Vibration Vibration Vibration
Your wheel vibration is not normal, read all the previous posts, there are several ideas listed here from wheel bearings to balancing and alignment issues. I would take it back to the place that you bought your new tires from and tell them your car is vibrating.
I replaced the front springs and shock with maxspeeds and Illuminas, balanced the rims and after I do the rear an alignment and be done with it. After the shocks replacements the car stop vibrating.
Got the car aligned, rebalanced tires..still a slight vibration, but barely noticeable. The mechanic checked for other stuff like wheel bearings or bent rims, but came up empty. I'm thinking it has something to do with the Falkens themselves. If so, I can live with it until I need new tires again.
Maxima Pilot
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,467
From: Beaverton, Oregon
Originally Posted by dkotanto
Same problem with me. I did the following and the vibration is still there:
- Stock tires were replaced with Falkens and balanced with Hunter 9700 and Roadforce. Vibration was still there.
- Falkens were replaced after 400 miles with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. Hunter9700/Roadforce balanced but vibration was still there.
- Align the car. No change, vibration still there.
- Replaced both front wheel bearings. Cost with another alignment, $350. NO CHANGE, vibration still there.
According to another member, Galo, who is also going through similar issues, it could be a Rack and Pinion (Steering Rack) adjustment issue that can cause vibrations. There is a TSB out for the 4th gen. that addresses wably steering wheel, pulling and vibration issues on late 4th gen cars. The same rack is used until 2002, if I remember correcly, and we could have the same issues in our cars.
What Galo did to remediate the problem was to do an "on-car" wheel balancing. On-car wb is a method of balancing your wheels when the wheels are on the car. Due to other factors, like axles and steering components, the car can continue to vibrate even if your wheels are completely balanced. The on-car wb can fix vibration issues when standard wheel balancing does not work.
The shops that do on-car wb are hard to find, so good luck.
- Stock tires were replaced with Falkens and balanced with Hunter 9700 and Roadforce. Vibration was still there.
- Falkens were replaced after 400 miles with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. Hunter9700/Roadforce balanced but vibration was still there.
- Align the car. No change, vibration still there.
- Replaced both front wheel bearings. Cost with another alignment, $350. NO CHANGE, vibration still there.
According to another member, Galo, who is also going through similar issues, it could be a Rack and Pinion (Steering Rack) adjustment issue that can cause vibrations. There is a TSB out for the 4th gen. that addresses wably steering wheel, pulling and vibration issues on late 4th gen cars. The same rack is used until 2002, if I remember correcly, and we could have the same issues in our cars.
What Galo did to remediate the problem was to do an "on-car" wheel balancing. On-car wb is a method of balancing your wheels when the wheels are on the car. Due to other factors, like axles and steering components, the car can continue to vibrate even if your wheels are completely balanced. The on-car wb can fix vibration issues when standard wheel balancing does not work.
The shops that do on-car wb are hard to find, so good luck.
Bottom line, if your tire/wheel combination 'road forces' on a Hunter 9700 anywhere north of 10 lbs of Road Force you will most likely shimmy. Needless to say, bad bearings will of course exacerbate that. Warped brake disks will also cause a shimmy even if you are not braking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because the brakes are designed to maintain a very (very very very) slight pad-to-rotor pressure to aid in drying after a puddle, etc etc etc.
Bottom line, diagnostics for shimmy needs to be in the following order:
Step 1: Road Force to <10 lbs of RFV with the machine set to balance in tenths of ounces instead of the traditional quarter-ounce sensitivity settings. If that checks out good, Step 2 which is to check for and correct Brake Rotor Warpage. If that checks out good, Step 3 is check for bad wheel bearings. If that checks out good, Step 4 is on-car balancing which as dkotanto says, is gonna be very hard to find....
Originally Posted by Lontar1
AS the topic says.... I'm going to have the car align and balance in the morning. If the car continues to vibrate what else can I look for. The car only vobrates between 65 and 75. I wil ask the shop to check the rims......
Thanks
Thanks
Originally Posted by Galo
Correct on all counts and BTW, I'm still shimmy-free. Also, for those of u who are insisting it's wheel bearings, it's not necesarily so....my car started the on-again, off-again, almost 'harmonic' shimmy with less than 20k miles on the odometer with perfect wheel bearings, so.....while I agree that bad wheel bearings could exacerbate the problem, in the end it's all due to balancing and road force -which includes out of round tires, bent wheels, etc etc etc.
Bottom line, if your tire/wheel combination 'road forces' on a Hunter 9700 anywhere north of 10 lbs of Road Force you will most likely shimmy. Needless to say, bad bearings will of course exacerbate that. Warped brake disks will also cause a shimmy even if you are not braking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because the brakes are designed to maintain a very (very very very) slight pad-to-rotor pressure to aid in drying after a puddle, etc etc etc.
Bottom line, diagnostics for shimmy needs to be in the following order:
Step 1: Road Force to <10 lbs of RFV with the machine set to balance in tenths of ounces instead of the traditional quarter-ounce sensitivity settings. If that checks out good, Step 2 which is to check for and correct Brake Rotor Warpage. If that checks out good, Step 3 is check for bad wheel bearings. If that checks out good, Step 4 is on-car balancing which as dkotanto says, is gonna be very hard to find....
Bottom line, if your tire/wheel combination 'road forces' on a Hunter 9700 anywhere north of 10 lbs of Road Force you will most likely shimmy. Needless to say, bad bearings will of course exacerbate that. Warped brake disks will also cause a shimmy even if you are not braking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because the brakes are designed to maintain a very (very very very) slight pad-to-rotor pressure to aid in drying after a puddle, etc etc etc.
Bottom line, diagnostics for shimmy needs to be in the following order:
Step 1: Road Force to <10 lbs of RFV with the machine set to balance in tenths of ounces instead of the traditional quarter-ounce sensitivity settings. If that checks out good, Step 2 which is to check for and correct Brake Rotor Warpage. If that checks out good, Step 3 is check for bad wheel bearings. If that checks out good, Step 4 is on-car balancing which as dkotanto says, is gonna be very hard to find....
Yeap, hard to find indeed. No one in Colorado can do an on-car wheel balance. I've even contacted a Colorado Hunter sales rep who could not locate any of his customers that use an on-car wheel balancer. I'm soooo frustrated with this vibration, but I'm putting it to rest and learn to live with it.
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