After getting new tires-balancing, alignment as well as new shocks, oh and also putting front rim to back I'm still getting a front end vibration/shake at 70+ mph. Feels as if its mostly on left side. Any ideas. 91 vette 128,000 miles

 

Is there any play wit the hubs ???

 

9 times out of ten a vibration is in the tire.

Edit: whoops, I see you had it before the new tires. I thought it happened since the new ones were installed. My mistake.

 

Check the front hubs and the left side ball joints and tie rod end for play.

 

Are the front and rear rims the same size? Why did you swap them?

I'd go back to the tire store and ask them to rebalance. If that fails, go to another store and try their balancer.

 

Why not, it's only money. It is very possible their equipment is faulty. Regarding your tire swap, I thought on the 91's, the rears were larger than the fronts. You better immediately check, unless you know for a fact that they're not.

 

Get them rebalanced.

Some things to think about,

Tires might not be balanced correctly.
You might have thrown a weight after you left the shop.
Tire(s) could be out of round.

Worst case, you might have a bent rim.
Did you have a shimmy or vibration in the rear before the swap?

 

Actually on the 91's the front and rear rims are both 17x9.5. The reason I swapped was to see if the rim was possibly bent. Would it be worth while to break the tires down off the rims and have them balanced or is just balancing them good enough??

 

If you have the tools, go ahead and rotate the DS and see if the front end vibration goes away. If yes, the problem is the now in the DS rear tire wheel combo. If no, do the same with the PS until you can isolate the tire/wheel that is causing the problem. You did not any vibration before, did you?

 

NO never had vibration before. This is kinda annoying, since goodyear tells me that the front DS rim was bent...almost bought a used rim for $150, Then i swapped the front and back DS rims and still had the vibration in the front...so much for bent rim. I dont know who to trust. Had the tires rebalanced at PEP boys and still have the vibration. The tech told me that it woulnd't make a difference if he remounted the tires and balanced them or just balanced them, but if one is out of round wouldn't it need to be remounted???

 

What about your bushings and top/bottom balljoints?

Mine shook like a good un until I polybushed her and replaced the shocks - now she's running beautifully

Steve

 

Hello,
I have a '96 CE with 96,000 miles. My front tires were almost worn out and I was noticing some vibration. I ordered brand new BFG KDW tires for the front and much to my dismay, the vibration became 10 times worse! I took the car back and had them rebalanced. This helped a little, but I noticed that that one of the wheels was bent when it was spinning on the balancer. At this point, I assumed the bent wheel was the culprit. I then ordered a brand new set of chrome 17x11 and 17x9.5 with brand new Sumitomo tires. This combo came pre-balanced on a Hunter balancer. The first day I installed them, the car seemed to drive perfectly, not much vibration at all. By the second day, the vibration was back again. I experimented with cutting the steering wheel hard to the right and left while going around 50 mph. The vibration seemed to be worse when I cut the wheel to the right. This told me that the problem was on the driver side. I jacked up the car and tried to move the driver side front wheel in and out by grabbing the top and bottom of the tire and it felt really tight (wheel bearings must be okay). I then grabbed the tire on the right and left and tried to wobble it. It had a huge amount of play in it (keep in mind the passenger side tire is still touching the ground). I'm assuming this is a tie rod problem, as that seems to be where the slop is. Looks like my problem wasn't a bent wheel after all! Does anybody here have experience changing the tie rod? How difficult is it?

 

Brakes maybe.

 

I fought a vibration problem for over a year. Wheel balancing, checking for out-of-round tires, replacing rear hubs and half-shaft universal joints - nothing worked.

Even though the front hubs/bearings felt tight and smooth, I finally replaced them in desperation. Voilá! There it was. Don't discount the possibility of a bad front wheel bearing even if they seem to be good.

Rich

 

I appreciate everybodys input, I finally went to a shop around the corner from me where the mech (92 corvette owner for 10 yrs) took the time to breakdown the tires and spin them on the rim until they would balance with little to no weights. NO MORE VIBRATION. These other F#$^ckers could care less. Anyway, between the new injectors and no more vibration I feel like I have my old vette back.

 

Good deal, nothing worse then a tire tech putting 10oz of lead on a rim rather than moving the tire to a new spot.