[RonaldP]

I have had a 2007 DTS since 2008 been a good car no problems for the most part however I started to replace suspension parts and for the last 4000 miles after I decided I needed to fix a strut mount issues beginning in Fall and all winter I can not figure out were this steering wheel shake is coming from.

I put in both sides new

1) Outer Tie Rods
2) Timken Wheel Bearings
3) Half Shafts
4) Sway Bar Bushings
5) Front Rotors
6) Detroit Axle Heavy Duty Strut Assemblies (Strut/Bearing/Springs)

The wheel shake is intermittent and can happen as slow is 30 mph and just gets tighter with speed or acceleration. I have had passenger complain of vibration from the passenger side and I had herd a faint sound coming from passenger that was in sync with wheel shake but not a classic half shaft click. When I took the half shaft out on the passenger side I noticed the transmission output shaft had allot of up down play but the seal was not leaking. So the new half shaft went in hoping just maybe it would fix.

I had the front end shop align the front and rear end twice (Tires swapped front to back second alignment), balance the tires twice (2nd Time Road Force Balance front) and they could not find anything wrong with the suspension (Its all new except Steering Rack). The Tie rods are tight enough to hold position when out of the knuckle but there is slight movement when rocked side to side with tire on.

I don't know were to go on this one. The Rack and Passenger Side Output shaft (Which apparently may be serviceable on vehicle per service manual) are still suspect.
Any ideals?

 

[tjwhite721]

Are these all OEM parts? I know that detroit quick strut assembly is not. It's also for the limo not the base DTS.

Did you replace your control arms? Are your tires good?

I'm thinking the cv axle shaft replacement was aftermarket and is causing your vibration. That's the only thing besides tires and rotors that would cause such a vibration from speed variances.

Aftermarket cv axle shafts are sometimes not "centered" probably and will not rotate smoothly which will cause vibrations.

 

[RonaldP]

No nothing is OEM except the tie rod and all this started shortly after those Detroit Axle Struts were installed.

Axle Shafts are DTA from Ebay.
Rotors are Raybestos Professional Grade Ebay
Control are seem tight in bushing and ball joint when I installed the 1/2 shafts and had them free floating.
I put these parts on in this order
Struts Oct 2014 (No wheel shake that I remember )
LH Tie Rod & LH Wheel Bearing and new Rotors Nov. 2014 (Bearing and Tie Rod were really worn)
Wheel shake started after this when all obvious worn parts were replaced.
Replaced RH Wheel Bearing (No Help) 2015
Replaced both half shafts (No Help) 2015
Tires seem visually fine 6/32 Inch Thread Tire Shop that did alignment said they appear to be in spec per road force data report. Date Code 2008 OEM Michelins 235/55R17

 

[grullon10]

Do not go to far you problem is the heavy duty strut assembly. You have to remove it and use either acdelco strut for you car and get the spring from the dealer you could reused the strut mount. I telling you i have doea strut at home i put them on my car an hour later i had yo remove them and put the old ones back and the shaking stop. Just remove the heavy duty strut .

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If you still have the old strut assembly put back. Everything is going to be normal again

 

[atikovi]

Control arm bushings or ball joints?

 

[RonaldP]

Do not go to far you problem is the heavy duty strut assembly. You have to remove it and use either acdelco strut for you car and get the spring from the dealer you could reused the strut mount. I telling you i have doea strut at home i put them on my car an hour later i had yo remove them and put the old ones back and the shaking stop. Just remove the heavy duty strut .

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If you still have the old strut assembly put back. Everything is going to be normal again

Expensive and time consuming mistake buying those heavy duty struts! I had a pair of OEM struts ready to go and decided to go the ready strut way and dumped the original parts and sold the OEM on Ebay. What a mistake.
I see A/C Delco makes 2 Struts OEM 19208029 (AC Delco 506-695) and A/C Delco Professional Grade Gas Charged 19307621 (AC Delco 503-682). Both are about $200 a pair. The springs are $46 each for FE1.

 

[grullon10]

Yes i made the same mistake and now i have 2 paper weight at the house

 

[RonaldP]

Update for others to learn.
I installed
2 new Moog Inner Tie Rods
2 new OEM Rear Shocks
2 new OEM FE1 Front Struts
2 new OEM FE1 Coil Springs
The wheel shake was much better but still there slightly.
Got a deal on 4 new OEM Take Offs Michenlin Pilot HX 235/55/17 tires.
NO SHAKE!! New Car feel! Rock solid suspension.
Another Alignment (3rd one this month). Just like new car.
$2400 latter WOW never spent this much money and made this many mistakes!
I even flushed the rack and pinion and it was wining like a pig on the 30 second engine starts until I got all the air out. What a fussy car.
As for the Detroit Axle struts they may work for somebody in the South. The new OEM struts still cause squeaks in the dash but I live in Detroit and the roads are really bad and it was a variable I needed to sort out.

 

[rodnok01]

Those type vibrations can be a bear to figure out. Any odd wear on tire caused by suspension or alignment and of course straight up some tires don't agree with some cars. I had a set on my Park Ave that were fine new but fought vibrations for years until i dumped them.
Ranger had a rear caliper sticking on one of his causing an odd vibration... Been there too and would have sworn it was the fronts.

 

[RonaldP]

Yea, I swapped the tires front to rear no change what so ever. Had them balanced all four tires twice second time road force balance (Which indicated the tires were fine) no change. I was getting to know the whole staff at the alignment shop by first name basis. The guys were I bought the new tires did indicate that 2 tires had balance weights that were 180 Deg opposite of each other and were not done correctly. I don't know were we went wrong but it just seems like these DTSs are fussy cars.

 

[Deltat210]

Finally got my front end right, after an axle replacement, ball joints, still crap, then Michelins and waaalaaah, vibration and noise gone, about $3000.00 worth though...