1st & 2nd Generation (1983–1986 & 1987-1991)Toyota Camry Discussion for years: 1983-1986 & 1987-1991.
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My Camry has recently developed a vibration. I don't seem to notice this vibration toward the front passneger side at speeds lower than 45 MPH, but it starts to appear above this speed. The quirky thing is that it gets REALLY bad when under load when accelerating and slightly when decelerating, but when I match the speed of the engine with the wheels, it seems to go away.
I crawled underneath the car last night, and did notice that the axle support bearing on the passenger side does have a little radial play (1/32" to 1/16"), as does the inboard CV joint. Would either of these cause this? Is there a way to replace this bearing without replacing the half-shafts?
Last edited by WVU91Camry; 01-24-2007 at 10:26 AM.
It could be an alignment issue. Many tire places will preform a free inspection of your alignment , tires, brakes and struts. Call a few and see if they do this. Always take what they say with a grain of salt though as they get their money by selling you stuff you may or may not need.
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90 Lexus ES250 Auto, 90 Lexus ES250 Stick, 88 Camry LE AllTrac Stick, 88 Camry Wagon
^Like it? Get yours from XSPEED!
It could be an alignment issue. Many tire places will preform a free inspection of your alignment , tires, brakes and struts. Call a few and see if they do this. Always take what they say with a grain of salt though as they get their money by selling you stuff you may or may not need.
Even though it only does it under heavy load? I thought alignment problems would be noticed at any speed, regardless of the load...
Let me clarify: you could have some bad bushings that are affecting your alignment. There will be a bit of play in the front end and with a higher load the geometry will distort more. That could be why the vibrations let up when there is an even load.
Along those lines you may also want to check your motor mounts.
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90 Lexus ES250 Auto, 90 Lexus ES250 Stick, 88 Camry LE AllTrac Stick, 88 Camry Wagon
^Like it? Get yours from XSPEED!
Let me clarify: you could have some bad bushings that are affecting your alignment. There will be a bit of play in the front end and with a higher load the geometry will distort more. That could be why the vibrations let up when there is an even load.
Along those lines you may also want to check your motor mounts.
I'm assuming that you are talking about the control arm bushings? I think they're ok, but I'll check again when I get home. The same goes for the motor mounts...
The nature of these vibrations lead me to believe that it is something in the drivetrain...which is why I was asking about the support bearing. It is definetly bad and needs replaced anyway.....now I was told by the parts guy at PepBoys that they cannot get this bearing because it is part of the driveshaft assembly. Is there any truth to this, or should I be looking for a new parts store?
Wheel/tire is out of balance is most likely the cause. Axle play in axial direction is allowed to be up to 2 mm. The CV shafts causing vibrations only when they are bent.
Wheel/tire is out of balance is most likely the cause. Axle play in axial direction is allowed to be up to 2 mm. The CV shafts causing vibrations only when they are bent.
If the wheel or tire is out of balance, wouldn't this problem present no matter the load?.....just to clarify, I'm talking about engine load, not payload.
Also, I've had my tires rotated and the problem didn't move with the tire/wheel....it stayed at the front passenger wheel....new rotors too, so its not them.
The other folks have identified many of the things that could cause this vibration but we are all guessing cause we cant drive the car! These problems can be extremely hard to diagnose as you are finding, and you could wind up throwing a whole bunch of money at the problem changing parts and still not fix it. I'd take it to a good front end shop and at least pay them just for a diagnosis.
I don't like the "radial" play on that support bearing, but that may not cause a vibration. It's impossible to identify this without a test drive and a hard look.
I understand that other "one piece" axles can be installed that toyota went to in later production, which eliminated that support bearing. I never tried it or had anyone ask me about it. Maybe it's hearsay. Perhaps someone here will have done it. From what I understand, the original idea was to have two equal length shafts, and the supported shaft part on the right was to make up for the offset caused by the position of the transaxle on the left side. Since so many cars never imitated that approach, I wonder what toyota actually accomplished with that design.
I like the idea of a visit to a front end specialty shop, as they have the greatest exposure to the variety of problems that can crop up, such as yours. I'm leaning toward wheel bearing, because even the worst of outer CV joints won't cause a vibration like you describe, and your radial play in that support bearing just dosen't seem like a possible cause.
I always tried to let the kid in the next bay do most of the "undercar" work. He was a lot shorter than I was, and his eagerness to do struts, axles, and alignments left me with more time for emissions, engine performance, air conditioning, and electronics diagnosis.
You definitely made the right move by relocating tires and seeing if the vibration followed the tire.
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Last edited by timebuilder; 01-02-2007 at 05:19 PM.
I crawled under the car last week and noticed a few more things....
The front motor mount is bad. (I didn't look at the others, assumed I should replace all)
The passenger side CV joint has radial play as well.
The exhaust was leaking at the union in front of the cat. (I tightened the nuts and it seemed to go away)
There are lots of creaks and groans when I compress the front suspension. (Bushings?)
The Vibration problem gets ALOT worse when going around a right turn highway entrance ramp. (high speed, hard acceleration). It does not seem to get worse going around left turns though....
So, with the engine problems I'm having, here is the list of replacement parts that I'm looking at:
Passenger Side CV Axle Assembly-$50
CV support bearing-$70
Full suspension bushing kit-?
4 struts-$200
4 springs-$225
2 strut mounts-$100
All engine mounts-?
Spark plugs-$15
Plug wires, Dist. Cap-$90
Rotor button-$20
Coil-$80
Alignment-$70
Tire balance-$80
As you see, this is adding up very fast...
I hate to say it, but I'm about ready to move on.... .....those '06 Corollas are looking pretty good.
are you sure that you need to replace your springs? that 200 dollars probably does not need to be spent. if you do need springs however. I can sell you my old springs for about 60, plus S&H possibly. I just replaced my stock springs with intrax lowering springs. so my springs are in good shape, not broken.
however I highly doubt that your springs actually need to be replaced, unless they are broken.
Springs are not the source of the high speed vibration.
I bought lower control arms with 2 ball joints for $127 on e-bay incl. fed-ex delivery.
Worn-out inner CV joints can make clunk sound, the outer joints are clicking on tight turns.
Front motor mount, if bad, causes the steering wheel vibration while idling with brake applied in drive or reverse (a/t).
Sorry it's taken so long, but I finally got new front and passenger side engine mounts and installed them last night.
Observations:
-New Front mount did not look like the OEM, the OEM was a large rubber "sphere" attached to the metal with 4 "legs", the new mount has a rubber "bar" only attached in 2 places.
-New Passenger mount had a tab on the top that I had to cut off to get it to fit into the mounting bracket (The old one look as if the same had been done to it). I had to literally pry the engine forward by slipping a claw hammer underneath the mounting bracket and pulling forward to get the center bolt hole in the bracket to line up with the hole in the new mount.
Problem:
1) After I rechecked that all the bolts were tightened, I started the car, and almost cried. Now the car vibrates like hell as if the engine were bolted directly to the car. It did not do this with the old mounts. (Is there a break-in period for engine mounts?) It is not so bad when driving, but when sitting at an idle, all the body panels, lenses, interior (i.e. anything that is loose at all) buzz like when the bass is really loud on your stereo. This is TOTALLY unacceptable, especially since the new passenger side mount cost $100.
2) This did not fix my "highway speed, heavy load" vibration. If I can fix this new vibration problem, I will replace the passenger side CV shaft, half shaft and support bearing.
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.....those '06 Corollas are looking pretty good.
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