vibration at high speed
 

on my way to work i noticed a vibration above 50MPH, any faster then that and it was bad enough to shake the whole car and make me feel like i was holding a jackhammer instead of a steering wheel

it felt like a loose tire or a bad U-joint on a driveshaft on a rwd car, got out and checked all the tires and there all firmly in place and didnt budge an inch. i wouldnt have driven the car anymore after that if i'd had a choice but i ended up driveing the 50 miles to work anyway and it kept doing it the whole way except it felt like it would lighten up sometimes and then get really bad again.

after work im dreading the drive home because of the vibration but get on the highway and its gone??? what could have caused this vibration in the first place and is it something i should worry about too much? and why would it have just disappeared in a few hours?

i cant think of anything that would cause it or why it would just quit all of a sudden without a trace

Re: vibration at high speed
 

You're not going to be able to see if your tires are on all the way without jacking the car up. how hard is a suspention to take apart? isolate what corner its coming from. jack your car up. check your tie rod and ball joint. make sure everythings kosher. if somethings bad replace it. tada

Re: vibration at high speed
 

its very easy to see if i tire is completely on or not without haveing to jack it up

i dont have the time to take my suspension apart because this is my DD and i gotta drive 50 miles to and from work every day so i cant afford down time, thats why i posted it to get some ideas of whats wrong instead of takeing everything apart and shooting blind, and i cant isolate where its comeing from, the whole car shook with no indications of where it was comeing from, if i had to guess i'd say it felt like it was comeing from the rear but i cant say for sure

i've had suspension problems before with other cars but nothing thats ever just dissapeared like this before with out so much as a trace of any problems

i looked at everything i could think of once i got home but nothing looked out of place or damaged at all

Re: vibration at high speed
 

it takes 10 minnutes to pull your suspension apart and another 20ish is your slow to put it back together again.

if its your rear its probably a bushing on the lower control arm, or you lost a bolt or something. or your tire. its easyer just to look at it.

Re: vibration at high speed
 

if it was a bushing or a lost bolt why would the vibration dissapear out of nowhere?

i took it upto about 80MPH just to make sure it was gone and had no problems at all on the way home

Re: vibration at high speed
 

Maybe somehow you have water inside a rear tire, and it froze sitting at night. not enough to cause a vibration at a lower speed but enough to throw your wheel out of ballance at higher speeds when it catches the side wall of the tire and rotates with it. causing your vehicle to shake at higher speeds. hell even if it was still in waterform it could do it. did you have your car sitting in snow? maybe your car had some ice buildup on the wheel that threw it out of ballance. who knows.

Re: vibration at high speed
 

very possable, we got about 23 inchs in the last few days and my car was out in it for one of them

Re: vibration at high speed
 

i started havin the exact same problem the other day, it was of and on but now it does more often than not. but it only does it while on the gas, decel and cruising are just fine. it sounds like the susp is bouncing very rapidly up there.

mine is coming from teh left front, i'm going to put the car up on a lift at lunch today and i'll report what i find with mine.

Re: vibration at high speed
 

are your lugnuts tight :1

Re: vibration at high speed
 

dear god you've solved my problem!

lugnuts were the first things i checked with how the vibration felt, and if it was lugnuts the vibration wouldnt have dissapeared just from sitting for a few hours before the drive home

racintweek what did you find with your problem? doesnt sound exactly like mine though, mine was completely speed dependent, below 55MPH or so and it would dissapear completely, didnt matter if i was on the gas, decel or brakeing

Re: vibration at high speed
 

i went over to the shop but of course it wouldn't make the noise when i had my boy ride with me.
all my susp/steering stuff looks good, no visible damage.

the next time it happens i'm gonna call someone in the area i know to ride with me

Re: vibration at high speed
 

check your axles. we have had a few cars in the shop recently that were having the same problem, they would vibrate above a certain speed, but not every time. the bearings in the axles were getting worn unevenly so sometimes it would be really loose and vibrate, but sometimes they would be tight

Re: vibration at high speed
 

axles are fine, also checked those but they wouldnt cause my problem, i've had bad axles several times before

Re: vibration at high speed
 

did ya have some mud or gravel in the rim?
mayb its the main relay? :S
are all you nipples grounded??? you no with out that...oh man...

thought id throw some MORE bad advice out at a fellow midwesterner! good luck!

Re: vibration at high speed
 

thats actually happened to me, but i realized they were loose before getting on the interstate and driving 80 mph

Re: vibration at high speed
 

worse ---- then that has happend to me, but lugnuts are not something i think anyone with common sense would overlook

i've had axles freeze and snap, a wheel hub fall off, wheel studs snap and drove home on two studs, tie rod bolts shear off and drove home on that, etc

once the car runs again i'll hopefully find out what was wrong if anything

Re: vibration at high speed
 

:1 You don't have time to pull a tire off, but you can answer that the bearings are fine :6

If it has not come back then I would not worry about it.

Was it a harmonic deal, or just a constant shake.

Re: vibration at high speed
 

Bearings ah yes bearings. For some reason its the just the time of the month for them to go out. Did one on my car. then did one on my freinds Car and now were going to do one on another car. ITs easy to check lift you car up hold the top and the bottom of the tire and give it hell. If it wables that might be your problem. Or just take the damn suspension apart JEsus.

Re: vibration at high speed
 

correct sir, i have plenty of time to do it now and dont know if its come back or not because the car does not run ;D but i know what a bad bearing and axle feel like

it was a constant shake that was completely speed dependent, below 55MPH or so and it was completely gone

Re: vibration at high speed
 

That would lead me to beleive something out of balance. Comes and goes only at certain speeds.

Do you live in a cold climate, driven through mud lately, flatted the tires, ect.

Re: vibration at high speed
 

well i figured that much but if something was out of balance then why would the vibration dissapear after siiting while at work and not come back on the way home? i took it upto 80 and the shake was gone without a trace

btw it was cold while the car was running, our lowest was -12

Re: vibration at high speed
 

ice melted on your wheel ;) or the snow fell off. or mud fell off. who knows

Re: vibration at high speed
 

with the drive i have to work i'd have thought it would have fallen off much sooner then that, my drive to work is almost an hour and a half somtimes

but oh well, right now it dont run so thats the least of my worries :l