Ugh....

[88FestivaLX]

Ok, I just replaced everything on the front end of my car. Struts, strut mounts, control arms, tie rod ends bushings etc. along with new tires. Mounted and balanced the tires myself at a friend of mines shop and watched the alignment get done on it. The freaking car shakes worse than it did with the crappy tires on it! I've noticed when it is shaking that the steering wheel moves back and forth just slightly. Should I try swapping the wheels on the front or putting the rear wheels up front? I was so ready to get in and feel how smooth it was going to ride, but that hasn't happened yet!

[batstiva]

^^ New tires all the way around? Or just the fronts. Asking because mine was shaking rather violently, steering wheel doing what yours does, investigated and found I had tread separation on a rear tire. Swapped that tire out, smooth sailing now. If you did swap all 4, I'm wondering if you might have a bent rim, but you should have seen that balancing. Do you use a bubble balancer, or a machine that turns the wheel to balance?

[88FestivaLX]

The front tires are new and the back tires have only been on for a couple of months (didn't have the money to buy parts to do the front and rear at the same time. I did buy all 4 tires at the same time. They are all the same brand and everything. We used a machine that turns the wheel to balance them.

[batstiva]

Hmm. Interesting, the machine should have flagged a bent rim as unable to balance, unless it's really minor. Does it shake if you are on the brake and on the gas, or just one or the other?

[Ogrestiva]

Did you replace the inner tie rod ends or just the outside ones? try wiggling your tires left/right/ up/down look for any looseness. I think if it wiggles left/right it's your inner tie rods and if its up/down it's your wheel bearing. also are the tire weights on securely?

[FestYboy]

have the tires re-balanced, it's common for tires to re-seat themselves once they're on the road, i'll bet $$ that they're out of balance again. and before you do that, have the machine re-calibrated. i bet it's been a LONG time since that's been done.

[blkfordsedan]

Did it shake the same way before you did the work? I would swap the front to the back for starters. At least then if it goes away you know it's one of two tires and not the others or an alignment issue. It is highly possible one of the new tires has a separated belt or other unseen problem, especially since there really is no "high quality" 12" tires anymore (except maybe Yokohama or Khumo).

[FestYboy]

alignments can't cause high speed shakes....

[hofficergrover]

wheel bearing good? had same problem and the bearing was bad. If didn't get tighten properly will shake and have to be replaced.

[88FestivaLX]

Thanks for all the responses everybody. Sorry its taken me so long to reply. I think I about died from that flu bug that's going around. It was horrible. Anyway, I haven't been able to check anything yet. For some reason I have a bad feeling one of my tires is bad. I should figure something out in the next couple of days.

[WmWatt]

I just had my car in to see if a front belt had shifted and the tech thougth it might be the CV joint. I also suspect the CV joint but wanted to rule out the tire first.

[92festie]

i went to balance my front tires on my neon and come to find out it was a bent rim....just a thought

[batstiva]

Thanks for all the responses everybody. Sorry its taken me so long to reply. I think I about died from that flu bug that's going around. It was horrible. Anyway, I haven't been able to check anything yet. For some reason I have a bad feeling one of my tires is bad. I should figure something out in the next couple of days.

I just got 2 new tires for the front on my 89. Drove around on them for about 200 miles. Started getting a little shimmy that kept getting worse, and they were noisy as heck. Ended up going back and getting the shop to exchange them for two new ones. So far, so good, but I'm about at the mileage where the others started making noise. Guess we will see. Would not surprise me if you found that you got a bad tire, straight off the rack.

[88FestivaLX]

Well, I swapped the front wheels to the back last night. Its all smooth now! I guess I'll have to take those 2 wheels off sometime and check over everything at a shop. But at least its not irritating to drive anymore, ha.

[scitzz]

My first two thoughts are these....

How are the wheel bearings? Although I don;t think that would cause the tire movement....

When I had the same issue, it was the tie rod, or inner tie rod, however you want to phrase it. I just replaced the entire rack, as it is simple. Also, there is a spring that can be tightened in the rack that can be checked. I could probably scan in the pages from the service manual if you want them....