Back in winter, I smacked a pothole. It snapped my coilover. Until K-Sport ships the new one, I've switched back to stock suspension. The only mod suspension wise still on the vehicle is my Dezod endlinks.

After the accident, all was well. Since the tires were bald, I replaced the tires on the wheels. They've been balanced, and as of last Friday, my alignment is dead on.

But theres still a problem...

A few months ago, a small shake started. I assumed it was a motor mount, but didn't put much thought into it. Over the last month, its gotten a lot worse. While driving up to 55mph, you'll feel nothing irregular. However, as soon as you hit 60, you notice the shake, and by 65 the cd player skips. 70.. well, I don't know I could control the vehicle at 70.

Alignment- Check
Balance- Check

What could it be? What else could have broke or twisted when I smacked the pothole? The shake is definatly coming from the passenger side (side hit in accident).

What should I be looking for?

 

Check the sway bar/end links? Not sure if it could cause it to shake, but worth a look.

Can you tell if it is front or rear though?

 

Bent Rim? I bent a rim with my stock wheels after hitting a real nasty pothole that also gave me a flat.

 

I thought bent rim as well, however, while driving to the shop to get my tires mounted, I felt the same shake driving on the stock rims & tires. The tires never popped when I hit the hole, so I'm pretty sure its not the rim. It is however, definatly coming from the front.

I don't think the endlinks would cause a shake, could they? How could I tell if the sway bar is bent? Wouldn't that cause a noticable shake at all speeds?

 

hmm maybe a weight on your cv axle, but thats a long shot.

i would say bent rim, but it happens with both sets. are you using the same tires on your stock rims as the aftermarket?

 

check axles, brakes and wheels.

have the wheels dismounted from the tires and have a shop do a radial runout test on them, that will tell you if the wheels are out of round or not, then have them road forced and then balanced.

if the vibration still exists check the brakes with a dial indicator to see if those are warped.

if the vibration is still there check axles.

and if none of those worked. part the car out and get a new car lol.

no but seriously, a vibration at 60 mpg is a wheel/tire vibration. which means its a vibration coming from something that moves at the same rate (or close to) as the wheels and tires. so what moves with the wheels and tires... axles (slightly different turning ratio but still goes with the wheels/tires), brakes (does the vibration get worse during braking? accelleration? or coasting?), and wheels and tires (on a flat road can you feel the vibration at lower speeds? or only highway speeds?). try with another known good set of wheels, and if you can get your hands on another set of rotors try that too. if you can have a friend come over and swap brakes/wheels with you for an hour or so to eliminate possible causes then it would be a lot cheaper then going to a shop to have all of this done.

good luck and let us know what you find.

 

I'm gonna go ahead and say its not the rim. When I hit the pothole, I was on aftermarket wheels. The shake however, is apparent on both the wheels I wrecked with (19's and wide), as well as the stock wheel and tire combination (17's and thin).

Brakes we can probably rule out, only because they don't seem to have any effect on the shaking. Shaking isn't anymore noticable while hitting the brakes, nor has stopping distance/grip changed since the "accident".

So I guess we're down to the axel, sway bar, or cv boot. Can someone school me a little bit on what each part does and how it may effect ride quality? When checking these components, is there anything specifically I should look at? Maybe a common weak link that is typical for those three pieces when breaking?

I recieved the new coilover from K-Sport, so my plan is to put that in this weekend, study everything under the car while replacing it, and test the ride quality after installing it.

 

even if you dont feel it in braking the vibration can still be coming from the brakes. dont rule them out.

if you drive in circles do you hear any clicking?

 

I'll replace the brakes anyways, Im coming up on 45,000 miles so I might as well have them done.

While driving in circles, no, no clicking. Thanks for the help so far guys!

 

no clicking you might be able to rule out the axles, take a look at the boots, even tho im not sure that should cause a vibration. definitely look at anything wheel/tire/brake related. even if the wheel or brakes are a little warped you'll get a vibration. or if you have a slipped belt in the tire.

 

I didn't get the coilover in this weekend as Ksport still needs to send me another part. But I did have time to rip everything apart... I've still got no idea what it is, but it seems to be getting worse... in the sense that now its a harder shake at 50-55, whereas before it was more in the 60-65mph range.

 

bump since I haven't resolved the issue yet...

 

did you check the brake rotors? or have the wheels checked for run out? have you checked the axles?

this is really hard to figure out w/o driving/looking at the car.

 

If your only getting the vibration at highway speeds its got to be a balance issue. if your wheel is balanced and not bent and the brake rotors are fine then its not a straight forward problem. maybe the wheel studs are bent and the rim isnt sitting flat? maybe the wheel bearing is screwed? good luck with this one.

 

I had an issue with my old honda, it would shake at highway speeds and got better after I did a whole new suspension. It turned out to be my CV joints were going bad and getting play in them. It would shake the head rest at 55mph a little bit and get worse as speed increased.

but yes, something is wrong and it could be a number of these things listed.

Good luck.

 

Two things I would DEFINITELY check are the wheel bearings (if this car has them instead of hub assembly... never been down that road yet) and the wheel studs since they are easy and cheap to replace. Not that this is the most probable case since it happens with several sets of wheels but wheels do not have to have a visible bend or damage in/on them in order for your car to shake it like a salt shaker at highway speeds. I used to change tires/rims at a local shop and half the cars that came in had a bent rim, whether it be minor or actually visible.. Have you had your camber angle checked? Hope this helps.

 

camber shouldnt cause a vibration.

 

Engine mount loose?

 

ok stupid question here.........did you get car alignment rechecked..........somethimes they screw them up and do not notice a bent part on a new car.

 

Hopefully this will help.. I just got done installing the replacement coilovers into the front. So I'm on c/o's all around now again, lol.

The shake is still prevalent, however, it feels like the right wheel is sliding right to left to right etc. So its a side to side, rather then an up to down type of shake.