stabalizer end link? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

newowner00ve · 02-26-2011, 01:52 PM

so my steering wheel shimmies..doesnt do it at high speed though. only from like 5-40mph. im not sure what it could be. i took the car to midas for a free inspection and they looked over everything. i made sure to stay in the garage while this happend. i looked at all the suspension with them. they didnt see anything wrong or lose. he pushed and pulled very hard on each wheel for play.. i have a clunking noise on the drivers side which he said could be a stabilzer end link or even a shock mount. it feels like it comming from the drivers side but i am not sure. would a bad stabilzer end link make the wheel shimmy? just wanted everyones opinions. thanks so much

Milky · 02-27-2011, 03:36 AM

no, bad stabilizer or sway bar end links will make a popping noise when going over bumps. they will also allow the car to lean more while going through a corner.

your problem sounds more like steering related or tire/wheel/hub related.

zoza1982 · 03-07-2011, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newowner00ve

so my steering wheel shimmies..doesnt do it at high speed though. only from like 5-40mph. im not sure what it could be. i took the car to midas for a free inspection and they looked over everything. i made sure to stay in the garage while this happend. i looked at all the suspension with them. they didnt see anything wrong or lose. he pushed and pulled very hard on each wheel for play.. i have a clunking noise on the drivers side which he said could be a stabilzer end link or even a shock mount. it feels like it comming from the drivers side but i am not sure. would a bad stabilzer end link make the wheel shimmy? just wanted everyones opinions. thanks so much

I had very similar problem.
Everything was tight and then we found out that my transmission shaft bearing went bad. So the sound was distributing trough CV axle and it had play in it. They quoted me to $3200 rebuild transmission. I skipped that, I just bought used tranny with 52k miles on it with 1 year warranty for $424 and installation was $600. Now everything is tight and perfect as it should be.

So in conclusion, advice to all ...change your transmission oil on time to avoid any dirt to get into the bearings! :-)

leeor_net · 03-12-2011, 08:08 PM

Short answer is no. It's probably not your stabilizer bar.

If you hit a bump and hear clunking it's probably your struts. How many miles are on them? They should generally be changed every 60K miles depending on your driving conditions. Mine make all kinds of banging and clunking noises but that's because they're the factory originals with just over 130K miles on them (yeah, definitely time for a change).

Milky · 03-13-2011, 07:00 AM

Leeor_net the shocks would not cause a vibration or shimmy at highway speeds. now a ball joint, wheel bearing, inner or outer tie rod would. a severely worn out shock mount might, but its unlikely. so i would doubt the shocks are the issue. though i would suggest replacing them just for the improvement of ride quality.

leeor_net · 03-13-2011, 07:43 AM

These cars don't have shocks. They have struts. And yes, badly worn struts can cause steering wheel vibrations at highway speed. The indicator of that is intermitten, random vibration (like my car, usually after a bump) vs. constant vibration.

Is it the likely culbrit in this case? No, probably not. It's more likely to be what you suggested, the ball joints, tie rods (especially tie rods), a failing bearing (but that would also be accompanied by a growl or rumble that gets louder as the car gets faster) or a wheel that's out of round.

But, the OP stated that the vibration happens at low speed, not highway speed. In fact, the OP even stated that the shimmy disappears at highway speed. So then it's not likely to be an out of round wheel, a bearing or a ball joint. He also stated that the mechanic pulled on the wheels to check for play and that none was present (e.g., it's not the tie rod ends or the ball joints). That leads me to think it's probably a badly worn strut.

I'm even more convinced that it's a badly worn strut because the OP stated that he heard a clunk when hitting bumps. That is very classically a badly worn strut -- I'm less inclined to believe that it's the link end unless one or more of the clamp bushings have broken off which the OP never stated (he did state, though, that everything appeared to be in place).

So that's where I'm drawing my conclusions from. If the struts have never been replaced and the car has over 100K miles on it, the problems are probably coming from badly worn struts. Is this difinitive? No, but it's at least a starting point.

Besides, the end links can be pulled off and tested for out-of-spec play -- that's the way to be sure it's not them instead of spending a lot of money to change them only to not solve the problem. You can't really do that with struts. Even if the car doesn't bounce a lot (which is the usual test for worn struts or shocks), the struts could still be worn and in need of replacement.