It's taken me this long but I've tried different rims and also balanced them, so finally wheel balance is out. I can take it in for an alignment, but it was done maybe 16k ago?? Before that, it was around 40k to the last one and the alignment was barely out of spec. So my hunch is the alignment is fine.

I get a shake that you feel the most around 55-65 mph. Go faster and you can't feel it as much. Also, it's not constant, but I can't determine when you feel it. My hunch is that it's drivetrain or front suspension related. Anybody get something like this in the high 60's to early 70's and cure it? It really is annoying. Thx.

 

vibration is sometimes a hard thing to pinpoint. If your steering wheel shimmys left to right at high way speeds your tires usually need a dynamic balance and if its a up and down king of vibration the tires need a static balance. The Tires could be out of round as well as the wheels. Check radial and lateral run out on both if you can. Believe it or not sometimes your rotors are so badly warped that they can cause slight vibration in the car. Blown struts also will cause the wheel to loose contact with the road at highway speed causeing a vibration. Then we get to the underneath of the car. Basically anythign bent or worn out in your suspension system can cause this problem. A normal indication of your control arm bushings gone bad will be on a straight road the car will veer of to one side all the sudden. I would recommend getting underneath there and checking everything out. Also a bad drive axle or cv joint can cause a vibration but normally from such a problem you would notice vibration in more of a speed range.

 

The axle or cv joint worries me because I found grease built-up outside of the boot on one side. I just may be feeling the vibration when the speed is changing, not positive.

Another consideration is that with the 18" rims there are hub-centric rings which are all there, but in scrutinizing them without the lug nuts the wheel has considerable play around the bolt pattern. However it was never a problem before so I don't think that's it. Ugh, maybe the axle/cv's!