Hey guys,

I've been rattling my brain for the last couple weeks on how to effectively solve my little problem that i've been having without spending much dough:

I have a 1999 3.2 TL w/ 180K miles. I bought it last year, its been a great car so far except I seem to be having some steering shake issues past 60MPH.

I changed all 4 rotors thinking that would solve the problem. Nope. I tried switching tires, front to back, and getting them balanced. Nope.

And it doesnt do it all the time... it will ride really smooth for a few seconds, then starts shaking... rides really smooth, no shaking, nothing. Then it starts back up again.

I have a suspicion that its the tires or the rims... but its hard to believe that because if that was the case it would continously be shaking, no shaking, then becoming smooth.

Anyone know what other components on the suspension that I can check to see maybe if a bolt is loose or something... or maybe something I havent thought of?

Thanks

 

i had tires doing that on my car and friend of mine who has a garage looked at them and said the belts were breaking and I put new tires on and it went away. didnt do it all the time but did shake the steering wheel.

 

Yeah but these tires seem fine, I dont think it has anything to do with the tires. Its gotta be something else otherwise it would do it all the time, not just sporadically....

 

If the tires are balanced it's not the tires. I would say based on everything you've expressed it is a steering linkage issue, ball joints, or something related to the suspension components in the front.

Everything flows together so if something is out of whack with the suspension the tires feel it...since steering is eventually connected to your tires you will feel it in the steering wheel.

 

If you have alloy wheels: I've been told that they should be balanced on BOTH sides (ie. inside and outside edges).

 

i would inspect tie rods, control arms, bearings, and all the bushings related to them.

 

my tires looked ok but if you ran your hand over them they didnt feel right. I dont remember if the steering wheel shook at certain speeds but it didnt do it all the time. good luck, that stuff can be annoying.

 

I also have a 99 I was experiencing the same problem. I had to change out the wheel bearings. I had the shaking at 60+ and I had noise coming from both wheels. I was hoping it wouldn't be he bearings because I wasn't sure if I could do it myself.

Si I took it to pep-boys just to have them diagnose it, never will I let them work on my car. So they told me that both bearings are bad and I need new rotors (lie) and that all of my motor mounts were bad (another lie). So I bought my bearings from autozone 60 bucks for the pair and did it myself.

Not the eaziest thing to do but the shaking stopped and now there is no noise and it feels like a TL should feel.

If it is your bearing it can be replaced yourself, given you have the right tools. Let me know and I will write you a DIY on it.

 

you should do a diy. i really think that can help some people here, and there arent enough diy on here considering the number of mechanically inclined members.

 

Bent wheel

 

MurkyRiversTL - Yeah that could possibly be it... i have noise coming from my wheels too... like whooooooooooooooooooooooooooo noise past 35+

If you could write a DIY that would be great. Im thinking i need new bearings.

Also, Pepboys does diagnostics without charging? Where can I go to get it checked and they tell me whats wrong without me having to pay for it? hehe

 

Then its definitely a bearing issue.

 

how can u find out what bearing it is tho? just replace em all?

 

Jack it up so the wheel you want to check is off the ground.
When you rotate it, it should be smooth, no grinding noises.
If you grab the tire at the top and try to move it back and forth, it shouldn't move.
If it does either, it's bad.

 

ill write a DIY tonight. I thought it was just one but I bought both fronts. I went through three sets of tires thinking that the tires were messed up because that's what pepboys told me first.

I didn't pay a thing when I went to pepboys. I went in there playing dumb like "oh there is something wrong and I don't know what it is and it makes a funny noise." So they test drove it and gave me their little diagnostic results, which would have costed me over 700. I told them I couldn't afford that and they told me it wouldn't cost anything for what they did. So I left and bought the bearings at autozone.

For a quick reference, this is what you will need, and what you will need to do.

You will need:
Impact Gun
36mm Axel Nut Socket
17mm socket and rathcet
10mm socket and ratchet
17mm wrench
Tie rod end puller
Needle Nose pliers
12 ton or higher shop press
and of course new bearings

This is what you will need to do:
Jack up the car one side at a time or both sides if you don't need your car right away

Remove the wheel

remove the caliper by taking two 17mm bolts off the back side of the caliper

remove the rotor using an impact driver not pneumatic(check rotor change DIY) on the two screws next to the studs.

Use your impact gun and 36mm socket to remove axel nut

Remove all cotter pins from the upper control arm, lower control arm, and tie rod end.

Remove the nuts which are all 17mm from the upper control arm lower control arm and tie rod end. Make sure you mark the tie rod end where the threads re in case for some reason it decides to move when off, which will fuck up you alignment.

Remove the four 10mm bolts that hold your ABS sensor line to the spindle and the sensor bolt on the back side of the hub.

Use the tie rod end puller to remove the control arms and tie rod end from the spindle.

The lower control arm can be a bitch, and you may have to beat the control arm with a hammer where it attatches to the spindle, this should break it loose along with the use of the tie rod end puller.

Now that the spindle is free, you can ull it out and away from the axle and pat yourself on the back cause the hard part is done.

Now if you don't have a press and don't feel like spending 120 on one at harbor freight then you can take it to your local machine shop or automotive shop and ask them to press out the old bearing and press the new one in.

I did it myself by using the 36mm under the press to push the bearing oout.

Now the inner race of the bearing may get stuck onto the hub assembly(the part with the studs for your wheels and rotor) If this happens, which it most likley will, you will have to get a dremel with cutting wheel and gut the race. Make sure you don't cut too far cause you may cut the hub assy.

Once you have a nice deep line through the race take a chisel and hammer between the crack, the race will crack and you can pry it off.

then press the new bearing in and press the hub into the bearing. Reverse your steps to put it all back together.

This is a fast write up with no pics. I will do better tonight, but in case you need it right now. Here it is.

 

Nice write up. Thanks!!

 

if you're going to take the time to do one, you might as well do both. Cause if it is just one that's bad, chances are the other will go very soon. You will be surprised if you think it only one like I thought.

I thought it was only the passenger side, and after I did that one and drove I very quickly realized that it was both.

I don't know what causes the bearings to go out. It could just be time or speed. I'm sure that driving 145 like I do on occasions (late to work) it doesn't help any.

You have to be careful and do it soon. The last thing you would want is for the bearing to seize. It will cause your wheel not to rotate as easily if at all, and it will make it damn near impossible to remove. With enough heat the metals could actually fuse together like Gogeta minus the cool song and dance (dragon ball GT)

 

That happened to me once back in the day. It wasn't pretty. I was going around 80. The only reason I didn't wreck the car was because I was in the left hand lane and the rt front siezed.