red13brx7

I have a real bad shake in my front end, it is only around 40 MPH and sometimes it does it and sometimes it doesn't. The wheels are all tight, aligned and everything. I just am trying to figure out, the wheel bearing is good. So does that leave me with tie rods and ball joints? Which do you guys think it could be?

peejay

Tie rods/ball joints/wheel bearings have **** all to do with a shake. Neither does alignment, unless it is soooooooo far out of whack that the car has zero directional stability and it can't decide which way to go so it tries to go both ways. (But at that point you wouldn't want to take the car over 20mph, that's how unstable it'd be)

Swap the tires front for rear. Problem go away/move to the rear? You need a rebalance, or possibly one of the tires is out of round.

red13brx7

na, I just tried on two different sets of tires, same thing. I am pretty sure that ball joints can have something to do swith a shake..

peejay

Trust me, they can't.

red13brx7

How do you come to that conclusion?? When you replace them and the shake goes away, that is enough conclusion for me... I am thinking more that it is tie rod ends though, the inner feel worn out. I will get it checked, and let you know if you are right or not.

peejay

I've had, oh, eight years of experience in the field.

Ball joints, by themselves, will not cause a shake. Think about how the suspension works - if the ball joint is loose, hwere will the forces that cause the front end to shake come from? (And it takes a *lot* of force to shake a car) What generates that kind of energy? If it is truly a speed related shake and not a engine speed related shake (you did try driving in different gears, right?) and not a driveline shake (changes under different loads) then it has to be because the tires are out of round or imbalanced.

Now, if the tires are out of round and imbalanced, and the ball joint is loose, that does serve to amplify the shake. And replacing the ball joint MIGHT make things feel better, but you aren't solving the root problem.

My ball joints are way loose. Happened because I had to hammer the snot out of the steering arms to free them from the struts. Car does not vibrate or shake at any speed up to about 80, which is as fast as I ever care to go.

Ball joints cannot *cause* a shake.

red13brx7

Ok, well I will let you know. Every other person that I have talked to has said balljoint, or tie rod end. I am leaning toward tie rod end, just because it makes me feel better.. I am sure that its not the tires, it has to be something else that is *making* them shake. Not saying that the tires are PERFECT but i would say that they shouldn't shake if everything else if fine..


Just curious on one note... My dad has a Talon Tsi.. it was shaking just like mine is now.. only at 45 or 60 in his case, and they replace I am pretty sure that it was just ball joint, an the problem disapeared.. How can that happen if all they did was do a ball joint and re align the car, never touching the tire or wheel at all.. And the wheel was on tight and everything was fine there.?

hornbm

40MPH? Check you driveshaft, and make suere one of the bolts didnt come loose and/or fall out. It happened to me, real bad vibration around 40 MPH, wetn away after 50. Looked under the car and one the of the driveshatf bolts had come out.

red13brx7

the only thing is, its not coming from the back or the middle, it is all in the steering. It just doesn't feel that much like a drive shaft. BUt I will check it.

79+80+84_rx-7

my first thought would be a bubble or something in the tire...... or treads seperating from the tires...


but... if anything on your steering is worn, go ahead and replace it anyways and take all the slack out of it.... safer and more precise steering

hornbm

mine felt like it was in the front too, but none the less it was the driveshaft.

red13brx7

oh, I had that come loose too, but it always was in the back.. that was atleast when mine went out. I will go check it right now.

red13brx7

They are tight. I have never replaced anything on the steering except for the box, so it could really be anything. As I said like ten times before, I don't really think it is the tire, since it did it with two sets of tires.

peejay

Did you check the tires?

You can feel 1/32" out-of-round in these cars. You can feel a quarter ounce of imbalance in these cars.

Really pissed me off when I was working at a shop that sold a lot of tires (name starts with G and rhymes with "goodyear") because I did all the vibration complaints and we were getting a lot of brand new passenger car tires that were just awful! Out of round, shifted belts (lopsided) etc. starting with when they went to their crappy "square shouldered" tires. And I couldn't do a damn thing about it, even though maybe one in four tires was GOOD! Official policy was the customer had to complain before we could do anything. And then the square shoulder idiocy would cause feathering and cupping of the outer tread blocks no matter what, causing many complaints as well.

Only tire of theirs I would recommend is the "Club" because it is the only passcar tire they sell that has rounded shoulders like God and Michelin (inventors of the radial tire) intended. Never had a problem with them on personal cars. Good drag tires too.

shm21284

40mph is pretty low for a shake for an out of balance tire... unless its a bent rim or an egg shaped tire. I would think it could be something else, although it's currently got me stumped....
When you mean shakes, does it just kinda wander back and forth on the road and have sloppy stearing? or do you actually mean you feal like your *** is being messaged

shm21284

well you said its in the stearing... hands being messaged

79+80+84_rx-7

warped rotors?

YapaKanichi

it might be the balancing, check the weights. Go back to where you got the wheels balanced. Have them check it out. It kinda sounds like the rotors might be warped. I doubt its your ball joints. Does your wheels have the weights you hammer o nthe edge or the sticky ones that go inside the rims?

Metallic_rock

I had a shake up front, and it was the front anti sway bar being loose. Check that. It really wasn't speed related, but...

Bruceman

iTrader: (5)

"Ball joints cannot *cause* a shake"

They can.

I had this problem on my wifes '94 BMW 325i (170000 miles). It took me 6 months, a set of new tires, and much aggravation before I was able to fix it. I never thought it could be balljoints (I have many years as a master mechanic) but eventually the problem got worse and occurred at 40mph.

Initially the shake occured only at highway speeds, when driving over a rough surface, and only when the steering was turned slightly to the left. The shake would develop in the steering and it felt like the wheel was hopping vertically off the road surface. I drove along side my wife on the highway and when the shake developed the wheel could be seen to vibrate not vertically but horizontally (shaking to the left and right).

When the problem was so bad it occured at 40mph or less and again required a combination of slight steering input and bumps, I had to take it off the road. I checked all steering and ball joints. One outer lower ball joint was totally shot. I have never seen one so bad. I replaced them and now no problems.

So maybe red13brx7 has a ball joint problem too.

red13brx7

I will swap tires tonite.. AGAIN!. And if its not the problem I am taking it to get checked out. Not sure what it could be just yet. I will let you guys know. Thanks

capri93

put the whole front of the car up on jack stands do not compress the suspention. Grab the sides of the tire and try to wiggle the tire if it moves side to side its most likely tire rods or berings if it shifts top to bottom its most likely ball joints or again bearings tri this its a simple check and it only takes a slight amout of movement to create a bad shake.

Junia

luck under the hood and make sure there isn't a midget dancing around inside. I've had that happen once. He wouldn't listen so I had to get a restraining order on him.

red13brx7

We alredy did this. And we got horizontal shift. We check the wheel bearing and it is fine. That is how I came to the conclusion of ball joints or tie rod ends. Just kinda a guessing game now.

red13brx7

Well I just swapped the back with the front and the shake went down considerably, but it is still there. So I now know that the one wheel is out of balance and there is probably a tie rod end going out. I played with it a little bit and we got some shift, and it is wearing the inside of the tires. I think I will take it in tomorrow, to get the wheels rebalanced, and see if thats what they think it is too. Oh THanks PEEJAY, you were onto something, I just didn't want to believe it just yet, but now I know it is a combination of the two.