Vibration / Shimmy at Cruising Speed

We just did rear brakes on a park ave (same brakes) and the new rotors made that last little shimmy go away.

not sure what walmart uses i think some of them use roadforce i might just take it to a tirebarn or one of those places that has more knowledge and higher volume of work / problems. Had my 305/35/18s done at my school and a student did them and tore the bead off. 1 .. so i have a 275$ new destroyed tire in the shed

a 305/35/18 is not a tire for a novice, or most run of the mill high volume tire shops. Now you know.

yeah i have been talking to some of the tech's at work and they thing it would be the CV joints going bad. No clicking but the faster you go the more the vibration becomes so its somthing that is a constant as the speed increases. i think ater getting the tires balanced for a 3rd time i asked the guy to check out the rims he said everything was pretty good as far as tires/rims go.

Might want to check the outer tie rod ends are tight.

I tried to move the tire up and down and side to side when it was on the lift no movement and ima pretty big guy....

It's hard to diagnose without switching out the wheels or tires, but in most cases that's where the problem originates. Mine turned out to be a slightly bent rim. New set of rims + tires fixed 100%. In the winter time (when I have the OEM wheels on), I live with it until I find a cheap replacement.

yea, i put on a set of rims a friend had and some of the vibration went away but not all of it. That was when i took the tires to get re-balanced a 3rd time. He told me they were out a bit but ont too bad. So it might be a little in the rim and a litte something else. TBD

kinda sounds like a low pitch alternator hummmmm the faster i go the higher pitch the noise gets. I turned the car completely off and coasted from 50 to a stop (used the brakes @ 20 to 0) and the noise was still there. never noticed it before being the blower was alway on and the windows up and radio jammin out but in earlier post i said i had a vibration at 20 + MPH im sure this has something to do with it. I was thinking CV's but now im leaning toward wheel bearings..... any ideas or what i should look for ?

Put the car into a hard corner and listen for it to get louder/softer. A bad wheel bearing sometimes, but not always, will get louder when there's more load transferred to it.

To eliminate the chance that it's a wheel or tire, rotate the wheels and listen for change.

Do the coasting test again from cruising speed - what happens when you shift into neutral?

when i shift into N nothing different still the same old annoying noise....

Assuming this is coming from the front - you can raise the car and check both wheels by rocking them hard 12/6 o'clock. If one has more slop, it suggests that bearing is bad.

figured mine out FINALLY!! it was an out of round tire that is getting warrentied for free!

im getting some rumbles between 70 and 80 mph. Anything under or below is fine. Does this mean new brakes/rotors? My stopping power is ok, nothing crazy when I brake and stop.

It's not when im braking. It's when im driving between 70-80mph I get some vibrations. It's just that sweet spot between 70-80mph. Any idears?

charlieRobinson wrote:

It's not when im braking. It's when im driving between 70-80mph I get some vibrations.

That's something that we've all been fighting. For the most part, all of our Rivs do it. When I replaced my rotors earlier this year, it knocked a lot of that vibration down. They were so rusty in the vents that they became out of balance. I still have a slight vibration though at higher speeds. I've tried everything. I even had that vibration after my new wheels and tires....

I have heard alot of people complain about a vibration like that but my car doesnt have it at all. Maybe the OEM wheels are difficult to balance or something with a motor or transmission mount in the series 2 that was different from the series 1?

Abaddon wrote:

I even had that vibration after my new wheels and tires....

Thats weird! Could it be something different with the flywheel on the series 2? Or would that certainly be felt at the same revs in lower gears? My car has zero vibration at speed so I would think its gotta be something you could fix if you pinpoint whatever is causing it!

A few factors can magnify the vibration, but in most cases the source can be traced to imbalanced wheels & tires. Our wheels are difficult to balance correctly if you request static balance (no weights on outside rim). Also our rims can easily bend of you hit a curb or bump. One of mine is slightly out of round, but they were able to balance it out.

Good solution is to switch to a set of quality tires and have a good balance job done.

Better solution is to switch to a new set of wheels that use hub-centric rings for better balance. This made the issue go away for me. I have no idea why in Aboddon's case this didn't fix.

Yep. I even Road Forced, AND force matched the wheels and tires....for those of you who don't know what that is, our wheel balancer at work will find the heavy spot of the wheel, and the heavy spot of the tire. You can mark them both, then spin the tire on the rim so that the heavy spots are opposite each other. It works great, but I still have a vibration.

Maybe this trans rebuild will help

Abaddon wrote:

Yep. I even Road Forced, AND force matched the wheels and tires....for those of you who don't know what that is, our wheel balancer at work will find the heavy spot of the wheel, and the heavy spot of the tire. You can mark them both, then spin the tire on the rim so that the heavy spots are opposite each other. It works great, but I still have a vibration.

Maybe this trans rebuild will help

In addition to road force balancing, some tires are simply out of round. My brother and I have been checking for this lately on tires we do at home (we have a tire machine in our garage). We will grind down the high spots if they are noticeable and the tires just do not balance. It's surprising how many tires are significantly (visibly) out of round.

Sears used to use a machine that did this many years ago, it was all the rage before 'road force balancing' (which doesn't really do all that much). Road force balancing just aligns the heavy spots on the tire with the light spots on the rim, but in most cases it really isn't all that effective or even necessary. But having a wheel out of round or a tire out of round are bigger vibration issues that can be dealt with.

Abaddon, try this sometime you feel like it - spin the wheel on the balancer with the lid open and watch the flat of the tread. If you can see up/down movement you can address it - we hold a tire crayon by the tire and let it mark the high spots as the wheel is spinning. Get a disc grinder and gently work down the high spots (trying to keep the surface arc, of course, don't just blindly grind away...). It's had excellent results for us.

I can try that, but I've gone through at least 4 sets of tires and 2 sets of wheels on this car since I've owned it. That vibration has never gone away. I have it now to where it's tolerable....

Abaddon wrote:

I can try that, but I've gone through at least 4 sets of tires and 2 sets of wheels on this car since I've owned it. That vibration has never gone away. I have it now to where it's tolerable....

Okay. My '98 rides smooth like glass at any speed. This is not just part of the car, something is up. Other rotating parts - CV shafts, brake rotors (I actually found a badly out of balance drum once), hmmmm... then we get into internal transmission parts. I'm sure you've checked all that and probable done brakes as well. How can you check the CV shaft? A raised lift/dyno? Remove from car and disassemble, and have the shaft balanced? Hmmm.

I have the shimmy between 60 & 70 mph. but not 70 & 80. Once I hit over 70 the car's fine and the strange thing about it is that sometimes I don't have of at all.Many have tried different rims and tires but still the goddamn vibration is there.....what the.....

How many have bought a new set of wheels and tires and still have the issue? Abaddon is one.

Mine cleared up overnight with the new wheels & tires. After re-balancing the OEM chromes, they are also nice and smooth now.

I think ewalfe did that too years ago,changed tires and rims with no effect

Abaddon wrote:

I can try that, but I've gone through at least 4 sets of tires and 2 sets of wheels on this car since I've owned it. That vibration has never gone away. I have it now to where it's tolerable....

It's probably the control arm bushings front and rear, Abaddon. They are really difficult to visually check without disassembly and clap out after 75-100K although not so bad as to be unsafe.

When you replace them be sure to leave NO NO NO preload on them. Have to leave the bolts a little loose, drive car a couple hundred feet to settle them. then tighten them hard while on the ground in a level bay. An hopefully your springs are not sagging. By the way you can adjust camber by changing the preload on the bshings but it wears them out quicker. . But you knew all that, right?

I got mine from rockauto.com, Raybestos front arms and Moog rear bushings, and the arms showed up with what looked like GM p/n stickers on 'em... I bet the Dormans would be fine, wish I could see the different ones side by side.