Here is my story. 2003 Cavalier LS Sport. Car ran amazing 3 weeks ago. Then my brake pads started squeelin in the front so I needed to replace them. I went to this brake shop that checked thae brakes. The front brakes needed changing, and the rotors were fairly worn (ceramic pads).
Then the mechanic tried to see what my rear drums looked like. He removed the Driver rear wheel(Passenger drum was not touched). Then attempted to remove the drum. I am not exagerating...he took the biggest sledgehammer, and just started going at it. Man oh, man I cringed. He kept doing it, and after abot 10-15 tries the drum came off. The car has 110k on board (lots of highway...hehehe) and I must say, the Drums looked in excelent shape. Ok... So he puts it back, mounts the drum and wheel, and proceeds to change Both front rotors and brake pads.
So I went on my way.... Got on the highway and felt vibrations at 65mph.... The brakes worked great with no pulsation... but the vibration....man oh man... Went back to the shop, mechanic drove it... said he took it up to 60, and felt nothing. Recomended to turn my drum...and said that it might be my tires..reaching their end of life.. Drum was turned...changed nothing.
Went and got new tires...Pirelli P3000. Vibration still present.
Went to get alignment.
Alignment shop told me that there was play in my front wheeelbearings.
Changed both front wheel bearings.
Finally got allignment.
Now... Vibration is still there, and the car does not feel as smooth as before this whole ordeal.
What dou you guys think...?
I need help. Is there a possibility that the first mechanic bent the axel in the back??? when he so vigurously attempted to remove my drum???
Something else you guys can think of??? BTW, there is no play in the rear wheel bearing...
All help is welcome.
Theo
how about getting ur wheels balanced if u havent already
no he didn't bend the axle in the back, thats how you get drums of, with a big @!#$in hammer
theo, I know it seems like such a horrible thing to do, beating on the drums with a hammer to get them off but it is almost always nesscary since when you use the rear brakes it wears the drum down and creates a lip. which makes it nearly impossible to get the drum off without a huge hammer.
Now to help you with your issue, I assume when you got new tires they were balanced right, if not that could be a problem.
Next, depending on where this shadetree tech was beating on the drum he could have misformed the face where the wheel mounts creating lateral variation in the mounting surface. then once you get going the variation is exposed in the form of a vibration.
The vibration is constant right, not just when you brake? If so the next thing I would do is inspect/replace the drum.. if you have access to a dial indicator it would benefit you alot!
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Thanks for the replys.
Additional information.
Tires were put on the car 3 days ago. The guys at Discount Tire balanced them...
What is a "dial indicator"?
The other thing is....
Well about 5 weeks ago, I installed the Turbotech Uper engine mount (the one they sold here in the group purchase). So I installed it, and did not like the dashvibration(bellow 1000 rpm), so an hour later it was off the car. Contrary to the advice on the instalation instruction, I did not use new bolts(tried going to a dealer ship, but they did not have them(GMC dealership...)) to attach the motormount to the engine.... So with all that swapping back and forth....the 2 bolts were kind of worn... I am wonderingf if this has anything to do with the vibration....and to be honnest I had a really small torque wrench, and it was very hard to actually get it to the 96 pounds of torque necessary..might not have tightened it all the way. Now the thing is this, The car did not have the vibration at highway speeds untill after the brake change.
BTW. The vibration does not happen while braking. and it is weird...there is variation in the intensity... I could be doing 80mph and faily smooth, with a hint of vibration, and at other times whith much more...
This is really pissing me off, as my car was extremely comfortable on the open road.
Keep the suggestions comming.
Theo
If you have an 03 or newer J with the big rear drums and the tech beat on them with a sledgehammer, I guarantee that the drum is BENT!! These drums bend very easily if you wail on them. I've replaced many of these drums because of this. If this is the case with yours, machining them is a waste of time, you won't get rid of the vibration. I bet replacing the drum fixes everything.
P.S. It is kinda strange that you don't have any brake vibration though. Usually when I road test for a drum issue, I LIGHTLY apply the park brake from about 40mph or so You may or may not feel a vibration, but you will hear a boomy roaring noise. Hope this helps.
a dial indicator will measure the amount of runout in the drum to tell if its bent, inspect before throwing the whole parts store at it.
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Hey what makes you think that the vibration is coming from the back and maybe not from the front?
Also, if you need any more parts please let me know cause I have a whole spare car, and I have thrown a lot of stuff away as it is only making my backyard look like a junk yard but I still have a lot of stuff.
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SunCavi_L61-T4 wrote:Hey what makes you think that the vibration is coming from the back and maybe not from the front?
Also, if you need any more parts please let me know cause I have a whole spare car, and I have thrown a lot of stuff away as it is only making my backyard look like a junk yard but I still have a lot of stuff.
Hey, I remember buying some parts from you a while back. Email me at Lbolta@hotmail.com
I have some parts requests.
Thanks,
Luis
I dont mean to thread jack, but Im having a vibration at above 70 or so... its none too noticible under 55 or so.
Im curious if all that can come from loose bearings?
I was changing suspension/wheels/tires, from my sunfire to my cav, and i noticed that if i pull on the front wheelbearings i can move them about 1mm or so from side to side. theyve got 74k miles on them so i expect them to have some play, the ones on my 'fire I just replaced and are solid as a rock
my question is if the car will vibe like that (whole dash dancing around) and what not from bad bearings?
I just swapped over complete suspension (d-specs and tenzo-r springs, fresh OEM mounts) rotors and pads from my sunfire that didnt have the vibes. the only difference is the sunfire has poly a-arm busings, and fresh bearings....
swapping the bearings might solve the problem?
I also think maybe you should get the drums replaced, to take mine off, i just shot some wd40 in and around the studs to where the hub met with the drum/rotor, and let it sit, shot again, and a few small taps and they popped off nice. A big hammer and a bad day isnt the best or only way to do it
jack up the wheel.. grab it @ 9-3 and see if u can move it if it moves it could be bearings which would def. cause vibration i would imagine
My first question is why the mechanic did not use the self adjuster hole on the back to compress the shoes back together a little to make it easier. Two I did this on my truck I hit the drum with a hammer and chipped the drum. This did cause a vibration at high speeds(+65). Usually if it is stuck after that the drum is locked to the hub surface and WD 40 put around the studs helps to remove it. The final thing that it could be is if the drums are put on without cleaning the hub surface with a wire brush it may not be sitting 100% flat. This can cause a vibration at high speeds.
