[Yaemish]

Like many others I have been fighting a front end vibration since I purchased my Seville. Right now I do not have new tires but they are properly balanced. The vibration is there with both my summer and winter rims/tires. I usually do the Road Force when I get them balanced. I noticed the other day that I really feel the vibration through the steering wheel; it is constant when traveling above 50 mph.

This past week I replaced the swaybar, tie rods, and the front left wheel bearing. I didn't replace the right bearing as my mechanic didn't notice a problem with it. Any ideas what it could be?

 

[STSS]

have you cleaned the mating surfaces between the hub/rotor and between the rotor/rim? I recently wire brushed mine, and it made a HUGE difference to my shake, at both 60 to 70, and while lightly braking.

 

[iowasevillests]

Have you rotated tires recently? I rotated mine roughly 2k miles ago and the slight shimmy I was feeling in the 65-68mph range basically vanished.

 

[dleboeuf]

Mine is a Seville STS with 143,000 miles on it. It has had the vibration in the front end since I purchased it a year and a half ago.

I did the clean up trick to mine this weekend, I removed the wheels and wire brushed the hubs and the inside of the wheels. Also rotated the tires while I was at it, driving to work this morning I had no more vibration.

So this seems to have fixed mine for the time being. I did check out everything else while I had the wheels off and noticed that the drive shaft where it goes into the transmission has a lot of slack in it. If you take a prybar and pry against the inside CV joint it has almost 1/4" of slack. I don't have a shop manual, so I don't know if this is normal or not.

 

[Yaemish]

Thanks for the replies. I'm a little suspect of it not having a lot to do with the tires. The problem was there on my brand new winter tires (which are on different rims). It is really bad right at the 65 mark and goes away a bit at 70. I can't see how a dirty surface would cause this terrible rattle.

 

[STSS]

It is really bad right at the 65 mark and goes away a bit at 70. I can't see how a dirty surface would cause this terrible rattle.

It's a really easy, cheap thing you can try at home... and if it doesnt help, no harm done, no money wasted, only an hour or two.... all I know is I had the shake anywhere from 60-80 mph, even with brand new tires, which made it almost go away, but not quite.... a few thousand miles later and it was back again... cleaned up my surfaces and I now have no shake at high speed, and I only have a slight shake while lightly braking... cleaning the surface between the rotor and the hub/bearing assy seemed to make the most difference.

Just my $.02, I just know how expensive it can get to have a shop diagnose this.

If you think it is a specific tire/rim causing it, try rotating it to the back and see if the shaking moves.

 

[Yaemish]

Thanks for the input, it is worth a shot. So you just use a wirebrush to clean the surfaces? Thats it? Does the dirty surface just make parts that should be moving smoothly "catch", causing the vibration?

 

[bigdad2201]

I had brand new tires put on the front and had my tires for two weeks had balance two weeks later 3000 mi on the tires and they were cupping out of Alignment by a degree or two.

 

[STSS]

The rust/build-up on the 4 mating surfaces cause the wheel to exhibit excessive runout. Imagine if you put a piece of shim stock on the rotor between two lugs before you put the rim back on. As the rim spins, it will wobble since one part of the rim is held away from the rotor. This is the same thing that can happen on all cars, these caddys are just VERY sensative to wheel balance issues, as most owners know.

 

[STSS]

Thanks for the input, it is worth a shot. So you just use a wirebrush to clean the surfaces? Thats it? Does the dirty surface just make parts that should be moving smoothly "catch", causing the vibration?

Yes, Yes, No... if any of these surfaces are moving relative to each other while you drive, you're about to be driving a 3-wheeler (had it happen on a 300M)