Okay, so I mentioned in the shoutbox a few days ago that i've got a wierd vibration in my steering, that I can also feel in the gas pedal through my foot, and basically through the whole car sometimes. I'll list off what the problems are that i'm experiencing and hopefully someone can help me figure out what it might be. #2 is the thing that's bothering me the most, safety-wise.


1. Steering wheel vibrates all the time. At varying speeds - not rpms - it lessens, but it's always there. Going about 90km/h it's REALLY bad, and almost nonexistant at 100km/h.

2. Car pulls really hard to a random direction of it's choosing when I brake hard. Example: Coming up to a red light, I brake hard and the car pulls strongly to the left, I let off the brake and hit it again hard... car pulls strongly to the right. I let off and hit it again (going much slower now, obviously), and it brakes normally, staying centered until I come to a stop at the light. All of this happens as i'm approaching the same light. It randomly pulls off to one side or the other.

3. Same as above more or less, but when i'm accelerating fast. Most noticable when I punch it in first or second gear. Strong pulling to one direction or the other.

4. Clicking sound... sort of. Not the kind of sound you hear with a bad CV joint, at least from what I know. I had joints on both sides + lower ball joints + an axle replaced on the front in the last 6 months. Back to the sound... if you imagine having a rather large rock stuck in the treads of a tire, the sound it would make clicking against the pavement at several hundred revolutions per minute... it sounds like that. But I don't hear it all the time, and it only lasts for maybe 30 seconds. If it's just a drive to the mall and back, I might hear it once or twice for the trip. After I come to a stop, it disappears.

I have had new rotors and brake pads put on ~3 months ago, and the new rims put on a couple weeks ago-ish.
All this stuff has been going on since a couple weeks before I got the new brakes, but it has become a lot worse in the last month or so. I took it to Canadian Tire to get the rims inflated/balanced/installed/wheel alignment - and I had them do a brake, suspension, front-end inspection while it was there... they told me everything was good with a big smile.
I think their "inspection" means some 16 year old kid checks off all the boxes on the inspection list while the mechanic is on his lunch break.

So... any help? I'm really pissed off at all the mechanic shops in town.

 

1 Steering wheel vivration could be caused by unbalanced wheels. If its very noticable at around 120km/h (75mph) , than thats the problem.

2-3 Pulling to the side under braking or hard acceleration could be caused by bad wheel alignment. The Toe-in of the car is probable off.

4 Could be caused by a flat spot on your tires. Did you lock one off your wheels recently ?

I think your best bet would be to take it to an other tire shop to have a look at it. Tell them you went to the other place , it will make them look harder.

Hope I could help

Wolf

[edit]
Just thunk of something. I happen to have the specs for the wheel allignment right here at my desk.
front Camber should be min -0.7 max 0.3 , front Toe min -0.20 max 0.20
rear Camber should be min -1.4 max -0.4 , rear Toe min -0.20 max 0.50

If they gave you a wheel allignment rapport , you can check if its right.
[/edit]

 

1. have the wheels rebalanced

2. pulling while breaking could be a bad caliper

3. torque steer

4. dunno.gif

 

I had the wheels balanced/aligned 3 weeks ago, it just got worse.
I'm just so frustrated, I don't want to pay another shop another $100 an hour to figure it out. I'm already about $600 in on this and it hasn't been fixed yet.
You can understand how strongly annoyed I am with the shops here...