Still Wobbling

[Karmann]

I just bought some beautiful new Cooper AT3s for my Pathfinder, and as some may recall I was struggling with wobbling on the last set of tires. Well, the problem has persisted at 45-55, and we can also eliminate wheel bearings, front lower control arms, rear upper trailing arms, and sway bar bushings because I've already replaced those. So any ideas?

[rick88ss]

Check balljoints and tie rods

[CNAM]

Wheel balance and alignment???

[Karmann]

Literally just had the wheels balanced, and got an alignment three days ago.

[bushnut]

struts? mine shimmied horribly until I replaced them.

[kdj]

Maybe rotate the new tires to see if anything changes?

[adamzan]

Yea, maybe you have a bent wheel.

[fixinto]

IF i recall correctly u have manual hubs? and run them unlocked?

well generally if somethings is vibrating while in motion its a rotating force, so cv's and front drive shaft, "propeller shaft" front universals, rear universals, unless it feels like its in the front. "slightly" warped rotor, bent rim, obviiously these are all just shots in the dark, but maybe i had something in there you didnt think of. Did you change the inner and outer wheel hub bearing? Also the cones themselves can get enough where on them to cause bad joo joo, did you drive out and replace the inner wheel bearing race as well or just the set of bearings on each side? hmm been a long day, thats about it for now. hope you find it. have a good one.

oh, worn trans mount? even though thats not technically a rotating mass.

 

Roy

Edited December 19, 2014 by fixinto

[Enjoi408]

I've just been through hell and back chasing wobbles. And I finally fixed my wobbles after changing axles, hubs, bushings, trailing arms, alignment, balancing, etc... Can you describe the wobbles? Are they vigorous and shaking the whole body of the truck? Or are they slow sluggish wobbles?

 

For me, after looking at the whole truck under body, I found cracks and missing metal where the subframe and body mount together. I had vigorous shaking left and right, from 50-60mph. I had to speed up to 65+ to make it go away. After welding it and reinforcing it, all my wobbles had vanished.

[Karmann]

Thanks for all the help so far! Definitely some things I need to look into. My struts are probably getting closer to death, but they're certainly not blown out or anything. When I replaced my wheel bearings, I did the inners and outers, and I do have manual hubs up front and run them unlocked 100% of the time on the street (No snowy weather in my part of SoCal).

 

The shake is basically a consistent moving of the wheel back and forth about 1/2" once going above 45. It continues on until 75 or so where it tapers off, or there's enough other vibration that I don't notice. If I'm on a perfectly smooth street, and doing 50, it's very noticeable that the steering wheel is oscillating back and forth, and you absolutely feel it when you drive it. It shakes the whole front end, and I can even notice it in the passenger seat a little bit.

 

I'm having one of the tires rebalanced tomorrow, because I noticed there was a wheel weight missing when compared to the others. Hopefully this helps the problem, but for a few reasons, I get the feeling it won't.

[Mowgli]

Sounds similar to what I was experiencing recently on my r50. Check your lower ball joints, mine were done so I replaced them both and shes been back to normal.

[kdj]

Yea, maybe you have a bent wheel.

My last truck had strucked Futs, bad shocks for about 5 years, bad knees ... but smooth driving. When I put on the new 31's I got a small vibe in the front left between 50 and 60... I'd rotate to see if anything changes before I did much else. Isolate . I had a "inner wall bulge"...replaced for free.

[theexbrit]

Do you have stock wheels or aftermarket?

[Karmann]

Andy, I have stock wheels, same as the ones you saw. The six spoke alloy SE wheels. Considering I haven't been ramming anything with much force, just sandy two-tracks and washboards, I don't think I'd have bent a rim. I've had no blowouts either. I'm thinking it's suspension related?

[Karmann]

I had the front tires rebalanced, turns out the wheel weights fell off and/or were never installed in the first place. Fixed 95% of the wobbles. I ordered some new sway bar end links up front, rear trailing arm, and rear panhard bar link. Hopefully that smooths out the rest.

[kdj]

95% is pretty good ! Sounds like you have everything else covered.

[deltaR50]

i didnt see you replaced steering rack bushings yet. have you checked those? i had wobbling and found out my lca ball joint was shot and my steering rack bushing is almost gone lol

[Karmann]

I actually bought some but have yet to install, I replaced the front sway bar bushings, so hopefully the steering rack ones will get rid of the rest. How bad of a job was it to replace? Seems pretty straightforward.

[adamzan]

I have had worn swaybar links and even broken ones. Never caused a wobble. Just more sway and @!*% handling.

[hawairish]

I had a bad shake as you described, and at those same speeds. Aside from the SFD, the only change to my front suspension recently was changing the LCA bushings from rubber to poly. No vibrations, even with Duratracs (which I'll stop blaming for the wobble), and I haven't even gotten it aligned yet.

 

I'd try to get a look at the LCA bushings...in particular the front ones, and see if you spot any cracking on the rubber or if the inner metal sleeve looks a little off center. If you see any cracks in the rubber, the bushing is likely already shot.

[Karmann]

Sad thing is I already had the LCAs replaced with new bushings. So the hunting continues I guess.

 

[hawairish]

Sad thing is I already had the LCAs replaced with new bushings. So the hunting continues I guess.

 

 

My bad, I overlooked that. Since you've done all the big items, I'd be looking for something trivial and cheap:

 

If you went with OEM bushings on the arms (front and rear), were the bolts torqued when the vehicle was on the ground?

 

Replace the steering rack bushings if you have those available. It's not too difficult to replace them, just need a 21mm socket and a breaker bar to get things started; 4 bolts.

 

Probably wouldn't hurt to shake a few things to check for play. Also wouldn't hurt to go around and give all the bolts you see a good torque-to-spec.

 

If you haven't replaced the struts, see if you can get a friend to follow beside you on a road and watch your tires. A worn shock (and/or unbalanced tire) can show up-down bouncing while driving. I see it all the time on vehicles; on an axle (real or absent), one tire is bouncing away while the opposite tire is riding steady.

 

Lastly, as fixinto was alluding to, the vibration could originate from somewhere else. A bad (or loose) mount (tranny or motor) could cause excess vibration; the steering system would likely be the most susceptible to it.