Front pass. side wheel wobble

[marvsho17]

At all speeds the front passenger side wheel feels as if the lugs are loose and the wheel is about to fall off. With low speed turns the wheel feels really loose and wobbly. This is accompanied with a steering wheel shake, if I don't hold the wheel to the left it will shake pretty good. It has gotten to the point where I don't like to take it above 50 mph because of the shaky steering wheel.

I started off with the easy stuff:
Replaced passenger front tire--no change.
Replaced the front pads, passenger side front rotor --little change.
Replaced passenger front wheel bearing, did not replace hub --little change.

After all that I still have this shaky loose feeling up front. I'm thinking either halfshaft or maybe the hub was indeed bad. Any help?

 

[e_clouser]

My experience says if the half shaft or CV was bad you would hear it clicking on a hard turn. This may be the center support bearing, that would give you a wobble. How is the ball joint and tie rod? another possibility.

 

[Phoenix]

Subframe bushings / strut rod bushings or subframe insert loose at the strut rod / ball joint / tie rod inner and outter.

Couple ideas on the loose.

 

[warmonger]

i'd go with ball joint...you DON'T want that to completly break while your driving...it happens frequently too.

 

[SHOBlu]

If you can, jack up the car on the passenger side and put it on a jack stand (just that one side is ok). Make sure the parking brake is on and chock the rear wheels on the front sides. Run it in gear at idle and see if anything looks out of round both radially and axially on the raised wheel. If nothing looks amiss, start checking over the entire front suspension setup.

It sounds from the way you describe, like it is something that has to do with the wheel spinning. The hub being warped could be a candidate. Check the center support bearing for the passenger side like e_clouser previously stated. That could do it too. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[marvsho17]

Well, I'll break open the piggy bank again tomorrow and give it another look.

 

[marvsho17]

Update:

Today with the window down and the steering wheel shaking like **** I could hear the drivers side tire making a rubber like noise. I removed the wheel and took a look at the drivers side suspension. The half shaft on that side really looks tweaked. Just by turning the rotor it looks bent in like a slight 's' shape. Any idea how this could have happened? I haven't hit any curbs or anything in recent memory. This doesn't explain the looseness from the passenger side but it would explain the steering wheel shake.

Adding to the problem list is my clutch pedal. With the vibration coming from the front end a noise started from what I thought was the dash. Turns out the clutch pedal is buzzing like **** now. Could a bent half shaft cause the clutch to get out of wack?

 

[luigisho]

I always replace brake pads and rotors in pairs. The rotor probably just overheated and warped. Unless anything else is really visible you won't be able to know what else is amiss with that thing so out of round.

 

[93rev2sev]

I feel your pain.

The good news is, half shafts are only $65 each or so. I would go after those first. In the course of changing them you will find the other worn parts. I chased a shake like yours for a long time. When I replaced the halfshafts, I was amazed at how smooth the car can be at 90MPH.
But then again...
I also replaced my intermediate shaft and both ball joints, subframe bushings, strut rod bushings and stabilizer bar links. You will be proud of yourself.

Edit...oh and motor mounts...front and back (tranny mount was new a year ago).
Edit edit: I might as well give you the prices:
Ball joint: Rock Auto $67
Half Shaft:Rock Auto $53.79
Subframe Bushings (gen3 rear) SHONutperformance.com: $124.08
2 recall kits(SHONut): 37.14
Front mount RCM: 129.99
Rear mount RCM: 89.99
Trans mount RCM: 89.99

 

[marvsho17]

I always replace brake pads and rotors in pairs. The rotor probably just overheated and warped. Unless anything else is really visible you won't be able to know what else is amiss with that thing so out of round.

After a break in, and a few other bad incidents involving the sho i'm trying to do the bare minimum to keep it driveable and decent. I think I see a different sho in my future; but don't let my 91 hear that.

I'll probably replace the drivers side halfshaft and go from there. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[spazmoid]

Mine was doing this too, it was just a bad wheel bearing on my car.

 

[DemonNeno]

Loose steering at high speeds is very common symptom of a bad balljoint. You keep jumping around with what you're doing. did you check these front end parts (someone posted about inner/oute tie rods, bushings, balljoints)? You can't find a bad inner tie rod without have the vehicles weight on it. If you don't have access to an aligment rack w/ turn plates, you may want to try going to a beach/sandy area and slightly jacking up the wheel to make it easier on yourself to turn the wheel back and forth. You need the weight of the vehicle mostly on the wheel, though. Inner tie rods are a pain to diagnose in some cases.

Did you check if your strut rod is coming apart? Subframe bushings intact? Wiggle for play in the balljoint? On FWD cars w/o a upper control arm, you must wiggle the wheel by grabbing both sides of the lower front corner of your wheel while the suspension is unloaded and hanging and wiggle it diagonally.

Bent axles are always a mystery as to how they happen to bend. Good luck!

 

[mendyrips]

What about a steering wheel shake at low speeds?

 

[SHObill]

Mine was doing this too, it was just a bad wheel bearing on my car.

BINGO! Bet you have a bad wheel bearing!

 

[marvsho17]

Loose steering at high speeds is very common symptom of a bad balljoint. You keep jumping around with what you're doing. did you check these front end parts (someone posted about inner/oute tie rods, bushings, balljoints)? You can't find a bad inner tie rod without have the vehicles weight on it. If you don't have access to an aligment rack w/ turn plates, you may want to try going to a beach/sandy area and slightly jacking up the wheel to make it easier on yourself to turn the wheel back and forth. You need the weight of the vehicle mostly on the wheel, though. Inner tie rods are a pain to diagnose in some cases.

Did you check if your strut rod is coming apart? Subframe bushings intact? Wiggle for play in the balljoint? On FWD cars w/o a upper control arm, you must wiggle the wheel by grabbing both sides of the lower front corner of your wheel while the suspension is unloaded and hanging and wiggle it diagonally.

Bent axles are always a mystery as to how they happen to bend. Good luck!

I know you have access to an alignment rack, are you offering your services Neno?? I still have the wobble.
The whole front suspension is pretty much shot, so replacing the parts that didn't add to the wobble really didn't bother me. Next up on the list would be to replace the ball joints and strut rod bushings but now the clutch is acting up. This car is going to **** real fast.