Front-end vibration

My advice is don't play around with it. Take it to a competent front end shop for a suspension check. And get the tires rebalanced, If you still have the problem, swap both front tires to the back. That should pin it down.

--Vic

Was the problem before AND after the new tires? Did they do a spin balance? Check the tires for runout in all directions?

Do what Vic Smith said and I think you'll find the culprit. Balance the tires again, and have them check the wheels for 'roundness'. If it's a GOOD shop, they'll 'true' the wheels.

Yep.

Yes on the first, I believe, but I'm not sure about the second. I'll see if I can swing by there this weekend and ask.

I'll try swapping tires front/back tomorrow too - but my memory is that last time I rotated the tires there was still some front-end vibration. That's not to say that there's not some problem affecting more than one wheel, though (the roads up here in the wilds can be pretty harsh in places)

thanks, all - I'll mess with it tomorrow and maybe report back if I get nowhere...

cheers

Jules

Could be a bent wheel, hub, or axle. You can do your own run out check. Jack up each wheel one at a time, stick a concrete block or something near the wheel and rotate it.

The crudest dial gauge ever? ;) Yeah, good point though - that should work well enough, at least to check that something's not severely out of line.

cheers

J.

Separated tread, or tire imbalance and a bad inner tie rod.

HTH

Ben

Re Vic Smith, get it checked by somebody who knows what the heck they are doing. This car should be as smooth as an eel in an oil barrel.

New tires dont mean much if the wheels are dinged or out of round, or the suspension parts are worn.

If you have never replaced the shock cartridges on a car of that age, I very much doubt that they are good.

But the point is, get it so somebody who is an expert at what he is doing.

You were expecting a craftsman and got a machine operator, a powerful motif in many aspects of life.

That's a classic, and given good weather and a place to work, physically normal people with a bit of mechanical skill can do it themselves for free with no equipment that isn't already in the trunk. (Or find a *good* tire shop and have them do it as part of the diagnosis.)

It doesn't fix the problem but it's a good way to prove to the mechanic that there's something wrong with a tire or wheel that he needs to actually look at, not just a princess-and-the-pea problem.

One of the things he needs to look at when diagnosing a persistent tire problem, besides rim trueness, is the inside of the dismounted tire. Yes, the inside, in good light, while powerfully pushing back and forth on it. Sometimes you can spot a problem that way. A tire/ wheel combo that won't seem to stay balanced, or calls for an absurd number of wheelweights, should make a good tire man think of this.

Possibly the wheelweights aren't staying on, or that the tire is moving around with respect to the rim. A magic marker offers an obvious way to check for this. When these problems occur promptly, it's because the job wasn't done correctly.

In defense of the mechanics of the world, these things *can* be a big multivariate pain in the tailshaft to diagnose. But one looks at the tire and wheel first, where that is a possibility, because (a) they're easy and (b) they take a real beating down there. For background information, see for instance

Best of luck,

--Joe

Unfortunately, you were probably wrong. Many, if not most, of these people just chock the tire up on the balance machine and add the weights. Same is true for a lot of technicians who machine rotors. They go through the motions, but dont get personally involved.

My guess: Bad inner tie rod and poor tire balance/separated tread. HTH, Ben