Hey all,
ok, so, I have one hell of a bad vibration in my car and no mechanic seems to be able to work it out. The car vibrates at 40km/h and upward. The vibration will start when either the car has been cruising along at 60km/h for about 20 minutes, I give the car hell up to 100km/h, or the weather is extremely hot in which it will start at any speed 40+. At 40, the vibration is slight and only just noticable through the steering wheel. At 60, the steering wheels shakes about half an inch in both directions and can feel the vibration at your feet. At 80, steering gets extremely light, steering wheel shakes an inch in both directions and the vibration can be felt through the whole car. At 100, the car feels really unstable, steering wheel shaking an inch in both directions, still through the whole car, and I can see my headlights shaking as violently as the steering wheel on upcoming signs. At 100 also, it comes and goes, it may start vibrating for about 5 mins, then stop for 10 mins, then come back for 10. Sometimes it will stop going through the steering wheel but i can feel it worse at my feet.

So far, this is what has been checked: - Trans service, Transmission fine
- Brakes all around replaced
- Diff checked and passed
- Balanced Tail-shaft
- Wheel bearings checked and passed

The supects now are as simple as a power steering flush or new power steering pump. Or a steering rack. I think(not mechanics opinion) it could also be the torque convertor. Now I've had the car looked over countless times over the past 6 months, and it just keeps getting worse and worse, so on friday, she's going into Ford, but they're stinging me a fair penny for it, $130 p/h for labour just to find what is wrong. So any suggestions as to what else may be causing this vibration would be extremely appreciated.

Cheers,
Matt

I would consider your tyres a possible suspect in this.

Perhaps a manufacturing fault/poor tolerance which becomes apparent at temperature could be causing the wheel balance to turn to shyte.

Perhaps driving around near a tyre shop till it starts it's horrible vibration and then get them to whip all four wheels off for a balance while they are still hot.

It will either eliminate them from the equation, or give you an answer.

Have you checked the fluid in the power steering is of the correct grade??

Doesn't it suck when these faults are intermittent...? They are so much harder to diagnose when they are not there all the time!!

Last edited by philaddis on Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I also forgot to mention, I am 2nd in charge at Beaurepaires in South Yarra, so tyres, balnacing and wheel alignments were the first things conducted

Wow, that was horrible English. When it first happened, i replaced all 4 tyres, balanced, and wheel aligned the car, took her for a drive over night and it still vibrated. I put the old tyres back on, balanced, made sure the wheel alignment was still spot on, and it continued

Just a thought to help you narrow it down a little.
Could you get the car onto some some stands so the wheels are free and drive it.
This way if the front wheels are not moving at all and the issue is still their it would rule out a lot of parts.

Just a thought....

MITCHY

That's not a bad idea at all!! Drive the car until it vibrates, get it on a belly ramp at work, up in thr air and then accelerate and see if it still vibrates....I like it. Cheers, will be trying this tomorrow

check your balll joints and lower control arm bushes. had the same problem at work but the front lower bushes were f**k and the whole lot was wobbling like crazy

Hello Matt - I have a very similar problem with my Falcon, did you manage to get this problem sorted at Ford ?

Cheers

Ford had my car for a total of what they claim was 10 hours labour, $1000 and they couldnt find the problem...feeling extremely ripped off. But this week hopefully all problems will be solved, My mechanic is taking it home and back to work every day to get the vibration started, he said once he knows what it feels like, he should have a an idea at what to start looking at. I dont mind how long it takes him as he's not charging me labour. Once i know what it is, ill let you know

Frig me! $1000 labour for what if they didnt fix it what was the labour for,Id' be asking for a complete breakdown of what they did for the $1000,And for christs sake dont go back there eh!
Except to complain to the workshop manager & ask for some $$$ back!

Yeah, I felt robbed, and should they have a complete break-down of what they checked written down? If so, I definately wanna see it, because my mechanic today is 95% sure this is a brakes issue, my left front when hot, the brakes haven"t been completely releasing, plus my front pads have started to split apart in the middle. So I've purchased DBA gold series cross drilled and slotted rotors, and Bendix Ultimate pads. I'm putting them on tomorrow, and will be doing a fair bit of driving over the weekend, if no vibrations, then I'll be the happiest guy in Melbourne as I will have money left over to get my flash tune properly dyno tuned. I will let you all know how the brakes go

Just a thought from what I have read!
DBA=excellent, but the Ultimates are a fairly aggresive pad & I was told that when the rotors need a machine the drilled holes make it more difficult.
Can anyone confirm this statement or is my brake guy full of it
He has been doing brakes for 40yrs & is a DBA & bendix dealer

Have you checked all the bushes? How are the ball joints?

Everytime I've done the brakes on my BA and EF, it's always been Bendix and I've never had a problem with them. With the new rotor's I'm sticking with Bendix, but I was also recommended EBC Green Stuff pads. But I don't know anything about them...

And yeah, checked bushes, ball joint's bearing's and K-frame bolts today, all are good

Yeah I always use them also, wasn't putting bendix down.
I just dont use the Ultimates,Obviously you do and have done say 30,000-40,000kms on them with no probs.
So hook in mate! hope it fixes the prob.