Originally Posted By: redhat
....... Here's a summary
-Had Dunlop Signature IIs put on, vibrated
-Had Dunlops re-balance
-Returned Dunlops
-Had Firestone Champion Fuel Fighters installed, vibrated after a couple of days
-Had Firestones re-balanced, no change
-Changed tie-rods and alignment, no change
-Changed axles, no change
-Returned Firestones and had Bridgestones put on, all set
Originally Posted By: redhat
Vibration is back.
Trying to do more diagnosis, I took off two wheels from the front and put two of my steel wheels with snow tires on. The vibration still seems to occur, but it might not be as pronounced. It is tough to tell as the snow tires ride so different.
My additional test tonight is going to be putting the rear (alloys + Bridgestones) on the front and the snows on the rear (or the other alloys). I'm really lost as to what could be going on now. I have a couple of hunches.
--Perhaps bent rims or out of round rims?
I am skeptical to this just because more than one Firestone employee assured me that they'd catch a bent rim and that they'd checked for them.
--Bad front struts
Perhaps the strut isn't doing its job as well as it should and the road vibrations are resonating and not keeping the wheel flat on the road?
--Bad front caliper
Will have to check with an infrared thermometer and measure brake temps. Maybe one is sticking?
I am considering getting a road-force balance, but I've probably had three different sets of tires balanced 6-7 times. I'd figure it'd be right at one point.
When I read your first post, I thought that it was unusual for 2 sets of tires to cause a vibration. Not impossible, but the odds are against it. I was going to suggest you consider that there is something else causing the vibration - and perhaps you needed very, very good uniformity tires to keep the overall vibrations down so they are undetectable.
Now that it is back, I don't think it is tires or wheel related. 3 sets of tires is nearly impossible.
You could road force the tires to check the wheels, but I am going to bet it is not there.
Is the vibration in the front (steering wheel) or the back (seat). That might narrow things down.
Consider steering rack, brake rotors and/or drums, brake pads (broken anti rattle clip), wheel bearings.