Vibration after accident

[GMFan]

Hi all,

Merry Christmas!

A couple weeks ago around 5 am I was headed to work on an unfamiliar rural divided highway. Long story short I was in a poorly marked construction zone and I hit one of those concrete traffic islands at about 45mph. I tried to avoid it but it was too late. I bottomed out the rear subframe and put some nice scrapes on it. I did not submit an insurance claim. I do however realize I need to see an eye doctor to help with astigmatism and probably see about upgrading my headlights because I have such trouble seeing at night.

After the incident, my car had bad vibration in the steering wheel. I took it to a shop for a diagnosis. They replaced the right front intermediate shaft and right hand carrier bearing. My understanding was they discovered “excessive play.” They then did an alignment.

The work done resolved about 50% of my issue…but still the car does not drive correctly. The steering wheel shakes at speeds around 5-15mph and afterwards the steering wheel still has slight vibration in it. It’s driving poorly enough where I consider it unpleasant to drive.

The car is a 2011 Mazda6 with 198k miles. Is it possible the vehicle has severe issues with it and will never be made right again? One of the things I notice on my invoice is they didn’t balance the wheels. I wonder if I could have lost a wheel weight. I probably need to check this first. But curious if it’s likely damage was done that can’t be corrected.

Thanks,

 

[mrsilv04]

Try moving the tires and wheels around, and see if the vibration follows. I'm thinking a bent wheel.

 

[frankbee3]

I think it is important to jack up the car, put on jackstands and turn each wheel/tire and inspect everything that rotates. Check the tires, wheels, axle shafts, rotors or everything that turns. Something is bent, out of round or damaged. My guess would be a wheel or two. One will never know until some time is spent looking at things very carefully. If you have the tools to do this, it will be best to do so yourself. As the driver of the vehicle, you know where is best to look.

 

[Chris142]

Did you look for the obvious like a bent wheel?

 

[Rand]

most likely bent wheel or bad tire.

 

[Kira]

Does the Mazda6 have something like a control arm....which could've taken a hit and bent?

Bad break GMfan. But please don't fit searchlights to your car as it blinds other people.

 

[Soft Cars]

I bottomed out the rear subframe and put some nice scrapes on it.

That might be the issue right there. Check the front subframe too.

 

[tedsweet]

find a shop that knows what they are doing

 

[GMFan]

I wanted to provide an update on this since I ghosted this thread. I went underneath the car and discovered that my right front wheel had a bend in it on the bead area. I suspect the wheel was egged out of shape. I bought a new steel wheel and had a shop remount the tire and balance the wheel. Car drives 100% normal again.

Thanks for the help!

 

[14.1 Grms]

Final cause notwithstanding (as identified above), it could also be a bad wheel bearing - through unfortunate circumstances, I've been in 3 accidents involving damage to the front wheels/tires and each time required a wheel hub replacement, even though the bearing felt fine. Same issues, random vibration in a very specific speed range that rebalancing/rotating tires didn't touch. New wheel hub, no more vibration. Doesn't take much off-axis shock load to tweak a bearing enough to be a problem.

Might help someone later on.

 

[D60]

Final cause notwithstanding (as identified above), it could also be a bad wheel bearing - through unfortunate circumstances, I've been in 3 accidents involving damage to the front wheels/tires and each time required a wheel hub replacement, even though the bearing felt fine. Same issues, random vibration in a very specific speed range that rebalancing/rotating tires didn't touch. New wheel hub, no more vibration. Doesn't take much off-axis shock load to tweak a bearing enough to be a problem.

Might help someone later on.

Did you ever check runout at the WMS? I wonder if it could be seen?

 

[14.1 Grms]

Did you ever check runout at the WMS? I wonder if it could be seen?

That I didn't - was trying to get the car back on the road as quick as possible as it was my commuter, and did it out of exasperation as nothing else to that point had worked. The bearing didn't have any of the normal slop/play evident with a worn bearing, so I'm not sure if it was out of true or if the inner race might have been damaged.