2002 Lincoln ls v8 wobbling steering wheel and vibration

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Natepierce365

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I have a 2002 Lincoln ls v8 and I have a wobbling in the steering wheel at certain speeds and also when I am stopping. It starts at the speed of 40mph and the vibration will start. When I'm going 55mph to 65mph the steering wheel will start wobbling. I was told maybe it was the rear driver side wheel bearing but I want to know for sure so I don't get screwed at the mechanics. I was told the wobbling was due to the front lower ball joints so I had those fixed and an alignment and it still does it. Please help.
 
Could be one of the wheels threw a wheel weight and you may have warped brake rotors. That was my problem. Not a big deal. When I had this problem I just took it to the shop that put the tires on and had all the wheels re-balanced and the rotors turned. Problem went away. May not be your exact problem but I thought I'd share. Good luck!
 
The wobbling during braking is almost certainly due to excess run-out of one or both front rotors. This can be because they are warped, but it almost never is. Instead, the common problem is build up of material on the rotor surface (usually from the brake pads). This can happen over time, or it can happen if you get the brakes really hot and come to a complete stop for a little while. Anyway, you can turn rotors to fix this. If they are warped instead, you can't turn them to fix it. Either way, if you can do it yourself, it is cheaper to just replace them.
If the wobble at speed is small and if it gets better after you drive a few miles at speed, then it could be from the rotors if they are really bad.
It's also possible that it is your tires. For whatever reasons, the LS seems really picky about this. Normal balancing may not be enough. Roadforce balancing is recommended if no other cause can be found. Has it always done this, or did it just start? My 04 did this pretty badly a good while back. The thing that worked was to replace the tires.
If the wobble (or nibble) is in the steering wheel only, then it's not the back wheels. On the other hand, if the whole car shakes, it could be something in the rear. Still, I doubt that it will be a wheel bearing.
Rear toe links should be a suspect, since they do seem to wear out quicker than most of the other parts.
 
if you can visually see the steering wheel vibrating back and forth at its worse, its all but guaranteed to be in the front of the car (in my experence)
 
A busted belt in the tire can cause bad vibes. Usually you can see it if you jack up the wheel and spin it. If there's no steel protruding from the tread,you can lay your hand on it while rolling and feel the separation or bulge on the tread.
Could also be a bent rim,just enough to cause problems.
I had the older LS,the 04 V6, in Florida with newly balanced tires last year. Developed a vibration and sure enough,when I stopped at TIRE KINGDOM,they rebalanced the front tires and one of them was only 1/2 ounce off. BUT that got rid of the vibes. don-ohio :)^)
 
don-ohio said:
A busted belt in the tire can cause bad vibes. Usually you can see it if you jack up the wheel and spin it. If there's no steel protruding from the tread,you can lay your hand on it while rolling and feel the separation or bulge on the tread.
Could also be a bent rim,just enough to cause problems.
I had the older LS,the 04 V6, in Florida with newly balanced tires last year. Developed a vibration and sure enough,when I stopped at TIRE KINGDOM,they rebalanced the front tires and one of them was only 1/2 ounce off. BUT that got rid of the vibes. don-ohio :)^)
Click to expand...

I will second this suggestion. I didn't even think about it in my prior post, but we have an F350 that had tread separation on one of the front tires and it shook like crazy. Certainly makes for a rather unpleasant drive.
 
I had a very similar issue on my 01 V8 Sport, I replaced the front toe links and that tightened it up a bit. I eventually replaced the rear toe links as well I also replaced the front tires and that made for a smooth ride but my problem was never fixed I also replaced wheel bearings on the front and the rear and issue was still there but it did smooth out the ride and an alignment of course.
 
must mean tie rods? I guess anyways, its really what would adjust the toe in the front suspension... but who knows.
 
Doesn't have to be a tread separation. Had a 96 Tahoe many moons ago, had a set of BFG Radial TAs on it. Want to talk about squirrely, it set up a kind of harmonic where it would have a rotating bounce to it over 90MPH and it got hard to drive. Had it on a dyno to see what kind of power it was putting down, and on the dyno I noted that the rear tires were shifting left to right. I still don't know what was causing it, but the tread was going left to right at one point on the tires.

Of course, that might have been tread separation and I just didn't know what I was looking at. What I do know, is I didn't like it. Swapped an almost new set of tires for another set to get rid of that problem.

I got rid of it because it needed about 25 grand to get it where I wanted it. I wish now I'd have kept it and put the money into it. I miss that rig. Last time I saw it, it looked like someone went all over it with a ball peen hammer. It was sad. I almost cried.
 
Yeah,tires are sometimes just bad. I had one on a Ford Falcon,of course it was a bias ply tire, and it actually was weaker on one half of the tire than the other. Made the car pull bad. don-ohio :)^)
 
Yeah,I probably ran em until the late 70s. Bias actually wasn't bad with the more expensive ones,but cheap ones left a lot to be desired.Big difference in how they balanced.Used to run radials on the front of my 71 F-100 and heavy duty bias on the rear. don-ohio
 
Yeah,radials are always better........got Load range E mud and snows on the rear of my F-250,tires I just bought new. Gotta run the codes on the ol 88 sometime.Just got a new code reader that displays the codes(no counting the flashes anymore!). The truck runs like it's got the mother of all vacuum leaks. LOL!
Tomorrow got a lady coming over on fixed income, needs oil change and general TLC done to her Olds Silhouette. That's what I'll do before going to nightshift tonight. Gotta hit the sack now. don-ohio :)^)
 
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