told shop to check front end and give alignment, still vibration at high speed!!!

[oboytroyman]

So they replace the control arm on the front passenger side. right axle, and both hub assemblies/wheel bearings in the front. After that they gave it a 4 wheel alignment and said its all set! he wanted to also replace my two front struts because the passenger right is leaking but said it wasnt too bad, so i said id do it another day...

Now the sho drives fine through town, but If I take it on the highway, going around 70, 75, 80mph there is a definite vibration in the car. You can really feel it in the drivers seat and the steering wheel maybe a little too. any ideas???

note* I also just put 2 new tires on the front and belle tire mounted and balanced them

 

[jedhead]

Are the wheels and tires balanced? Are the tires in good condition? Is the tread ok, no feathering, cupping or broken belts? Sometimes as tires wear out they can get out of round. In my experience, the cause of high speed vibrations has been tires.

Bob

 

[Off Road SHO]

Jack up the front and put it on jack stands; put the car in drive and get the wheels up to highway speed. I'd be willing to bet your tires are perfectly balanced but out of round. Seen it many times.

Tom

 

[Phoenix]

Maybe you lost a weight , happens all the time.

 

[oboytroyman]

tires out of round? what does thae meaan? i bought brand new continental extreme contactdws tires 225/55/16 tires. i have 2 tires on back that are 225/60/16. this wont cause vibration will it? its a bad vibration.

 

[Shoaz]

Jack up the front and put it on jack stands; put the car in drive and get the wheels up to highway speed. I'd be willing to bet your tires are perfectly balanced but out of round. Seen it many times.

Tom

This, or it shed a wheel weight somewhere.

Vibration from 70-80mph is almost always either wheel balance or a tire out of round. Out of round conditions happen for all sorts of reasons, including sitting in one place for a long time, separating tread, a broken belt, some other manufacturing defect, or even just uneven wear due to previous alignment issues.

 

[lowc]

your best bet would be a road force balance

 

[rubydist]

and a tire balance / tire roundness issue will appear worse on your car because the leaking strut is weaker than it should be and will not do its job damping out vibrations as well as it should.

 

[Radical540]

Jack up the front and put it on jack stands; put the car in drive and get the wheels up to highway speed. I'd be willing to bet your tires are perfectly balanced but out of round. Seen it many times.

Tom

...this is a very dangerous proposition I'm not sure I'd recommend and/or endorse.

 

[Off Road SHO]

your best bet would be a road force balance

No, the road force still just does a balance of the tire/wheel, just under road pressure. Three Discount Tire locations with RoadForce machines could not get the vibration out of my brand new Goodyear tires. They even rotated the tires on the wheels to put the heavy parts of the tire with the light part of the wheel to no avail. It wasn't till I watched the machine operator NOT watching the tire spinning that I found out about the out-of-round problems. Took it home to my lift, set it on jack stands and measured the runout; about 250 thousandths, 1/4"; took the truck back to Discount.

Two were way out of round. Replaced those two with two more new tires and one of those was also out of round. Replaced that one and finally had 4 round tires with no vibration up to my top speed of 97 mph. Discount offered to give me all 4 tires for free because of all the time I had spent with them on this one issue. (I spend a lot of money at Discount with all my vehicles and trailers, 42 trailer tires alone). I refused, even though I know they were filing warranty claims with Goodyear. I just wanted good tires for my good money spent.

Now when I get tires, I watch the balancing process and tell the order writer up front that I will be watching for out of round tires. The tire monkeys don't like to see me at their shop anymore.

Tom

 

[HotRodKid]

...this is a very dangerous proposition I'm not sure I'd recommend and/or endorse.

no its not. by simply having someone in the car to operate the gas and brake theres no chance of having the car fall off the stands and go careening through your neighbors house

****, the drag guys do it to get the trans and rear end fluids warmed up before they start running the car.

 

[TimboSHO]

tires out of round? what does thae meaan? i bought brand new continental extreme contactdws tires 225/55/16 tires. i have 2 tires on back that are 225/60/16. this wont cause vibration will it? its a bad vibration.

No, the road force still just does a balance of the tire/wheel, just under road pressure. Three Discount Tire locations with RoadForce machines could not get the vibration out of my brand new Goodyear tires. They even rotated the tires on the wheels to put the heavy parts of the tire with the light part of the wheel to no avail. It wasn't till I watched the machine operator NOT watching the tire spinning that I found out about the out-of-round problems. Took it home to my lift, set it on jack stands and measured the runout; about 250 thousandths, 1/4"; took the truck back to Discount.

Two were way out of round. Replaced those two with two more new tires and one of those was also out of round. Replaced that one and finally had 4 round tires with no vibration up to my top speed of 97 mph. Discount offered to give me all 4 tires for free because of all the time I had spent with them on this one issue. (I spend a lot of money at Discount with all my vehicles and trailers, 42 trailer tires alone). I refused, even though I know they were filing warranty claims with Goodyear. I just wanted good tires for my good money spent.

Now when I get tires, I watch the balancing process and tell the order writer up front that I will be watching for out of round tires. The tire monkeys don't like to see me at their shop anymore.

Tom

I have seen plenty of brand new tires with wobbles as well. I've also had plenty that fail a road force. Just because they have a wobble on the tire machine doesn't mean it will fail a road force though. The problem with being flat rate is that they don't pay us to keep swapping tires if they wobble or fail road force, so 90% of the time I don't even check anymore.....

I really haven't had much problems with Continentals, but I'd still take it back to Belle Tire and have them recheck balence, etc...

 

[notbange]

How about bad motor mounts or worn out CV axles, or a combination? Can cause highway vibration. Does the vibration go away or change if you take your foot off the gas?

 

[tool88]

i have the same problem ever since i had my subframe dropped to have the trans removed

 

[itwonder]

I agree that the first place to look is for a bad tire. It is indeed all too common for a brand new tire to have an out of round problem. Usually, the first symptom is on the balance machine. The technician will have trouble getting the tire to balance, and may use a lot more weight than normal. So check and see if one of the tires has a lot more balance weight than the other, or if either uses an excessive amount of weight; say over 3 ounces. One simple diagnostic you can do is the swap the front and rear tires. Drive it and see if the vibration changes. Putting the tires on a Hunter Road Force balancer can help find the problem tire (IF the technician knows how to use the machine properly), but it cannot correct the problem. The correction is to inform the tire manufacturer that you have a vibration problem and request the tire be replaced. The tire company should be helpful and responsive, but persistence and careful reading of the warranty may be required.

Oh yes, check out the back tires too. Older tires can develop a vibration.

 

[sperold]

Tire, plain and simple.
A mounted tire is a huge, heavy item, and any little thing wrong with it will show up big-time.

 

[SHOstopper1992]

At the shop I used to work at, they would put the car up on the alignment rack and then check the alignment, and if it was "close enought" then they wouldnt touch it.

At the Shop I work for now, started Friday, they make sure everything is 0-0 perfect.

Hope the 1st situation inst yours.

Check the tires for tread wear, missing weights, do what Off Road SHO said, yeah its dangerous so be careful, and check the that the tire inst out of round and that the rim inst bent.

 

[Shoaz]

...this is a very dangerous proposition I'm not sure I'd recommend and/or endorse.

You wouldn't like how I bed brakes/rotors.

 

[oboytroyman]

haha so I guess dumb mistake on my part..checked tire pressure in the rear tires and the rear driver side tire had about 7 psi. Filled it up to about 34 psi and seems to be holding..slow leak i guess. Took her on the highway and it pretty much solved all the vibration. its weird though, belle tire has told me a second time that my driver side inner tie rod is loose and now this time they told me the passenger was little loose, while the shop that did my alignment/control arm/wheel bearings said tie rods were perfectly fine

 

[lowc]

Tom i have only had issues with cheap tires on tthe road force. it sounds like the person that did your tires either didnt care or didnt have a clue