Someone school me on Gen II ball joints...

[Lincoln Luebbe]

The rack and pinion help some of the problems I had, but certainly not all of them. The clunking I had in the steering wheel was cured by the rack and pinion. The vibration I believe is related to the tires and slightly possibly the driver's side outer tie rod. As far as the really uncomposed ride of the vehicle I don't know. Sway bar end links looks like my next thing to try.

 

[BCA]

The rack and pinion help some of the problems I had, but certainly not all of them. The clunking I had in the steering wheel was cured by the rack and pinion. The vibration I believe is related to the tires and slightly possibly the driver's side outer tie rod. As far as the really uncomposed ride of the vehicle I don't know. Sway bar end links looks like my next thing to try.

They are probably worth a shot since they aren't difficult and not too expensive.

I'm still having on again/off again highway vibrations and everything under there is as tight as a drum so it makes it difficult on the wallet when I can't pinpoint the problem part easily.

 

[BCA]

Lincoln Luebbe,

Did you ever find the source of your vibration?

After numerous attempts at trying to figure out the cause of my intermittent steering wheel shimmy/vibration, I finally found it and for the first time in almost 3 years my steering wheel dead smooth. :headbang:

 

[2000sport]

What ended up being the problem on yours?

 

[BCA]

What ended up being the problem on yours?

Would you believe it was the brake rotors?

At first I thought it could be a tire issue because the previous owner had put on a cheap set to sell the car. But the shimmy was still there when I put my Blizzaks on and again when I put a new set of Yokohama’s on this past summer.
I had checked and double checked just about everything suspension wise looking for some component, ball joints, bushings, tie-rods, rack bushings, etc. ,that was worn or loose but nothing.

I installed a new set of pads last year and at the time I did that, the rotors appeared to be good, no grooving or the usual signs of warpage when applying the brakes. I really didn’t need to replace the pads, but I wanted to put a set of Hawks on anyway.

I was at the point of deciding to just live with the issue when this fall I ran into a “grinding” noise issue with the right front brakes. It only happened after many repeated stops and I found that the rotor would grow from the heat and the rust scaled edges would scrape the body of the caliper.

So about two weeks ago when it was time to switch to my winter wheels, I swapped in a new set of rotors and it’s been smooth as glass ever since.

I haven’t measured the thickness of the old rotors yet, but even with the naked eye, they looked noticeably thinner than the new rotors.
My thought is that the previous owner had them turned at some point and the thinner rotor wasn’t able to dissipate the heat as well and they were growing more that they should.
This would also make sense as the shimmy in the wheel would happen when mostly the car was cold.

 

[joegr]

So, was the vibration only when the brakes were applied?

 

[BCA]

So, was the vibration only when the brakes were applied?

No, not even when I would brake from highway speeds. And it never exhibited the typical brake pedal pulsation that a warped rotor usually does. That was why I never really suspected the rotors to be the cause.

I thought of the rotor as the same as I would a wheel in the sense that if the rotor was out of balance, then it would cause the vibration all the time, like a wheel would do if it was out of balance or bent.

My vibration was most noticeable at 50 mph and above but sometimes it was there, and other times not, all along the same stretch of road at different times of the day.

I would have described it more like a steering wheel shimmy though. When it was happening, the wheel would "shake" about a 1/16" to 1/8" in your hand and it was visibly noticeable to the passenger when you pointed it out. If you put a firm grip on the wheel, you could dampen it enough to where it wasn't visible.
Because of this, I was thinking it might have been something within the steering shaft itself, maybe a bushing or a rag joint or something similar.