Alignment Done, But Still Vibrating At High Speed

[razordj]

Hi guys,

After I did the tyre replacement on my Civic ES8, I did the wheel alignment on last weekend, at Kesbewa Chamila Wheel alignment which is somewhat popular in the area, and it was also recommended by one of my friends who got a similar car.

The problems I had was some front-inside wear on both, front right too much wear, (rear was OK) and bit vibration at 110Kmph which increases when I'm speeding. Once I had to overtake a retard who is going slow on the E01, but speeds when I try to overtake, and when it was 130Kmph shaking was unbearable.

After the alignment, still I find that I have some vibration after 110Kmph, but it doesn't seems to be get increased with the speed. So In this week, I stayed below with my safety bar which is 110Kmph, but once I noticed having more steering response at 120Kmph when going downhill in a certain occasion. (steering tend to turn more, and was not much hard to turn. It was like a EPS, where I got Hydraulic PS)

Planning to visit him soon eventhough he asked me to come after a 2500KMs, so wanted to get my facts straight before going there. According to what I read through on google, the King-pin angle cannot modified on normal vehicles, so it's the toe (which seems OK), camber(again looks OK, minor deviation from 0.00, or is it?) and the caster I need to change.

Can somebody comment? Thanks for the help!!!

(Direct link to the image in case if you can't see : http://i50.tinypic.com/fmv0j6.jpg)

Edited July 27, 2012 by razordj

[kush]

Did you balance the wheels, did they check for worn out bushes, suspension/ steering links.

This could be due to any of the above

[NPP]

had the same vibration issue. Greatly reduced after balancing.

[Fixzit]

Make sure you balance the wheels if you haven't already done it. Also try swapping back wheels with the front. If the problem is solved, then there is an issue with your rims or tyres, If not, just like kush said, It could be for many reasons.

[The Don]

Did you note the value in red in the report. Basically they relate to the steering axis inclination (the king pin angle). If I'm not mistaken the ES8 front suspension has an upper control arm as well? Now this goes off over time due to bad roads, worn bushes etc and most wheel adjustment places wont adjust this as there is no method available to adjust.

But there are a few good places who will actually use a hydraulic puller and try to correct some of these imperfections. There was a place mentioned in Walana and another was Car care. Search for a thread called wheel alignment and you'll get a lot of good information. I think the member who has the issue was AmilaG

[razordj]

Guys, thanks for the responses. No, I didn't perform a wheel balance though. Should do that too.

I checked the lower arm and bushes at that moment, and they said they were ok. But there may be issues it seems.

@Don, thanks about this hydraulic puller thing, I thought the king-pin inclination cannot modified.

I actually went through the thread you're mentioning before posting, but didn't notice the hydraulic puller thing.

Is the caster I'm seeing is a big one? (+02 00) According to several documents, some positive caster is helpful to drive straight line, but I am not sure how much should I have. If it's okay, I think I have to correct my king-pin angle.

[Amila G]

I too had an alignment issue and was corrected at walana place and car care wellawatte is also very good. http://forum.autolanka.com/topic/12962-pulling-issue-when-theres-a-load-on-rear-tires/ (if you fancy reading)

The vibration you got, is it a vibration in the steering wheel or in the whole car ? When you take your hands off the wheel do you see the steering wheel moves rapidly a little bit side to side ? If so it could be bad rack ends or other suspension components.

And if the whole car vibrates it could most probably be that the rear wheels are not balanced properly. Try balancing all the 4 wheels. Some tire shop guys says that the balancing is not needed for rear wheels but it's bs. When the fronts are not balanced car vibrates at lower speeds and when rears are not balanced the car vibrates at high speeds.

The light steering could be an alignment problem but was it one time only ? if so I wouldn't worry abt it, could be due to road conditions..

[razordj]

Thanks Amila.

Yes it was the steering that was shaking, not the seats. Steering is balanced and the car moves straight if I take off the hands, but its vibrating slightly.

I think I should start with balancing all the wheels...Thanks for information on the real wheel balancing and yes, they tend to say lot of bs to quickly finish the work and to get the next vehicle inline.

The light steering is still there and its continuous if I were to go like 120Kmph.

[VVTi]

Well there could be another reason, my Alfa had an issue where beyond 130kmph it starts vibrating. I knew it was not due to suspension and alignment. But during the balancing we noticed a bit of wobble on the rims. Took them to Macro in Raththanapitiya and they fixed all 4 wheels.

Took it right after for a test drive and it was fine. If you have alloys, chances are during the course of their lives, they ran over one too many pot hole or was curbed way too much bending them.

Macro charged 1250 per wheel.

Edited July 27, 2012 by VVTi

[GTAm]

@razordj

There could be several reasons imo. Check shock mounts too, they could be broken or worn and As VVTi and Don, say alloys and the King pin angle, Also I assume you bought a good brand of tyres and within their expiry date? Some Chinese ones are known to have defects.

That reminds me I once had an alignment problem with a Mazda we purchased un-reg which took over 6 months to sort out (several places including the vendor many times and finally they referred us to Car Mutts at Ratmalana who managed to sort it out eventually. It was a damaged and "repaired in Japan" lower arm. You could see no defect at all looking at it from under. When it was finally taken off, on the top side there was a "X" marked by a permanent marker in pink. very close inspection showed evidence of repair. We replaced it with a used arm and it was fine.

We informed the vendor before the 6 month expiration of the warranty and they assured us (alas not in writing) that they would honor the warranty claim. When we went back with the bill from Car Mutts just a couple of weeks after 6 months they told us to F-off.

[razordj]

Also I assume you bought a good brand of tyres and within their expiry date? Some Chinese ones are known to have defects.

I bought GoodYear duraplus with manufactured date 2011, 51st week, and from the look they are OK. Plus, I also had this problem with my previous worn out tyres. (I thought thats the problem)

VVTi - Thanks for the information and the place.

GTAm - Thanks! Looks like I need to keep an eye on the lower arms as well. Hmm, Car Ma*t. Interesting to know.

[dissa1982]

I had same issue on my Peugeot 406. Changed front wishbone bush set. Now everything is ok....

[razordj]

Hi guys,

Sorry for my delayed response to the thread.

There is a newly opened alignment center next to my office and one day I went there and discussed this with them. Unlike the previous time, this time I knew that facts (Thanks to this thread and my research) and I could totally understand what they are saying and the terminology. Also they got to know that I know the subject a bit, which was good.

I told them that the initial alignment didn't fix my problem so they agreed to do a recheck. After the inspection, they said that the front is bit off and the rear alignment should also be fixed (Last time, they didn't touch rear mentioning it cannot be changed in this model). After the alignment, I told them that I will come back if the problem is there anymore. (And that I need to do the wheel balance as well if so). Their charge was 850/=.

I did some runs on E01 after that (140, 150kmph) and now the problem seems to be gone. (Previously, the vibration started right after 110kmph)

Thanks everyone for the replies!

And for the others reading this, go to a reputed place always. its worth. I learned my lesson.

[jaga]

Razordj,

Could you please name the place for others benifits?

[razordj]

Cannot remember the name, but its in the left side when going from Bamba junction to Vajira road on the duplication road. (100m from bamba junction on the duplication road to Wellawatte side)