Vibration/bit of a clunk

garfield3887 · Post by **garfield3887** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:12 am

After rotating my tires the other day, I noticed the next morning when driving I have a slight vibration on the front passenger side of my car. I've did a bit of searching, but reading what others experience without actually feeling it leaves me unsure if it's the same.

It doesn't happen during acceleration, only when coasting or when i let off the gas to shift. I don't really notice any extra vibration in my steering wheel though, and the sound it makes is a faint clunk almost as if I had a flat tire or the sound a blown strut would make when hitting a bump.

I had taken the passenger side wheel off again for other reasons and gave the hub a wiggle but I didn't notice any play in it really. There was no up and down movement at all, and side to side was just very slight.

There is no grinding sound that accompanies it. Both my ball joints are new with less than 10k on them, but I did notice the boot on that side needs replaced which seemed odd cause I didn't tear it during installation. I had also installed new bushings on the vertical bushings of the LCA and it still seemed to be in place as it should be.

Any ideas on this or am I missing or misjudging something? it's getting quite annoying and starting to piss me off!

Lol

Thanks!

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:45 am

Does it want to slightly pull in any direction when letting off the gas?

It might be an inner tie rod, but it would be pretty bad to hear it clunk while driving.

On mine, I can turn the wheels all the way to one side, shut the engine off, and rock the steering wheel. You can hear the inner clunk then. But it won't with the engine running.

garfield3887 · Post by **garfield3887** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:17 am

It does like to pull slightly to the right when letting off the gas...

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:21 pm

Sounds obvious, but check the lug nuts... they'll click when they are loose. Take the ebrake off when doing the rears to ensure the brakes don't push the drums out when you go to tighten them. If you have rear drums that is.

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:32 pm

sidepipe87 wrote:Sounds obvious, but check the lug nuts... they'll click when they are loose. Take the ebrake off when doing the rears to ensure the brakes don't push the drums out when you go to tighten them. If you have rear drums that is.

also, how did you rotate? Front to back, back to front? Our did you cross them,?

They shouldn't be cross regardless of what the manual says

garfield3887 · Post by **garfield3887** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:01 pm

I rotated them half cross, the back 2 came straight forward and the front I crossed when moving back.

I did check the lugs after getting to work the morning after rotating them, and that night when I got home b4 I took that tire off to look and see if I could see anything obvious.

I may look into the tie rods more in depth... But with just over 100k anything could need replacing...

OB · Post by OB » Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:52 pm

Rotate them back to the way they were and see if it goes away. If it is the same, you can rule out wheel/tire balance or runout issues. Otherwise, have the wheels balanced and inspected for damage, then re-rotate them and call it a day.

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:12 am

garfield3887 wrote:I rotated them half cross, the back 2 came straight forward and the front I crossed when moving back.

yeah, this is not recommended for steel belt radials because it does cause vibration. swap the ones you crossed and I'm pretty certain your vibration will go away.

garfield3887 · Post by **garfield3887** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:38 pm

I understand what you're saying but I do not think that's the problem. The vibration is from the front passenger, the front tires were not crossed, they came straight forward from the back.

I'll have them balanced tho, they've been on there a year now, I'm sure they need it and it would be much cheaper to start with that. If not I'll move forward from there.

I appreciate everyone's input!!

Donkeypuncher · Post by **Donkeypuncher** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:04 am

Unless one of the wheel weights fell off, I doubt it's the wheel causing the problem. Sounds more like the LCA or maybe the sway bar mount being lose.