front end vibration

[Charlie]

hey guys so im starting to get a front end vibration and its from about 85-95km left front wheel, when i get up to 100 and up it rides mint only vibrates from 85-95 almost seems like its bouncing or something. pulled rim off and theres no play in the ball joints or tie rods but the upper ball joint is split open spilling out grease, could that be the issue?

[wildBill83]

Wheel balancing, wheel alignment, bearing failure, ball joint failure, tie rod failure, bad CV on axle... Could be a ton of things.

I have just about chased all of my vibrations down by replacing anything that moves. Then going to get wheels balanced and alignment done. Is there play in the rack-n-pinion?

[Charlie]

well im definatly not gonna just start replacing everything that moves, seems like a huge waste of money replacing everything until it stops.. Ovbiously i know it could be a bunch of diffrent things, im looking for help to narrow it down.

[wildBill83]

On my car it was all original so all of that needed to be replaced anyway.

I would start with replacing the ball joint that is leaking then a wheel balance and alignment. After that, next most likely is to inspect CV and tie rod ends. If those both check out look for play in the rack&pinion system. Also make sure your anchor bolts on your UCA and bushings on lower control arm are in good shape.

Really it's not that expensive to just replace everything, my car drives like it just rolled off the factory floor now and I feel much more confident knowing I replaced anything that could fail. I also do my own labor so that reduced my costs too.

[Bad_dude]

I got the front driver's side vibration too. It starts at about 65mph. It does it some times, and other time it won't. No play, ball joints good, all bushings checked out. I could feel rhythmic noise when the car rolls even at low speed. Though there's no play, I wonder if it's bearing for sure.
How do you check the axle and check the rack for play?
Thanks.

[Domesticated]

Everything mechanical on my car is brand new and I get it randomly around 65 and it goes away around 80. I did find when I took the wheel off to work on it and put it back on it went away. There might have been something grainy on the mounting surface or the wheel wasn't oriented properly when I tightened the lugs.

[wildBill83]

I got the front driver's side vibration too. It starts at about 65mph. It does it some times, and other time it won't. No play, ball joints good, all bushings checked out. I could feel rhythmic noise when the car rolls even at low speed. Though there's no play, I wonder if it's bearing for sure.
How do you check the axle and check the rack for play?
Thanks.

To check the axle you put the car on Jack stands put it in neutral and rotate the tire by hand. If it feels nasty uneven or stiff you may have a bad cv or bearing. While on stands turn steering wheel and see how the tires respond. If the wheel moves a decent amount before the tires turn or you hear clunking before they turn your rack or tie rods may have a problem.

[wildBill83]

Everything mechanical on my car is brand new and I get it randomly around 65 and it goes away around 80. I did find when I took the wheel off to work on it and put it back on it went away. There might have been something grainy on the mounting surface or the wheel wasn't oriented properly when I tightened the lugs.

Tire tread can also do this if everything else is new. I have some tires that did this when I first got my CB7.

[Domesticated]

Well balancing a tire won't prevent it from vibrating, you need to get them road forced. Most small tire places won't/can't road force tires. If you have new tires and it causes a vibration that's why, they are out of round.

[wildBill83]

That is a good point, the tire center here uses a Hunter balancer/road force machine when balancing so it does 2-in-1. So I just forgot to mention that little factiod. Good catch!

If a shop don't have one of these...

...go somewhere else for balancing.

Also it is a pain to get my new tires on my new rims where I live because the place with the Hunter machine will not deviate from the factory recommended tire size, so what I do is have them mounted at one place and road forced at another place without having the rims on the car. If they are on the car they won't touch it, not to mention my car can't get up on some of the racks around here because they are all for big honking trucks. I'm the only one in my town with a lowered car, they all think I'm dumb because they all have trucks with massive lifts and 31" tires, lol! I have to remove my front bumper spoiler just to even have my car aligned, because it hits the wall and ramps on the alignment machine.

[maroonaccord2.2]

Keep in mind, if you have a brake rotor that is warped just a tad your pads are riding on that surface and translating that wobble right through the suspension\wheel. My ball joints were TOAST and I never had front end vibrations of any kind. It's either a wheel\tire issue or a warped rotor.

[wildBill83]

A warped brake rotor usually is more violent when you hit the brakes and not on acceleration. I would not discount the ball joints, if the upper ball joint is loose enough you will get vibrations, also the UCA anchor bolts may be worn and that can add to vibration. I just went through all of this and literally had to replace everything at once to fully get rid of the vibration. My camber kit failed and transmitted vibrations through the axles, steering rack, all front end bushings and ball joints. The violent vibrations damaged all parts linked together. Also when replaced my LCA was bent 1/4" on one side and 1/2" on the other side, but I blame this on the camber kit failure and my lack of axle nut staking.

Also another note on axles and testing, if you turn the steering wheel to full lock while the car is on stands and turn the wheel with the transmission in neutral and it feels more chunky then your axle is going bad. A bearing feels grimy no mater how the wheel is angled.

So here is what I put in so far to fix my front end vibrations(all new and in no specific order):
camber kit
rack-n-pinion
upper control arms (w/ ball joints)
energy suspension poly bushings
lower control arms
lower ball joint
hub and bearing
drivers axle
passenger axle
inner/outer tie rod ends
rims
tires

If I had the time I would have done the ROH conversion at the same time, but I wanted to be sure I was fixing the problem first then convert later. To mix new parts and old parts on suspension causes the new parts to fail faster and you will be back in the same boat.