At speeds lower than 60mph I don't seem to have any problems with vibration. After I get on the freeeway and start to cruise at 60mph or faster though, I get a continuous vibration at the passenger side of the front of the car. It's almost more like that side of the car is
bouncing, really. To try to isolate the cause, I have:
- had all tires balanced and rotated
- had the front end aligned; I did have excessive toe out on the PS, but that was corrected
- swapped brake rotors from PS to DS
- swapped struts from PS to DS
- tested for wheel bearing failure; jacked car up and pulled/pushed on top and bottom of both PS and DS tires, detected no play
I sure am open to ideas as this problem is making me pretty miserable.
do you have any type of aftermarket rims on the car
Sounds like to me you could have a steel belt broken on one of youre tires or a warped rim.
So for sure if you move your passenger front tire to the back, the vibration doesn't follow? Don't take a shop's word on it, do it yourself.
Also, check your CV joints. I've seen vibration problems that only show up at highway speeds on a certain side.
Thanks for your replies.
I've got the stock Z24 star-pattern wheels with (replacement) Goodyear RS-A tires. I don't believe that it's either my tire nor my wheel, but I won't dismiss that possibility. It's just that I've had the tires both rotated and balanced and the problem remains at the front passenger side of the car. So for now, I'm going to put that idea on the back burner.
I'm willing to entertain the notion that it is the CV joints. How difficult is it to change one?
Also, regarding my wheel bearing.. was the test I used (jack the car up, grasp the wheel, pull, feel for play) the only or conclusive test to determine if the wheel bearing has failed?
Generally speaking if your wheel bearing has failed, you should know about it prior to hitting 60mph. Since you are pretty sure about it not being rims and tires, I would look at the rest of the suspension as well.
- What condition are the struts in?
- What condition are the various bushings in?
- What condition are the balljoints/tierod ends in?
Not really sure how to test the CV joint other than drive in circles slowly and listen for clicking and other odd noises. Also just do a visual inspection of the CV boots to make sure they aren't torn and throwing grease.
The struts should still be good; they're (Mantapart) Bilsteins which should last as long as my car. They're supposed to, anyway. I emailed Mantapart asking about the details of the warranty and of course they didn't email me back so I guess the only way to rule the struts out is by replacing them which I don't want to do yet because the damping seems to be fine.
I got a look at my axle boots when I swapped my struts from PS to DS; I didn't see any tears or leakage. I didn't inspect them closely so I'll take a second look sometime soon.
My bushings and tie rod ends are original- 9 years old. For a while there I didn't keep the tie rods greased; could that have caused a tie rod failure? Could that contribute to or even be the problem?
And the bushings; my car has been lowered for the past 8 years, which means that the bushings have been in a partially-twisted state all that time (that's my understanding of how rubber bushings work- by absorbing shearing forces w/in the rubber body between the bushings' inner and outer flanges.) It seems too plausible that they could be shot. Has anyone replaced their front suspension bushings and rid themselves of any vibrations in the process?
