Vibration...again

[AWD_Guy]

Hey guys, long time I haven't come by...

I'm still getting a bad vibration at anything over 100km/hr. It does come on at 60km/hr but disappears till i hit 100.

My Mechanic says my guibo is fine, said to fix my wheels. Did that, put new rubber and had them re-blanced (and they balance fine) but the vibration is still there...

Now I'm leaning towards control arms and tie rods. Any suggestions?

 

[Big Daddy]

Glad you are back. How many miles on her now? When was the last time you replaced your shocks (assuming your mileage is up there) and I believe you are heading in the correct direction, maybe time for some suspension components?

 

[AWD_Guy]

The car is at 215K now.

The shocks were done on all 4 corners about 3 years ago.

 

[Big Daddy]

Than I believe you are on the right track, control arms and tie rods. Have you tried wiggling your tie rods and see if you can feel any play?

 

[AWD_Guy]

I'm not expereinced enough with this stuff, so bare with me.

Yes, there is play in them, I can grab the boot and it moves easily in a circular motion. If I try to go from 'side to side', there is not much play at all. Hope that makes sense.

Should I be checking 'play' with the front off the ground?

 

[echothreezero]

Take it to a suspension, wheel and brake place. Experts in this area can often find a problem quite quickly saving you hundreds of wasted dollars mucking around trying to find the problem.

My MR2 had a nasty vibration when I bought it. I had a look and found play in one of the tie rod ends, so I had that replaced. Vibration was almost gone, but still there, so I had the wheels balanced which fixed it. Obviously the unbalanced wheel had accelerated the wear of the tie rod end.

Where do you feel the vibration? if its through the brake pedal and steering wheel then the problem lies somewhere in the front end. If its through your seat, it lies somewhere in the drivetrain or the rear.

Front could be unbalanced wheels, worn wheel bearing or worn suspension components (bad wheel alignment won't usually give vibration). What sort of vibration is it? A wobble or a hum?

Rear could be unbalanced or out of phase driveshaft (these are balanced and as a unit at the factory - if anyone has had the two halves of the driveshaft apart, or done a manual swap and made a single driveshaft from two, then you can get vibration from it being out of balance or from being assembled incorrectly.)

Rear could also be unblanaced wheels, wheel bearings, cv's or other.

Post up some more info, or better yet take it to the pros.

 

[Doughnut]

Just to add to what Graham said, your mechanic telling you to "fix your wheels" means to me that they could be buckled? I know my old rims where buckled quite badly and caused vibration at and above 80km/h do your rims have any serious dings or scratches? Signs of repair on the insides?

Just thought I'd put this out there.

 

[AWD_Guy]

Thanks guys.

The 'wobble' is in the steering wheel for sure. I do not feel it in the seat, just the wheel.

As for the wheels, I had specifically asked the guy doing the balancing to let me know if there was any issues with getting these perfectly balanced. He said they balanced fine and had to use very little weights.