Alright so first time on the interstate since I got this beast and I noticed a few issues...first ~50mph-60mph the steering wheel shakes (more violently the faster you go) second (and possibly related) the rear of the car seems to start shaking the entire vehicle at around 60mph (again moreso at higher speeds).


I've got a few ideas but have had no time to check as of yet so what should I be looking for first when I pull into the garage tonight?

 

Has it had an alignment? How are the tires? How 'bout the bushings in the front end?

Dave

 

Has not had an alignment or balance and it for sure needs both (for no particular reason other than it's used and I don't know when it was done last .. doesn't pull at all), tires were brand new when I got the vehicle (or so I'm told...they looked brand new ) so have had roughly 1000 miles on them. Again haven't had a chance to look yet but will tonight just looking for guidance as to what to look for first (i.e. is this a common occurrence with these that's due to some OEM defect?)

 

Nope, mine's got no shake and I beat the crap out of it in the woods. You stated it was violent shaking - so I'm leaning toward tire balancing / alignment issue. It's the low hanging fruit. No OEM problem for shake on these that I've found or heard of.

Be mindful of the front driveshaft in these too -- See if it's been replaced, if it's got grease fittings in the uJoints. If it doesn't, they're known to go, and when they do, it will often take out the transmission as well.

Dave

 

Although there are many possible reasons for steering wheel shimmy, I would suggest eliminating the wheels & tires from the equation. That means getting a Roadforce balance done. This uses a special Hunter machine that applies road force to the tire, and measures the runout. You are looking for less than 1mm runout for a really smooth ride.

You need to find a shop with a Hunter Roadforce balancer, explain to them your problem, and that you want to see the final printout showing the runouts after balancing.

When you have a report showing less than 1mm runout you will have eliminated the wheels & tires, and if the problem persists, you can move onto possible mechanical issues.

Too often you hear "I had the wheels balanced and it still shakes". An ordinary wheel balancer will give excellent results on a square wheel - doesn't mean it's going to give you a smooth ride, does it.

If you have any really obvious distortion in the wheels, you should be able to see it by simply spinning them with the car jacked up.

 

Check the rear rubber coupling on the rear driveshaft, if it has any cracks replace it, they vibrate when they get bad. For the steering, check all the ball joints on the steering rods, then check the steering dampener.

 

So just got the "three amigos" on the way home turned it off and cranked it back up to reveal it had cleared itself...heading to the garage now.

 

Check the Track Rod and Drag Link - betting both have bad rod ends... Replace them both at once...

You can go OEM, or you can go aftermarket heavy duty options which will allow you to replace the rod ends in the future if they fail again. The stockers have one end that is pressed on and cannot be changed.

Not sure what to suggest on the rear end...

Does it have stock wheels on it? If not, it's possible that is has non-hubcentric wheels on it... the hubs are what center the wheels, not the lug nuts, so if it has the wrong kind of wheels on it, that could be your problem.

If the Track Rod and Drag Link check out, look at the wheel hubs next.

 

do yourself a favor have a shop check it out, the reason it has new tires could be to hide a lot of front-end and bushing issues; that otherwise would be noticed on old worn tires. jmho

 

My thoughts exactly, my father in law apparently grabbed my jack and I knew about it...(don't remember ) so I wasn't able to do much of any checking other than poking around. Other than the exhaust not being held on by anything (this is now fixed) I don't see any obvious issues.

Looks like it is going into the shop...now to find one that wont charge me an arm and a leg just to look at it