and now causes me to keeep an eye on my speed now that the ride is so much better than it was.

just my $.02

 

[JOS3]

you could have a bent rim. have you hit anything recently or before the shaking began?

 

[AznXstazy]

yea bent rim. i thought u vibrated when u applied the brakes. i vibrate when i apply the brakes. i dont vibrate at speeds. my freind hit a pot hole with his alloy wheels, but a BIG dent into his rim. now when he drives at 40+ his car shakes so much that im neve riding with him till he get new rims.

 

[BaCiLoN]

same here....bent rim and it drives me nuts!!! Looking for new wheels, but can't really find any 16"s that I like...

 

[AznXstazy]

yup my vibration was caused by my rotors. when i pushed on the brakes it vibrated and i took off the front rotors, found that hte pasenger side front was burnt...... wtf time for new ones!

 

[AnthonyO3]

to cure vibration due to braking, first step is have your rotors measured with a micrometer, to see how much "meat" is left on the rotor. The get them turned if they are above the mimimum thickness.
Vibration while you are driving could be cause by a number of things, first thing that is looked at is a out of balanced wheel. But it gets alot deeper than that. Wherever you take your wheels to get balanced request them to give you road force test on the tire. What that does is find the high spot on the tire if there is one. If there is a high spot on the tire then there is really no way to fix it unless to get a new tire.
Then check for a out of balanced wheel or bent wheel that could cause a vibration, which could be tested by the same machine that balances the wheel's.
Next test is a test that anybody can do, just run your hand over tire and feel for choppiness, what i mean by chopiness is the thread on the tires being uneven, like there any little rideges on the tire. Only way to fix that is just to get a new tire.

 

[AznXstazy]

not to jack thread, but how much should the micrometer show on a good rotor?

 

[BaCiLoN]

man, i have both bent wheel and vibration during breaking!! i changed my break pads about six months ago but never turned the rotors so maybe I'll have that checked out...when i originally had the wheel vibration issue, i went to firestone and the guy showed me the bent wheel on the lift...

 

[DaKidd]

It may just be your tires. Have you had to slam on the brakes lately? I had to lock up the brakes when I had my last set of tires and it wore a flat spot on it. you could not really see it, but it caused the car to vibrate more and more the faster I went.