Bad vibration at highway speed

[dean1313]

Hello, i own a 97 prizm 1.6 3spd auto. When driving on the highway at speeds 60-75 i get a bad vibration in the frontend and the steering wheel shakes alot. I have balanced the front tires, had a frontend alignment and had the balljoints checked.i also replaced the right side motor mount. Im thinking it might be a bad cv shaft is there a way of checking it maybe its bent or a bad cv joint. Any help would be great Thanks...

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Welcome to the forums.

Typically if it was a bad CV joint you'd hear a clicking noise when your turn the wheel. The only way to get an idea of if it's stuffed without pulling everything apart is to get under the car and see if one of the CV boots is split. CV joints are designed to last a long time but depending on the amount of miles the car has travelled, they can fail without any indication such as a split boot etc. So if you hear the clicking noise when turning despite not having a torn boot, then that will more than likely be the culprit.

Other possible causes could be a bent rim, out of round rim or tire, bad tie-rod ends, bent driveshaft, improper tire pressures, uneven tire wear etc.

Your best bet would be to take it to a reputable tire shop and let them diagnose the problem, or even just to get a bit of expert advice. It's good that you've eliminated some of the possible causes such as unbalanced wheels and defective balljoints as that will save a lot of mucking around. Best of luck with getting it sorted, fingers crossed it turns out to be something simple.

[speedy25]

I have seen careless tire techs balance tires that were badly out of round. If that isnt it you definitely have SOMETHING loose that should have been found when you had the alignment done.

-SP

[dean1313]

Guys thanks for your help so far. The car has 100k mile on it the tires were on it when i bought it. They look to be about a year old. A buddy of mine did the balancing and i hope he would have noticed a bad tire. The alignment was just done with the new struts and they told me there was no probs in the front end. The vibration was there before i did the struts and they were pretty shot. Then i did the right side motor mount and it still was there. I think i will rotate the front tires to the rear and see what happens. Still thinking a bent axle maybe?

[speedy25]

vibration is from bad components of some kind. besides the suspension components there is the tires and brakes. SOMETHING is loose or damaged and it will take some careful looking to find the culprit. An alignment shop SHOULD catch any worn suspension part, but many are not that careful to inspect. They only notice when the settings change as they work on the vehicle.

Another overlooked part is inner tie rod ends that can cause vibration. Its especially noticeable when you change from right to left on a two lane badly crowned road.

-SP

[stanmalu]

Higly recommend u get ur wheel balanced again. this happend to me too.

[PatrickGSR94]

Originally Posted by Kiwi-Corolla

Typically if it was a bad CV joint you'd hear a clicking noise when your turn the wheel.

That is only an indication of a bad outer CV joint. A bad inner CV joint will almost always create nasty vibrations under load at certain speeds.

OP - check to see if the vibration stops when you take your foot off the gas pedal. If it does, then it's definitely one or both of the inner CV joints. Our Corolla had this problem for years, vibration at 60 mph and above with throttle open. I just replaced both axles with brand new ones a couple of weeks ago and finally no more vibration.

[dean1313]

The vibration is in the front end and the steering wheel. It does it when your foot is on the gas and still does it when you let off the gas. I have noticed it does it 90% of the time and every so often it just stops for a few min. and then its back. Once it stops raining i will rotate the tires front to rear and see what that does if any. Agian thanks for the help so far these boards are great!