We had 3 snow days (days off work) and my car sat, back in feb. All was fine Monday. Sat tues/wed/thurs. Friday I head to work and as soon as I hit about 60 it seemed like the entire car was shaking. It was horrible. Took it back to the place I got it originally fixed back in December (slid on ice and hit curb) They said that the back shocks were shot and the brake pads/rotors were bad. Shocks were bad and I knew it, got those replaced, and the brake pads were only half worn and the rotors I've been told by a few places that they are fine. only off by 600hundredths of an inch.

Took it to another place for a second opinion, they said suspension was tight and brakes and rotors were fine but that the rear passenger wheel was bent (the one I had replaced when I hit the curb) Ordered a brand new one and the major vibration went away, but it's just a slight one now and seems to fade as speed gets higher.

I have like 103,000 miles on the car I believe.

 

Could be marginal hubs. A good shop could check the endplay .015 inch is the limit.

Have the tires been rotated since you replaced the wheel?

I have 3 bent rims that I fixed with a sledge hammer, oddly enough the one that was barely bent is the one that causes the most vibration. But, still I have to be looking for it to notice it and I have rotated the tires 6 times now since the "incident".

I do not go very far out of my way to avoid pot holes, just the deep ones.

This is an old fashioned question: Do your tires have steel belts or nylon belts? The steel belts will not get flat spots in the cold. Cheap tires are still made with "man-made" belts.

 

what is marginal hubs???
I have no idea what tires I have. I just got some primewell(?) I think.When I hit the curb. I needed 2 new tires anyways. I should have had the shop rotate the tires and maybe I will go in and do that this week and see if I notice a difference. I figure if the vibrating stops when I'm accelerating then maybe the tires are crap?? It just blows my mind for one shop to say they see nothing, another shop say the same, then this shop say all they can find is the 4 wheels bent. And yeah, can't they just be bent back? I mean when I hit the curb ( and I hit it hard!) the firestone shop bent it back and I drove 2 plus hours home on it before I got a new wheel on it.

 

Never mind.

First you say you don't know how a rim could get bent then you say you hit a curb "hard". A professional should never "bend it back" because of liability issues. I have done it on a few wheels, but myself on my steel wheels.

If you don't know what tires you have, to put it mildly get informed.
To my knowledge, Primewell is bottom of the line, probably nylon belted piece of crap, cheapest, worst tire option. I may be totally wrong, and there may be reasons to buy cheap tires, like you don't expect to own the car for 20,000 more miles. The difference in price for 4 tires guaranteed for 20,000 miles and 70,000 miles is about $100.

Classic balance issues occur between 45 and 60 MPH.

Hubs can be "going bad" without making the crazy noises.

I am about ready to declare a "BS".

 

First of all, yes I do say I don't know how a rim can get bent meaning just day to day driving. Obviously when I slid on ice and hit the curb, that could easily bend a rim. I'm not a complete idiot. Declare a BS? This is a real issue and I really thought I might be able to get some help here. I suppose I was wrong.

 

criddle11 - understand it gets pretty difficult to help one out here in cases like this. First off you seemed mystified with your first posting on the mystery of 4 rims being bent. You then said you have already taken it to several shops, and they gave you different answers. It isn't till several posts later you happen to mention that you had an accident when you slid on ice and bent rims.

Well, it would have been nice to know that from the start rather than having to play 20 questions. Obviously if one slid off the road hard enough to bend rims, the whole suspension needs to be checked out for further hidden damage. And that isn't something we can help you with. About all you can do is find a shop that does good work and will give you an honest evaluation on the situation.

When someone mentions "marginal hubs" (I understood it) you ask "what is marginal hubs" - so it seems like crawling under your vehicle yourself isn't your kind of "thing". So about all I can suggest other than the items mentioned so far, is to take it to a good dealer, or independent shop.

 

criddle11 - ok - so you report the post like you did, thinking I was "rude" because you didn't understand the term "marginal hubs"???? Well, you didn't understand it, and that leads me to believe that crawling under your vehicle is not your "thing" - not that there is anything wrong with that. Many people don't ever pick up a wrench - no big deal.

I was not being rude at all - obviously we can't help you further - one shop said you had 4 bent rims - the other one said it was all good. So what do you want us to do to help - come and inspect your car ourselves?

 

criddle - ok - now you report yet another post you took offence to - it is totally obvious that we can't help you. This thread is closed.