This problem started not long after I upgraded from 15x7 RS wheels to the early 16x8 IROC wheels. I'd say it was a couple months or so. I got the wheels put on in January and the problem started in March probably. I know the wheels aren't causing the problem, and it's not the tires because I swapped wheels/tires between my Camaro and my GTA and still had the problem. I have replaced the shocks, struts, steering box, and front wheels bearings and I have also had the brake rotors turned. The alignment shop said my tie rods and ball joints all looked good. The alignment is right on also.

Here's the problem:
At 45 MPH and below, the car is hard to keep on the road. It seems to really want to pull to the right, unless I brake, then it pulls to the left. The car just seems to do what it wants to do. When I'm on the highway, the car has a shake starting at about 50 mph and it seems to get worse with speed. The shake seems to be coming from the driver's side front. I dont know if this is related or not, but there is also a whistling/metallic noise coming from that area as I drive. The car is unstable on the highway and just tiring to drive.
I'm a poor college student and it's hard to replace parts until I find out what is wrong, so I'm looking for some suggestions on what to look at next.

I'm thinking:
spindle
idler arm
?
?

Any help is appreciated!!
I know it's hard to diagnose a car's problems without seeing the car first, but hopefully I've given good information.

 

edited:

i am an idiot and re-read the post....

 

did you try replacing the calipers,how about the strut reataining bracket the bearing in there does go bad.

 

I haven't replaced the calipers, but I think that will come next. When I had my struts replaced, I'm sure they would have noticed if the retaining bracket was bad...at least I hope so.

I forgot to mention earlier, but when the car is going down the road, either accelerating or coasting, it tries to pull to the right, but when I'm braking it pulls to the left, especially at higher speeds.

It sounds to me that the caster/camber is off or something. The alignment shop said the car was perfectly aligned, but I'm not sure if caster, etc. was checked or not (not sure if they do that or not).

This problem has been going on way too long and I'm just ready to get it fixed!

 

Did you check the strut bearing plate? If that is going bad it could change the steering geometry...

It is also possible that a caliper is dragging...but even more likely that a brake hose needs to be replaced. Try that first...

HTH,

 

when you had the car aligned/re-checked did you get a print out of final alignment specs?

 

No, no print out.
They told me that the car was aligned according to the stock specs in the computer. I just thought of this, but when I changed to the IROC style wheels, should I have told them to align it according to a specs for a car that came with 16" wheels? WOuld that make a difference?

88TPI406GTA, what would a brake hose have to do with it? I haven't thought about anything like that. I'm not saying you're wrong...maybe I can learn something.

How would I chack for a bad spindle?

 

Spindles don't go bad. They can be bent but that would mess with the SAI. Wheelbearings, however, do go bad. Check for deflection in the wheel while raised up.

Have the alignment checked again and get a print out. We will never know unless we can see numbers. Speculating all day won't get anywhere. Could be a tire pull for all we know.

Get the car aligned to its specs not the car your wheels came off.

Caliper could be dragging also. Check the lines for kinks. Check the wear on the pads and compare. If one side is oddly more worn out then go from there. Check for hazing on the rotor.

The Vibrating definitely sounds like a wheel balance problem. Check that and tell them to watch for a bent rim.

 

 

 

I know it's not an out of balance wheel or a bad tire. I said before that I swapped wheels and tires between my RS and my GTA, just to make sure. I had the same problem with the RS but the GTA was still as smooth as it ever was.

The wheel bearings are brand new. I changed them under suspicion that they were the problem. They were bad, but it didn't stop the shaking. Keep in mind that this is a shake, not a vibration. I feel it in the wheel and in the seat. It makes the dash move up and down. It's a pulsating shake, sort of how if you were asleep during a college lecture and a friend shook your arm a little to wake you up (yes, this has happened to me). I said before that the car pulls to the right when coasting or while accelarating or in cruise control. As long as I'm not braking it pulls to the right. While braking it tends to pull more to the left. If I were driving dwon the road and took my hands off the wheel for more than 2 seconds, I would be in the ditch....it's a pretty strong pull. I know it sounds like an alignment problem, but 2 alignment shops have told me alignment is right on. I think we can rule out the strut bearing plate, because the struts were changed a couple months ago, I'm sure they would have noticed that. When I had my brake rotors turned, I told them to inspect the whole brake system and tell me about any problems. No other problems were found. I was also told the front end is good...inner and outer tie rods and ball joints, cant remember anything else about that. I didn't have the idler arm checked or the center link. I'm not sure if they could cause this problem or not. About 8 months before the shake started, I hydroplaned, did a 900 degree spin, and ended up on a curbed median. It bent a rear axle and I had it replaced. After that, the car was fine. I dont know if something else was messed up during this time or not. It seems to me that after I got the larger wheel/tire combo, the problem started. Since the wheels and tires are good ( by the way, I've been through 2 sets of tires since then) I suspect the larger combination has caused greater wear than usual, resulting in a bad part somewhere.

 

IMO if your feeling it in the wheel AND seat, its not necessarly just a front end problem, it could be rear end/drive train.

Could be a bad u-joint (the shake, not pull)

Bent axle, draging rear brake.

After age, the springs start to sag, and in the rear end, will shift to the left, thus knocking the alignment out also (and in stock parts non adjustable)

 

Rearend is aligned.
U-joints are good.
I've had a bent axle before, this feels nothing like that.
Springs could be bad but this doesn't really feel like springs.
The shake is stronger on the driver's side than passenger's side.
The shake is stronger in the front than in the back.

???

 

Take it to another shop for a full front-end inspection. Reading the description, I'd gather it's the ball-joints, but the prior shop said it's good....get another look to be sure. On the inspection, they should check centerlink, idler arm, tie-rod ends, ball-joints and bearings.

 

Hey, I have the same problem in my camaro. Don't cut out that it might me the rear suspension or something back there. I thought it was the front end too. I had my car in the alignment shop twice before they put the align things on the rear tires and found out that the up and down angle of the rear tires was off making the car turn to the right. They said there isn't an adjustment for it and that I would have to live with it.

Also try a slow power brake to the point were the rear tire/s spin just slightly. I noticed in my car that the rear goes up and down a little so I'm gonna consintrate there to try and solve it with a rear end rebuild of all the bearings and what not. Its kinda expensive so I got to save up some money.

 

I had the same problem about a month after I got my 92 z28. I found out that the place that the idler arm was bad and that and center arm were bad. I replaced them both and then brought it in to get the front end check out with a enlinement. It is a simple job to replace those if you have a little more than average knowledge about cars. I would replace the pitman arm too because it is another two bolts or so. Don't forget to have a pickle fork handy, it make the job easier...Good luck

 

you mean they aligned it with out putting the rear "aline heads!" on i dont think i would take it there agin. did you think that a spring might be bad?
i would'nt jump to costly conclusions it may be just out of ajustment or a separated tire, tire pressure(make sure this is correct before taking it to get allined, this will affect the alignment.
theres always the option that your steering collum dampener, it might have gone bad, there for your feeling all the viberations( i dont know that they go bad but its something to think about!)

 

no the rear springs are new. I think my problem is bent axles and I can't find any replacement ones that arn't gonna kill my bank account so I won't know until I look at it closer.

 

Have you checked the rag joint on your steering shaft.

 

If it pulls to the left when you brake, you have a bad caliper.

 

Ok, I'm back....got some more work done.....

I inspected the upper strut bearing plates. I took the caps off and grabbed the fender and pushed down on the front of the car over and over again. There was alot of noise from both sides, sounded almost like rusty springs or something. Also, the strut seemed to move around some while pushing the front of the car down. I concluded that afterall it was the strut bearing plates so I took it to the shop to have them give me a second opinion on them. They told me the bearing plates looked ok but I needed ball joints and and idler arm, so I said ok.

So, today I took my car to have the ball joints and idler arm replaced. They told me when I picked the car up that I needed new front tires (Just got 4 new BFG KDWS tires last April) because the outer edges of mine were really worn. They said after I get tires, they will do an alignment and those 2 things should make a huge difference. I left and drove down the highway back to my house......no improvment other than the steering might be a LITTLE tighter and more responsive. The shake was as bad as ever. When I got home, I looked over the bill ($322 down the drain) and stapled to it was an alignment printout. They didn't do an alignment, they just gave me a printout. Here it is:

Left Right
camber 0.6 1.0
caster 4.5 5.1
tow 0.04 0.09

total toe was 0.14
set back was -0.23

It looks to me like the right camber and total toe are off spec, am I right? What specs should I give them to set it to when I take it back?

Who still thinks the strut bearing plates are bad?

This trial and error is getting expensive.....

 

You darn right this trial and error is expensive. I bought new tires thinking the old ones had flat spots. Wrong. Didn't do a thing for the vibration. After months of thinking and reading about this problem on these boards was still clueless as to what it could have been. I thought it was bent rear axles. Nope. Out of balance drive shaft. Nope.

Finally got rid of it when I slammed into a curb on accident and ended up rebuilding the intire front end and replacing the K-member and control arms. Went to PST for my parts and after that and a wheel bearing and rotor change, It was gone. Thank godness cause it was so annoying. Higher highway speeds(65+) were to unbearable to mantain for long. Now its smooth sailing.

It ended up being that there was so much play in the steering that as I drove down the highway at high speeds the wheels would turn in and out. You know like a shopping cart that has a messed up front wheel. It just kinda goes back and forth and VIBRATES the cart. Well thats what was happening to me.

Put the front of your car on jacks and gab a tire and try to turn it with your arms back and forth. There shouldn't be any play. If there is I would order a front end parts from PST or someone else with a center link, inner and outer tie rods, and new bushings for the control arms. Its less expensive than the 322 price tag from that shop and you can do all of it yourself, plus if your alignment has a warranty with it. You can just get another one for free.

I hope this experience of mine helps you out.

 

Something I've seen mentioned on other threads is CRACKED FRAME AROUND STEERING BOX, CRACKED K MEMBER. This could also be causing weirdness, and apparently it's common on these cars.

Have your frame inspected for stress cracks. A Wonder Bar is supposed to help this, you can get one for 60 bucks, and getting cracks welded up of course.

Also, just for the heck of it, if you still have the smaller wheels I'd put them on and see if it helps at all.

My car was shakin' under brakin', and pulling to the right, turned out to be a combo of bad idler arm and warped rotors. New brakes are great, and new idler arm makes a world of difference in steering feel. No more shakes or pulling.

Good luck--I'd suggest also, maybe taking it to a different shop, and get an estimate before any work is done. A good mechanic should be able to figure it out.