Harold_Fastwake

Alright, this has begun to piss me off enough that I need to fix it.

Wheels have all new tires, balanced etc. so lets just get that one out of the way, it did not change anything.
Celica has 175,xxx on the odometer, running on megan (shit) coilovers. All other suspension parts are original.


What is occurring: While driving over 25-30mph the wheel will start to have a shudder/shake. The shake will progressively get worse then better, then worse, etc as I drive. It is not consistent. When the wheel is not shaking the car actually is- I can feel it in my seat, gas pedal, dead pedal, clutch pedal, shift knob, etc.. (think Larry David's car with the passenger seat) Hard braking will make it stop completely and it will stay this way for a while. Fast acceleration will increase the shake, but once at highway speed it will smooth out to just a bit of vibration, then come and go on the worse end. During all of this, letting go of the wheel the car will track straight, no matter how bad the vibration is. Sometimes it seems like a rough patch of road will induce the shake.

During the worse of the shaking I have taken it out of gear, which changed nothing.


Recap-

Vibration/shake comes and goes, even at 80mph
It is not consistent on how bad it shakes, sometimes very little, others are rough.
Car will drive straight during shaking with no hands on the wheel
Hard braking (for a highway off ramp) will take all the vibration away. Almost just shifting the weight forward takes it away.
Wheels are freshly balanced (this did not change anything)


any thoughts on this? I will be buying a "new" used IS,G or TT come Feb but I want this fixed. It has been this way for a while.

thanks guys/gals

Fabrik8

You probably need an alignment, and with 175k miles on the original suspension components all of your bushings are probably destroyed.

Harold_Fastwake

I've had 3 alignments done, 2 regular shops and 1 at the tuning shop in manassas (the guys who build the scions, forget who they are) They looked it over and said nothing was bent and the alignment was easily done.


What bushings would you recommend I start replacing? I realize all of them will be shot being the car has 175k miles and from 1996. Would transmission/ motor mounts cause this too?

Dubee88

My 95 e36 was having a similar problem with a shudder but mine was during sweeping turns to the left. Ended up being the left control arm bushings. Could also be ball joints. Check to make sure nothing in the front end has too much play.

Harold_Fastwake

I checked a few months ago on the wiggle room when jacking the front end off the ground, grabbing each wheel at 3&9 and seeing how much movement it has. Both passenger and drive wheel have the same amount of play, but I honestly have nothing to compare it to. So I can't say if it is excessive or not. I read online it should have a bit of play, but I have no clue how much is too much.

john 89

Maybe try having your wheels/tires "road force" balanced at a shop with a road force machine. Most of the time they solve balancing issues normal machines do not.

ls/vtecstitch

did you check the wheel bearings?

Daft Punk

This

L_U_C_K

That

Lord Humongous

x2....and all the bushings to include the steering rack