BAD vibration through steering wheel on FWY, help needed

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v8only

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98 LSC, 105k miles.

all front end is original and yes I need to replace my ball joints....I can sometimes hear a slight noise on bumps from the front end.

HOWEVER, I've jacked up the front end several times and the wheels have NO movement, or extremely minute amount if any....

I have vibration through the steering wheel...shaking that gets worse (whole front end shakes/vibrates) at 70 mph where it gets unbearable.

I suspect it's not so much ball joints (though maybe it is) as with this amount of vibration I'd expect to see a LOT of slop in the wheels/front end when I try and move it.

Also, I can hear kind of a cyclical noise as the wheels rotate...and slightly feel it too...I've had the wheels up in the air and rotate them,and the hubs spin freely, so I don't think it's the hubs.

I want to say it's my tires (though they have full tread) as I've only had the car 3 months and I "suspect" it was sitting in the same spot for 6 months plus.....

but my cash is extremely limited at the moment, so I have to be wise with what I do here.

Any opinions?
 
yep. Start by balancing the wheels. If that does not fix it you probably have 1 or more bad suspension parts. You balance and align every year anyways if this is your daily driver. You could have bad tires also (cupping, uneven wear, etc). How long have they been on the front?
 
After the wheels check the sway bar end links. Get ready to overhaul your suspension, it is due.
 
Balance the tires and check the wheels for bends. Badd wheel bearings can also still spin well. You need to grab the wheel and see if the bearing has play in it.

Also replace your upper and lower control arms, sway bar end links, strut rod bushings, outer tie rods and sway bar bushings if its all original. And how do you know its all original? Are you the first owner on know the first owner well?
 
at 105k miles I assume it's original...ball joint sleeves are torn...could be wrong.

I'll start with the tires...I'm nearly certain now it's it. The cyclical noise it's making coincides with the rotation of the wheels....

I'll post up with I find.
 
And don't get hammer on weights put on. I had the same thing going on with mine at speeds of 30 to 55 and anything past that, it was vibration. Took it to Wal-Mart and had them balance them and asked for "static weights" and now it's perfectly smooth. One of the hammer on weights had even fell off at some point on the drivers side but as bad as I hate to say it, Wal-Mart fixed it up and I now have lifetime rotation and balance with road hazard with them.

Not all Wal-Marts are the same but here in Madison, they have a good group of guys in there that actually know something, about tires anyway.

Top Line tires balanced them first. Just a bunch of guys looking for a paycheck there.
 
After checking all of the above post suggestions, I suggest you should check your driveshaft. Apparently the 2 piece driveshaft of the mark viii is prone to vibration at highway speeds. The most likely culprit is definitely tires or front suspension, but if problem persists, definitely check out the 2 piece driveshaft.
 
NoLimit95 said:
And don't get hammer on weights put on. I had the same thing going on with mine at speeds of 30 to 55 and anything past that, it was vibration. Took it to Wal-Mart and had them balance them and asked for "static weights" and now it's perfectly smooth...
Click to expand...

Static balancing and stick-on weights are two totally different things (no such thing as static weights.) Static balancing is worse that dynamic balancing (they are balanced in only one plane statically.) I think your refering to plain stick-on weights instead of hammer-on ones. Two different things...
 
Icarus said:
Static balancing and stick-on weights are two totally different things (no such thing as static weights.) Static balancing is worse that dynamic balancing (they are balanced in only one plane statically.) I think your refering to plain stick-on weights instead of hammer-on ones. Two different things...
Click to expand...

Stick on weights is what I meant. They stick to the inner of the rim. Don't know where my mind was on that one lol.
 
covshark said:
After checking all of the above post suggestions, I suggest you should check your driveshaft. Apparently the 2 piece driveshaft of the mark viii is prone to vibration at highway speeds. The most likely culprit is definitely tires or front suspension, but if problem persists, definitely check out the 2 piece driveshaft.
Click to expand...

I thought about that, and ironically I just found a 93 mark viii in the junkyard Fri. $35 later I scored a one piece driveshaft that's now in my garage.. (prep for 4.10's in the near future).while I can feel the vibration through the steering wheel, I think that I'll swap out the driveshaft anyhow.
 
Yes, the Hunter machines are pretty nice if set up/used right, but a lot of shops don't, or round-up zero balances too high etc, etc... :(
 
well I took it in, and each tire was over 2 oz off on the balance...They also showed me the cheap tires, and the way the tires are molded together alone creates a slight wobble.

My vibration is 90% better now...it's driveable. Slight shimmy still on the fwy due to crappy dirt cheap tires....so when I get new tires, I'll spring for something other than the bargain basement crap that the last owner put on.
 
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