Hi, I have a 97 GLE with 193k. Most likely the struts&springs were never replaced.

When I hit some bumps on the road/highway it feels like the car is all over the road.

Also on some highways my steering wheel vibrates like crazy over 70 mph.

I'm going to buy Tokico HP or Illumina and tokico springs set on ebay, but I wonder if the steering wheel vibrations on the highway are connected to worn suspension.

I thought may be I need wheel balance but there are no vibrations below 60mph.

Also do I need to replace any other parts of suspension like strut mounts ? How do I find out if they are worn ?

 

I was in that boat 1/2 a year ago, and before you buy the parts let me share my experience with you. My car is mostly city mileage, so by 126K miles the suspesion was falling apart. (now 132K)

First, i started to get a clunking sound when going over bumps or stepping on/letting go of the brakes. Turned out that the control arm bushings were shot. I got 'em changed using ES bushings. Clunking was gone. Soon i started to get vibrations when going 60mph+ on the HW. Ended up replacing the control arms themselves/new bushings. Also put in all 4 TOKICO HPs

Second, while tackling the control arms, i thought that i should look into a "squeaking over bumps" issue. Which turned out to be swaybar endlinks which i got replaced while working on the control arms. I also decieded to change the sway bar bushings to ES bushings while i was @ it (they looked like they were getting pushed out). After all that, everything was perfect. Got an allignment (after which i've depeloped a weird allignment issue)

Third, a couple of months after, the car had developed an annoying "shimmy" in the steering wheel, every little imperfection on the road would be felt in the steering wheel. It turned out that when i had the TOKICOs put in, the dude re-used the old strut mounts & bearings which got shot and caused a lot of up/down motion in the suspension. Got new OEM strut mounts/bearings and the shimmy is gone, the steering feels more solid.


SOOOO, it all depends on how long you wanna keep your car for, and what is it worth to YOU to get the suspension back into shape. I would say that if you're gonna do it, take care of EVERYTHING while the wheels/struts are off the car. (It's all about the labor $$$$) Because as you can see, if you cheap out and do only ONE thing, the rest will catch up to you!

 

Have A Good Mech Check Out Your Suspension & Go From There

 

Thanks !

 

also how old are the tires? belts could just be shifted, thats whats up with mine right now.

 

You most likely have a worn tire or two...or a bubble on one....check the tires first then move onto the more expensive things....

 

Before getting into suspension components....Check for worn out&/or out of balance tire(s) & alignment. Check those 2 and take it from there.

 

Changing the struts will tighten up the suspension quite a bit. I changed mind about 6 months ago with 87K miles on the original struts. The car felt much tighter. the "float" over bumps at high speed is gone. I went with non-adjustable KYB. If you don't need the adjustability, simpler is better.

Recently I changed from Michelin Energy MXV4+ to Primacy MXV4. After the tire change the steering wheel had this shimmer like it is slightly out of balance but only on concrete surface. On asphalt they are smooth as silk.

 

The front tires are around 2 years old (BFG Traction), and the rear ones have 75% thread (I bought two different used tires in the shop).

What belts are you talking about ?

Definetly I will do a balance first on all 4 tires. I already ordered Tokico HP struts and springs set and strut mounts because the suspension is bad anyway.

Will see if it vibrates with balanced tires.

By the way, is there a difference in balancing procedures ? I heard some people did "High speed balance"... ?

 

What belts are you talking about ?


Tires have belts in them that over time can shift or break/tear.

 

I thought the max only needed a 2 wheel alignment?
I have the same porblem, I changed my struts without new top mounts or an alignment after. Now I got unevenly worn front tires and a lot a shaking in my steering wheel. I'm gonna get 2 new tires with a balance and alignment after and see what happens. If anybody feels different let me know what I should do.

 

Who said it didn't?

 

IMO, you probably just need the wheels balanced. The suspension will be nice, but I highly doubt that is causing the vibration. And as far as I know, there are not separate balancing procedures...i balanced my wheels at the nissan dealership where my dad works. Same balance procedure they do for your grandmas car and my moms mini-van. and nothing vibrates all the way up to 130+

 

How do you know if the balance made correctly ? Should it show Zero or some other number on the machine ? I red some posts where people got it balanced to 19 ???

 

^ those belts, I've seen brand new tires that were just faulty shift/break, something to investigate for sure. Like I said I know already my tires are 'cupping' and belts are shifted.

Wheels should be balanced to 0, they may be talkin about hom much weight was put on to get them to 0, but 19 is a LOT.

And not many places I know of do a 'high speed balance', but if your belts are shifted or cupping thats usually the only TRUE way to know.

could be a number of things, first thing I'd do is fully inspect all tires and rims, from the outside AND the inside to make sure you dont have any dirt or anything stupid in there, and go from there.

 

I balanced the front tires but it didn't do much for the vibration. I have a bit less vibration between 65-80mph.

I'm gonna take it to the mech to check my suspension, may be all I need is to change the ball joints/bushings.

 

yeah, do that. I just had my inner & outer tie-rods done. I must say that it's the most worthwhile thing that you can do to tighten up/smoothen your steering and increase steering response

 

I canged my front tires that were worn out and the car drives loke a champ.

 

rotate the tires!! Make sure it's balanced!! and get an alignment. Mine did that once i got my alignment and rotation done. it was fine!!

 

I understand an alignment and balance, but i never understood what a rotation is. Is it just another name for balance?

 

Tires are rotated in the machine to check if they are properly balanced, if not they put a small weight between the tire and the rim and then check it again until the mashine shows "0 0".

I'm not sure how an alignment can help with vibrations on the highway because from my experience a bad alignment is when your car goes a bit to the side when you drive straight.

 

....yep So how YOUR steering situation?

 

time for a new suspension + bearings

 

I had a bad vibrating problem with my tires. When you drive if you hand shakes like you have Parkinsons. That is either worn tires or out of balance tires. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. After 2 new tires and a balance the shakes were gone. Would an alignment be needed too?

 

In my case tire rotation didn't help much. I already got Tokico Blue struts and Tokico springs set so I'm thinking to get control arms/ tie rods / stabilizer end links from ebay.

I wonder if it's possible to stop the vibration by replacing the ball joints and stabilizer end links or front sway bar bushings only, instead of buying the whole kit ?

Here's the link for the kit ($160 shipped)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Suspension-Nissa...QQcmdZViewItem

Ball Joints ($36 shipped)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-Low...8537QQtcZphoto

Sway bar bushings $17 shipped
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

 

Check your tie rods. inner and outer plus your check your ball joints.If you have balanced your tires and checked the alignment then it's more than likely will be your tierods.The are the direct link to your rack and pinion steering. It doesn't take much play in the linkages to get a good shimmy at speeds above 60mph. If you can run 60+mph on a 4lane and slightly turn the steering wheel left or right and the shaking is not as bad or goes away for a few seconds until you straighten the wheels back out more than likely it's time to change the tierods.

 

good luck.

 

To matrix and the other guy about rotation . . . This means moving the tires from front to back and side to side. Personally, when I change side to side, I have the tires switched on the rims also, to keep the tire rolling in the same direction, like on bikes. Lots of tires have the belts shift when rolling direction is reversed . . . I've seen it on cheap tires and expensive ones too. Moving tires from front to rear helps to even out the wear, cause steering takes a lot of extra rubber off the front tires, expecially doing hot corners. You'l;l save a lot of $$ if you get a good floor jack, and rotate frequently . . . a couple times a season.
BTW, I just got new KYB 2s all round and control arm bushings. That made major difference in the ride. A bit stiff around city, but great on the hghway. I've got about 125k (198k km) and now it rides like a sports car - like it should. I don't believe you would need springs, unless you want some sort of lowering. Springs rarely go bad.
Good luck on the upgrades.

 

I just ordered suspension parts on ebay so they will be installed together with Tokico struts & springs.

Control Arms/tie rods/sway bar end links $155 shipped :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Suspe...9480QQtcZphoto

Sway bar bushings $17 shipped :
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

 

this is just what i needed. i am experiencing the same issue. i just had my passenger side ball bearing and tie rods replaced. now i just get the vibes in the steering wheel over 70. i found that the driver side strut is stiff, but the passenger side sinks like damaged ship at sea (exaggeration, but you get my point). i have already replaced my tires and got a wheel alignment when my bearing was replaced. so at this point the last thing is to replace the shocks and struts.

 

"Lots of tires have the belts shift when rolling direction is reversed " is not true. That train of thought came from issues with first radials. Reversing direction of the tires was not the reason for the tire failure. They were just faulty tires. You may cross rotate your tires with out fear (UNLESS THEY ARE DIRECTIONAL OF COURSE.) Tires today that have seperation issues, be it new or used, are just faulty tires.