Alright, so here's the deal. I was driving to work this morning (3hrs away), and on the ride over my car made a sound similar to that of say, a clump of mud dislodging and clanking in the wheel well before falling away. Immediately after, my car began to shake. I was going 120kph. I hit the breaks and slowed to about 100kph where the vibrating and shaking stopped. Went back up to 120 and it started again. I pulled over on the side of the highway and checked the wheels out. The weights were all there, and I didn't have a blow-out (TPMS sensor hasn't gone off).

So at about 110kph is where I could drive without feeling that shaking/vibrating. I'd slowly hit the Accel button on the steering wheel and go up in increments. Eventually I was up at 120kph again without any issues. I quickly move the steering wheel left/right and sure enough, it all starts up again. Slowed down --> slowly built up speed --> no issues. I hit a dip on the highway and again. Same thing.

I got to work, confirmed the weights were still on the wheel, washed them off and the wheel well with the pressure washer, and took her for another quick rip. Same thing happened when I hit a dip in the road, only this time I could hear a rattling.

What's going on?!

Note: the "Tein SSD coilover" aren't installed on my car, everything is still stock in that department. They're just future plans for my car.

 

Make sure that your wheels are properly balanced. The weights may still be there, but take it in to be sure.

 

It sounds like you may have thrown a weight...

 

Edit*

Did you warp a rim or are all your connections together?

I warped a rim when i hit a bad pot-hole going 70 mph at night

 

Balancing all four wheels should fix it.

 

^ this, id take it into a tire shop and have them check balance and align it if thats off also

 

yeap I would say its a balancing issue, sometimes your balance can be thrown off even without losing the weights

The only other possibility is tire pressure, as maybe you inflated it in the cold of Saskatchewan to 35 psi and now as it warms up they are overinflated causing the ride to become even harsher. I just had to let 5-7 psi out of mine.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. The PSI is good, I checked it before heading out this morning, the rims aren't warped, no potholes were hit. I torqued all the wheels last night to 100 ft-lbs.. I thought that maybe it could be a balancing issue, but I wasn't sure how the balance could just "go out" like that. What would that sound I heard before it all happened be then? I'll get it checked out hopefully in the next week before I head on over to Calgary.

Thanks again. If any other ideas come up, post them.

 

Just because A weight was still on a rim does not mean ALL the weights are still on the rim!

Really sounds like you slung a weight or two.... could have been gravel or something that got thrown off the road surface that made the noises but if the vibration immediately followed the first clunk / thud / thwack then I would assume A wheel weight flew off. getting all 4 high speed ballanced should sort it out, try and find a place that puts the weights inside the wheel diameter rather than those clip on the lip style.

 

All my weights are on the inside of the rim as opposed to the lip. The roads weren't dusty or wet or anything and when I checked them all, there was no indication that any weights were missing (my rims were dirty,l but not muddy, from the wet roads the days prior, so you'd think you'd see a little clean spot where a weight used to be). I've had unbalanced wheels before in other cars and it was never something like this. You'd feel it vibrate until it gets worse at higher speeds, but never would I be cruising at a set speed for a while when it just all of a sudden decides to shake.

 

I had this issue with my previous vehicle (2000 Eclipse). I literally tried just about everything, and as a result, a vibrating steering wheel became my #1 pet peeve when driving.

Have you checked your tie rod ends? If you can, jack the car up and go around to both front wheels. Place your hands at 12:00 and 6:00 and see if you can shimmy it. Then, do the same thing, but with your hands at 3:00 and 9:00. If there is some play, you might need to replace those. I did that twice on my last car to fix the vibration.

 

I think I figured it out. And you won't believe what it was.

I jacked the car up again to check to see if anything was loose or moving in ways it shouldn't. Everything checked out on the driver's side. Jacked up the passenger side, and again, everything was good. But while the car was up, I noticed that the shield underneath the bumper was a little loose. I take a closer look and FIVE bolts were missing!! The edges are held on by plastic clips, and the middle section is held on by 5 bolts, and all of the bolts were missing. That flap even showed signs of having been scraped on the road.

But that's not all either. The two bolts that hold the front of the bumper onto the impact bar are missing too. What the hell? Why are they all coming loose? Now I wonder what other bolts are gonna come loose. I bought some thread lock today and I figured as I take things apart, I'll make sure the bolts wont come loose again.

So anyways, I replaced the bolts on the shield and took her for a rip, and tried to make the vibrating and rattling happen again and nothing. Lets hope this is all it was. I'll keep you posted.

On a final note, does anybody know the size of bolts I need for the front of the bumper?

Take care!

 

Most likely you have a bad tire! More specifically a damaged casing on tire! At very low speed - like maybe 2-3 mph, it sort of does the "hula?? This is common when casing has shifted at bottom, and there is sort of a "jig" in tire surface, - where tread may be displaced sideways as much as an inch at that point! If this is the case, - the tire can go any minute, -- increasing pressure on this problem will dramatically increase problem, and decreasing pressure will sort or decrease to some degree, as the strain on casing decreases! When tire gets spinning fast enough the cetrifugal force causesd the tire to expand - causing a sever lump (causing the tire to become more or less egg shaped) Tire put on wheel balance machine may balance, but run all out of shape at high speed!

 

the problem was the cover underneath the bumper.. I've taken my car up in speed to see if there's any difference, and all is well. No "hula..?" Even at 220

 

maybe wheel weights?