Fisqual

Hey all, I am absolutely at my wits end. I'm doubting my work, I'm doubting Firestone's ability to balance tires and align things right. My steering wheel used to be completely smooth, now it seems like I feel all sorts of vibration. It's been like this for maybe 60k miles?

Recently however, the wheel has started to twitch left and right just slightly (maybe 1/4" either way) while going above 70. I drive A LOT... so this is horribly aggravating and I've done damn near everything in my power to try and sort this out.

1)Balance from firestone
2) new pads and rotors (replaced a rusty caliper bracket too)
3) replaced passenger side axle that seemed to have unusual amounts of play
4) replaced ENTIRE SUSPENSION (also good excuse to lower it 1.5")
5) Inspected tie rods (and had Firestone inspect them also when they did my alignment today)
6) Full alignment (had slightly out of spec toe-in on the left side)
7) 6 months ago replaced loose ball joint on the passenger side (boot was split)
6 months ago replaced passenger wheel bearing (still quiet and still no play)
9) 12 months ago replaced drivers side wheel bearing (still quiet and still no play)
10) Rotated front and rear tires (one at a time) to see if one was a problem... no difference
11) Rotated a spare tire in (running on 2 spares in the front (stole one from my corolla), the lateral vibration is almost gone. I wonder if this is because they are so narrow that they are more forgiving with any lateral motion that's coming from the drivetrain)
12) Put car on jack stands to see if I could isolate where the vibration was coming from. When I go above 70 on the jack stands it appears that the engine and transmission shake very violently. Without tires on, there is very little vibration.
13) Replaced sway bar bushings (they were pretty dry rotted)
14) vibration is only dependent on speed, not dependent on engine speed
15) Vibration still exists while braking, turning etc, so it's not steering rack which would clear up while pushing on either side of a potentially loose gear in the rack.

So if anybody has any suggestions... I'm considering changing out my engine & tranny mounts, and the other axle, but I just can't afford to keep throwing money at this. If only my corolla didn't have different size wheels I'd swap them out to 100% rule out my run of the mill firestone tires... Please help!! I'm desperate!

It's an '05, It has 149k miles on it, I daily drive it (had it 3 yrs, put 90k on it), I overload it with stuff for my house all the time (brought home my refrigerator in it!! lol) Oh, it's a manual... It's never been in a wreck...

jct

could be your rotors check your motor mounts?

speedstick345

ok, so you can rule out suspension.

could be mount. check it out for cracks

Fisqual

Well, it turns out the @#%^sticks at FIRESTONE don't listen to me. They had to give me my car back 3 times and then on the 4th return have their 'master mechanic' look at it to tell me my tires were out of round. THAT'S WHAT I TOLD THEM THE SECOND TIME I WENT.

Thanks for the replies tho. I think my engine mounts are getting a little tired, I notice that AC vibration like it was my old '93 Camry I had before this car.



...Moral of the story TRUST NOBODY BUT YOURSELF. Especially not FIRESTONE.