DerrickW

PART I
So a couple months ago or so my car (07 TL-S 6-spd) developed a hard steering wheel shake when under acceleration between about 2500 - 3500 rpms. (Some of you may remember as I posted about it.) I rotated the wheels to help verify the problem; sure enough the shake went from the steering wheel to beneath my butt. Problem identified, right? Wheel significantly out of balance. Took the car in for a balance & alignment. Tech who worked on it informed me that I have a bent wheel. This shake is severe enough that I can't just ignore it, so...

PART II
Bought a new wheel. 17-inch 07 Type-S waffle reman. Found the vendor on eBay, purchased for $182 shipped, showed up in a week. All good except, it was a different color! This has been discussed ad nauseam on this board. The difference was very noticeable & I'm way to anal-retentive about my car to drive around with 3 wheels one color & the 4th a different color. So....

PART III
Took the car to my tire shop, had all 4 tires removed then took the 3 original wheels to Platinum Powder Coating. Had them sand blasted, powder coated and clear coated to match the new one. $255. They came out looking great. Got rid of all the knicks, dings, curb rash, etc. They were ready for pick up in 4 days. Car sat up on stands in my garage which gave me an opportunity to take a pic of calipers.

PART IV
Picked the wheels up (using wife's station wagon for all this), took them back to the tire shop, tires remounted & rebalanced ($40), back home, toss 'em on the car and....shake is still there. DAMN IT!!!

PART V
And here I am. $477 later and the problem not solved. The new wheel is up front but the shaking I'm feeling is still coming from the back. So either:
a) Wasn't a bent wheel at all but something different like a tire problem, bent axle or something else in the running gear
b) The problem is a bent wheel, just not the one I replaced - its one of the other 3

And so here I sit.

Good news is I've got 4 sweet looking wheels, scratchless & all "just off the showroom floor" shiny. Bad news is, my AEM V2 CAI just got put on hold b/c I dumped a quick 5 bills I wasn't planning on, and, my car still shakes like a cement mixer. Giving it gas on a freeway on ramp at 3,000rpms feels like being in one of those cheap hotel massage-for-a-quarter beds.

And so, the trouble-shooting process starts all over again. sux

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

If you have a bent wheel or tire out of balance condition, the problem won't occur only under acceleration, it will be there all the time,
at certain speeds. If only felt with acceleration, take a look at the inner CV joints.
As there are no drivetrain components in the rear, no explanation as to why you would feel it in the back under acceleration.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

preface; I did not read the updated saga.

I couldn't even feel a flat in the rear......

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

in between where I bolded, have you tried rotating rear to front? etc. etc.

and also, are you the first owner?
trying to get the history of the car...for any known accidents

DerrickW

Yup. The shake started in front, rotated front to rear, shake moved to rear. So I'm thinking/hoping its a tire problem but as Turbonut mentions, it'd be an odd condition to only occur under acceleration if it were a tire.

2nd owner. Very clean history. Original owner bought it from the dealership, had timing belt changed at 78k (who does that??) and the rest of the car's history is equally persnickety. I bought it with 96k & this didn't show up until 130k (about 3 months ago.) So it clearly wasn't something inherited