Not so perfect ride

[Todd Soden]

So I have a 2000 Camry with just under 130000 km on it. I have had the car for 3 years now and have not ever had a perfect ride. What I notice is what most would think is a balance issue where I feel either vibrations through the floor on the pedals or through the steering wheel when hitting betwen 80 and 120 KM/h.

Since buying the car, and having this issue addressed many times, the following has been done:

- New Tie Rod installed
- About 6 balances
- Eight new tires installed

The tires that came with the car were toyo winters and well I rode on them until last year where I replaced them with Goodyear Allegras. The shakyness has occurred since I bought the car and seems to improve bit with balancing, but I have yet to have a real smooth ride.

My garage work on the car a fair bit and after a lot of trail and error felt that the goodyears were most likely defective. So I had the goodyears replaced under warranty just this year, but so far this still has not fixed the problem. The issue has improved but not fully rectified.

Any ideas? This has been driving me nuts and I have no idea what else to do...and frankly I am fed up with garages.

[BMR]

Does the vibration get worse if you apply the brakes lightly? If it does, I'd suggest you get your brake rotors/drums turned. If that doesn't fix it, then I'd say you've got wheel bearing problems like I had... Link. Although 130,000 km is a bit premature for wheel bearings unless you take 'er off-roading up there in The Great White North!

[Todd Soden]

not does not seem to get worse when brakes applied. I do know my rotors are a tad warpped....but its not overly noticible when braking.

Wheel bearing problem eh? Wonderful....

[frenum49]

Have you had any strange tire wear patterns like cupping on the inside or outside edge of the tire every 2 inches or so? I have seen this quite often when a bad strut causes the tire to bounce very rapidly at highway speeds. The driver may not even notice it when it occurs.

[Todd Soden]

The tires are brand new...so no.

[camry314]

I have heard this around here on the board, and I am thinking that my car is having the same problem, that is when the inner knuckles of the half shafts wear they can cause a vibration in the wheel and floor and pedals. Have the half shafts been replaced since you have owned the car? Could they be the originals? Just a thought.

[BMR]

Yeah, that's a better possibility, given the mileage (kilometerage???) on the OP's car. I had just replaced both shafts on my Cam recently, and had to re-replace the right hand side because the outer joint quickly developed some slop in it which was causing a small vibration at higher speeds. Not as bad as what my wheel bearings were doing, but irritating nonetheless.

[rebel8ball]

for what its worth: its been my experience with the last three cars we have bought that good for a years vibrate, sometimes a little, sometimes dangerously. our pt cruiser came with them on it and it shook like an epileptic on his 5th redbull till we changed tires, my camry was the same way, and even the hhr we bought last year had the same issue, it got so bad it was like the car was out of align or the wheel was fixing to fall off, dummped the goodyears and it like riding on glass.