wheel wobble at speed

5117 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by dolo, Mar 30, 2009

dolo

Discussion Starter · Mar 29, 2009 (Edited)

I've got a 1990 2wd which has a slight wheel wobble at around 35-40 mph.

Here's some history:

I got the truck in Sept. and it was wandering all over the road and I ended up replacing the relay rod, tie rod ends, and idler arm (which were all pretty shot). I noticed the wheel wobble a few months later and attributed it to the lug-centric spacers that were on all four wheels that the PO had put on to fit the Lexus wheels that I bought the truck with. It may have had the wobble all the time but I probably never noticed it because of the afterfiring problem I was trying to troubleshoot. I recently (about 2 weeks ago) found a set of Mustang wheels on craigslist for cheap and mounted them on the truck hoping that was the problem. Apparently, that was not the problem.

So aside from wheel balancing, which I will have done first to rule it out, what else should I check?

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MichaelSt

· #2 · Mar 29, 2009

first what you might want to check is your wheel bearings which may need to be replaced. lift your truck in the front and put on jacks. go to either side first and lift straight up and down on the wheel, check all directions, if you can move it or it wobles then that is your problem. good news is they are cheap and you can replace them at home

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dolo

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 29, 2009

I'm taking the truck to Firestone and have the wheel's balanced. I'll check the wheel bearings if that doesn't correct the problem. Shit, I'll just have them check the front end since the truck will be there. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to give me a free estimate to get more money out of me.

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cd_god

· #4 · Mar 29, 2009

dolo said:
I've got a 1990 2wd which has a slight wheel wobble at around 35-40 mph.

Here's some history:

I got the truck in Sept. and it was wandering all over the road and I ended up replacing the relay rod, tie rod ends, and idler arm (which were all pretty shot). I noticed the wheel wobble a few months later and attributed it to the lug-centric spacers that were on all four wheels that the PO had put on to fit the Lexus wheels that I bought the truck with. It may have had the wobble all the time but I probably never noticed it because of the afterfiring problem I was trying to troubleshoot. I recently (about 2 weeks ago) found a set of Mustang wheels on craigslist for cheap and mounted them on the truck hoping that was the problem. Apparently, that was not the problem.

So aside from wheel balancing, which I will have done first to rule it out, what else should I check?

My truck does the same thing. i am running Lexus wheels with 2" spacers. The truck was fine with the stock 14" steelies on it and developed a wobble at 35MPH like you described after I put the spacers and Lexus wheels on. The tires on the front are badly edge worn on the inside and the rims had some curb rash so I attributed to the Lexus wheels and tires. I was almost scared to take it on the freeway as an out of balance wheel usually shakes worse at higher speeds. It turns out it smoothed and and drove great the faster it went. I threw my steelies back on and left the 2" spacers on when I parked it for the winter and sure enough it had the same 35MPH wobble. So my guess is my adapters are causing my problem. If you changed rims and still had the problem on your truck I don't know what to tell you.

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dolo

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 30, 2009 (Edited)

think I got it.

It may very well have been the spacers but, at this point I can't be positive. Today, I went to the parts store and picked up some wheel bearings. They, of course, gave me the wrong ones but, upon inspection, decided mine were in good condition. The driver's side retaining nut was a little loose though. I regreased the bearings and seated them properly and decided to rotate the tires since I had the truck up. At that time, I should have taken it for a test drive to see if that resolved the problem but I figured since I had the truck up I'd just go ahead and rotate the tires. I drove the car home from Pop's house (about a 20 minute drive) and got to 35-40 a few times but not long enough to know for sure if the wobble has gone away. During the short times that I was at speed, I did feel a little wobble but not in the steering wheel like before. I don't know if I even want to call it a wobble. It felt more like tiny little "hops". (Does that make sense?).

Anyway, while I had the truck jacked up I did check the suspension for any play and, at first, I kept hearing this "clunk" and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where it was coming from. After trying to shake the wheel from under the truck (yes, the truck was on jack stands) I realized that the ignition was locked and the "clunk" I was hearing was the steering wheel lock.:ugh3::lol: After checking again (with the steering wheel unlocked) everything up front is tight. No play in the ball joints or tie rod ends.

I'm still gonna have the wheels rebalanced but not til next weekend.

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Elijah Moore

· #6 · Mar 30, 2009

If you can feel the wobble from 35 and up and its not just the steering wheel. and you can feel it all over the truck it could be a sign of your u-joints going bad in your drive line. I had the same thing happen in my truck. It was a slight wobble around 35 but at highway speed it got worse. All you got to do is go under and try to turn the drive line. if you hear movement in the u joints there bad easy fix..

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dolo

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 30, 2009

My coworker had that problem with his Nissan Hardbody last year too. He initially thought it was front end related but never got around to troubleshooting it. It became EXTREMELY apparent when the u-joint failed and found himself dragging his driveshaft down the highway!!

I'll check that out tomorrow to make sure that's not the problem with my truck. I don't think that's the case with mine, though, since the problem seems to have gone away somewhat since rotating the tires. I think whatever I'm feeling now is the unbalanced wheels in the rear instead of the front. Thanks for your input!

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MichaelSt

· #8 · Mar 30, 2009

double check the wheel spacers, i dont know if they can do this, but ask them if the can balance your wheels with the spacers attached to rule that out

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funnbaggs

· #9 · Mar 30, 2009

yeah my 92 pickup had the viberation and it was the u- joint.... check out your drive shaft... 20 bucks for a u joint at auto zone about an hour to install if never done it

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dolo

Discussion Starter · #10 · Mar 30, 2009

that's a good idea! you would have to matchmark the spacer to the wheel in order for that to work right.

I don't have spacers anymore so I won't need to do that. I checked the driveshaft u-joints this morning and there's no play so that's ruled out. Looks like all points to wheel balancing. I'll have that done this weekend.

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