This car shakes like mad at around 60-70 mph, all other speeds it pretty much levels out, but still shakes. Not when I brake so it's not the rotors, but when I am cruising.
When I jacked it up, I CAN grab the front wheel at 3 and 9 o'clock and shake it slightly from LEFT TO RIGHT. When I do this I can see one of the "rods" (tie rod?) and the strut move with the wheel. It was a slight movement so I tried to tighten up the lugs, didn't help.
I DO need tires and probably a balancing for sure, and the car needs a little bit of alignment, but that wouldn't cause shaking THIS bad.
This is my wife's car and I own a Jeep Rubicon so I'm not used to working on front wheel drives. ANY help would be VERY VERY appreciated.
well i have a 01corolla. when my Steering Wheel started to shake around the same speed 60-70, i just took it for an alignment and its gone.
but if your talking about the whole car shaking at that speed, i suggest just taking it to your local garage. let them drive it and they'll probably figure it out.
So nobody else has had their car shake at that speed? Is it bearings possibly? On these cars are there only bearings in the wheel hub to be concerned with? CV joint causing this vibe? Worn out bushing somewhere?
I prefer to fix this myself, I am new to the front wheel drive car, but have been heavily modifying and repairing my Jeeps over the past 10 years, I think I can handle it.
Was just hoping SOMEONE in here could shoot me over some ideas from personal experience with such a problem?
Inner tie-rods are shot or your rack is shot.. You will have to rip the bellow (boot) that covers the inner-tie rod - rack and then move the tire.. You will probably see the ball joint on the tie-rod having the play.. Replace both for good measure.. try to line the tires up as good as possible n go right off for a 4 wheel alignment.. be a good time to get new tires then as well.
It's not exactly an easy job.. it can be a biatch to get in there.. although you say you have been doing a lot of work on your jeeps so I assume you have a good deal of tools and knowledge so it shouldn't be to bad. Hardest part is unscrewing the tie-rod from the rack.. specially on the transmission side.. not to much room to work.
Last edited by |PuNiSh3R|; 03-09-2004 at 07:05 PM.
the shaking begins at around 60-ish..........after about 75 it begins to smooth out, but it's not 100% smooth.
Like I said, I can actually grab the front wheel and shale it slightly, almost feels like bad bearings, but it's also been suggested it might be inner tie rod.
I never worked on a front wheel drive, only my 4X4's so it's all new to me. I don't know if I can replace a whole tie rod, the inner part, that attaches to the tranny or engine (??) might be the tricky part.
Did you do this yourself or pay to have it done? Since the cars are almost the same, would you mind telling me how much it cost if you paid for it? How much is the part and where did you get it?
If you did it yourself........how difficult was it and how long did it take you? I constantly modify and work on my Jeep Rubicon so I am handy with tools, just NO experience with little front wheel drive cars.......it's my wife's Corolla.
THANKS folks! I really appreciate the assistance, these forums are invaluable.
dubblheelix - I never do anything like this myself, I am a desk jockey by day and a Nascar dreamer on the highway when driving home.
I will pull the invoice and post it tonight. It's all in CDN dollars and was done by the dealership so I don't want anyone else flaming me about how I paid to much!!!
^He probably means the holes where the lug studs come through the rotor.
I know your wheel moves a bit (so it probably is the bearings needing to be re-packed or a tie-rod) but you should at least spend a few bucks to get the tires ballanced before you start tearing into the front end.
okay all costs in CDN dollars from my invoice from last summer:
They diagnosed me as having excessive play in the inner tie rods and replaced both.
Parts
2xStrg. Rack End - 174.40 = 348.80
2xBoot Clamp Bolt - .80 = 1.60
2xRack Boot Clamp - 8.80 = 17.60
Total Parts = 368
Labour = 336.80 @ $85/hour ~ 4 hours of effort
Also an alignment at $89.95
Total: $794.75
The car sat for 2 years in a driveway and had less then 50k km on it so I was surprised that this was needed. It was a situation were I was having the car safetied and they said they could safety it without fixing it but given I was keeping the car I said screw it fix it.
I noticed the car was much better after that ran straighter, didn't have high speed wobbles at any speed.
thanks for the detailed report! That's just short of $600 US cash. Wow, kinda steep for such a crap-box of a car. Oh well.....it's good on gas, cosmetically nice, and has a strong motor (for now). I guess I'll do it.
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