Corolla shakes badly at 60+mph

[Matt94MR2]

My sister has a '97 Corolla DX(?) that shakes really bad over 60mph. The whole car kind of vibrates and it gets worse the faster you go. I told her to get the wheels balanced and make sure the alignment on the car was good but even after this the car still shakes. Any ideas? I'm thinking ball joints or cv joints at this point.

[CorollaDX-R]

Originally Posted by Matt94MR2

My sister has a '97 Corolla DX(?) that shakes really bad over 60mph. The whole car kind of vibrates and it gets worse the faster you go. I told her to get the wheels balanced and make sure the alignment on the car was good but even after this the car still shakes. Any ideas? I'm thinking ball joints or cv joints at this point.

hehe my 95 rolla and my dad's 97 rolla hav the same problem... i dunno y... my dad had its tires balanced pretty good and still hav little vibration at 110km/h to be precise but after that like 120km/h plus no vibration...

[dlichterman]

maybe the wheels themselves need to be replaced?

My 98 corolla only shakes on like 80+(mph) on bad roads or the oldest pavement parts of the 78 freeway in San marcos/Vista CA

[Matt94MR2]

Originally Posted by dlichterman

maybe the wheels themselves need to be replaced?

They also have a 93 Tercel and I was going to try exchanging the wheels/tires on the Tercel and Corolla to see if it fixes the problem. This should rule out any wheel/tire problems but if the wheel was damaged it would have probably been caught when they balanced them. I assume both cars are the same lug pattern. I should also mention that the vibration actually decreased, but definately didn't go away, around 80+mph. Thanks for the responses, keep them coming.

[01loadedLE]

who did the work on your car? alot of places tear up more than they fix by over torqing the wheel lugs with impact wrenches which happened in my case and warped the rotors/drums. try loosening the lugs to 74lbs with a torque wrench and see if that helps, if not then see if the rotors/drums need machining.

[Tercel GTS]

Mileage? I drove a customers 217,000 mile 93 corolla yesterday and I swear the wheel bearings were about to fall out and the control arms too! Maybe they live on a long dirt road....

[adsaba1969]

1st thing...is the shaking in the steering wheel or on your ass? will let you know where to start looking.
If you got the tires balance and the car aligned and nobody said anything to you about the tires being bad or the axle or ball joints or....you need to smack that mechanic

[Tercel GTS]

I'd love to see somebody try smackin a mechanic at my shop.

[Matt94MR2]

Again, this isn't my car but I will try to answer the questions as best I can.

Originally Posted by 01loadedLE

who did the work on your car? alot of places tear up more than they fix by over torqing the wheel lugs with impact wrenches which happened in my case and warped the rotors/drums. try loosening the lugs to 74lbs with a torque wrench and see if that helps, if not then see if the rotors/drums need machining.

It was just a wheel/tire place, I think Les Schwab. I don't think it's warped rotors though because the car vibrates while accelerating and not using the brakes. But I will make sure I torque the lugs to spec when I swap wheels next week.

Originally Posted by Tercel GTS

Mileage? I drove a customers 217,000 mile 93 corolla yesterday and I swear the wheel bearings were about to fall out and the control arms too! Maybe they live on a long dirt road....

I believe it has around 85K miles on the car but they bought it used and I have a feeling it was abused by the previous owners. It seems to have a lot more problems then most toyotas I have owned/seen with comparable mileage.

Originally Posted by adsaba1969

1st thing...is the shaking in the steering wheel or on your ass? will let you know where to start looking.
If you got the tires balance and the car aligned and nobody said anything to you about the tires being bad or the axle or ball joints or....you need to smack that mechanic

Both, I was riding in the back seat and I could feel the shaking and you can see the steering wheel vibrating. Basically the whole car shakes. I'm going out of town this weekend but when I get back I'm going to try swapping the wheels/tires off of her husbands Tercel and see if that fixes it. If it doesn't I will start looking at the suspension.

[Raddman]

Before getting an alignment what my mechanic does while my cars up on the lifts is he grabs each side of the tire and as hard as he can tries to find any play at all that could be a sign of a bad/worn tie rod or ball joints if they don't do this and just align the car then its just a waste of money if these problems do exist...also doing this can tell if your wheel bearings are getting worn...not saying this is your problem but a certain high speed shake is mostly always in your tires balance...Radd Guy...Good Luck

[SR5_4WD]

My car does the same speed thing and few different mechanics told me I needed a CV joint, so I'm savin up the $ but right now I need a clutch.

[BIMBOTRD]

Tyr The Simplest Thing, Balance The Tire That Is The Mos Common Reason

[01loadedLE]

warped rotors/drums will cause vibration during any driving at those speeds. after I got mine machined it greatly lessened the vibration. I swapped the tires around until I found that two wheels were causing the remaining vibration. one tire is warped and I suspect the other is also, both wheels are fine. so those two vibration causers are now on the back where there's less weight and I hardly have any vibration now at all.

[tdk_klink]

i had the same problem with my 86. 80+mph it shakes like hell. for me it was the tierods. your situation seems similar. and by the way, if u have any good mechanic friends, ask them. mechanics at some shops tend to tell u that u need something u actually don't.

[01loadedLE]

Originally Posted by tdk_klink

mechanics at some shops tend to tell u that u need something u actually don't.

true, they find any excuse to get you to use them instead of anyone else, and to pay for extra parts/labor that you dont need so they can get the most money out of your wallet into theirs.