# Shaking car syndrome HELP!!



## Icecreamassassin (May 14, 2012)

I have a 98 200sx bone stock as far as I know of. The problem lies in it now that when you drive it the steering wheel start going back and forth and when you get up to speed (60mph+) the car start vibrating badly. I have put new wheel bearings in it, the axles are new, the inner tie rods are new as well. The tires are a little worn but nothing abnormal with them. I've rotated the tires and it still does it, so that rules out a bent rim I'd think. It's in the wheel area I feel but I can't pin point it. It's also with vehicle speed as it's nothing to do with engine speed. Any thoughts on this please as I do drive this car quite a bit and I'd rather not shake it to it's death. 

One other thing I've noticed is that the front wheels have a little camber issue, I have had it aligned as well but they didn't do the camber. Any thoughts?


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## smj999smj (Jan 1, 2006)

Camber in the front is normally not adjustable on the B14 and normally not necessary unless something is bent, such as a strut or control arm.


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

I've had camber kits installed on both of my B14's. Both cars were just barely out of spec.
As far as I could tell, the camber kits did their job.


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## Icecreamassassin (May 14, 2012)

This car has a slotted hole at the bottom of the strut. But would that cause the shaking. It feels like the tire is bolted on the lugs off-center if that makes sense. Almost like the tire is out of round, but like I said I rotated them and it didn't get any better. It doesn't do it when you get on the brakes really hard either. SO I don't think it's a warped rotor either. SO what does that leave? Ball Joints maybe? Would a strut cause it to physically turn the steering wheel?


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

How do you rotate your tires? What pattern do you use?
Could be the case that all 4 tires are out of whack...possibly because you might have rotated a tire into a bad strut (if that makes any sense) and wrecked all four.


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## Icecreamassassin (May 14, 2012)

I do front to back first then the next time I cross them. But the tires are good. It did this when the tires were new too. So I'm almost ruling the tires out of it. If you're rolling on flat ground at about 10-15 mph the steering wheel is going back and forth and you can feel the whole car rocking. Almost like there is a high spot on one of the front tires. There isn't that I've seen and like I said, I've moved all the tires around at one point to try and pinpoint it with no luck. 
Also once you get it up to speed, if you put it into a gentle curve on the interstate, you can find that sweet spot where all the vibes go away and it smoothes out. But as soon as you are out of the curve it's back. Ball joint possibly?


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

Sounds to me like you wrecked all the tires by using that rotation pattern, if I'm understanding your rotation pattern correctly.
You're saying that swap #1, you swap front/back, then swap #2, all the tires get crossed over?
If that's the case...not the right way...
You can rule out tires all you want. I'm ruling them back in.


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## Icecreamassassin (May 14, 2012)

The tires aren't worn funny at all. Not to mention, it did it with all four tires brand new. How can a tire with zero miles be wrecked? SO I'M ruling them out. Rotation wasn't what caused the car to do this.


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

Doesn't matter if they're worn funny or not.
One good time on a corner with a rotten strut/shock/etc, could have split a ply internally, or a handful of other things. Rotating the tires (no matter what pattern) pushes the problem onto another tire, etc.
Warped rotor - no, no shaky under braking
Bad bearings - if no noise, then probably not, but bad bearings have been known to be pretty quiet too.
Rotten axle CV's - entirely possible, even if they're not making noise. Inner CVs can cause a shake going straight. Outer CV's usually click in turns. Get in there, shake them down good and hard. If it is an inner CV that's shot, it'll likely clunk a bit when you get on/off the gas while at speed. Tough to hear though. And don't mistake that for a bad motor mount.
Ball joints, control arm bushings, etc - You'd find that in a decent alignment shop easy, or jack it up, start prying on things looking for movement.
What kind/brand/size tires?


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## Asleep (Jan 19, 2003)

I wonder if the rack bushings are worn out and the rack is shifting from side to side.


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## Icecreamassassin (May 14, 2012)

The steering rack is something that I haven't even thought about. Seeing as this is the only car I own with a rack and pinion. Everything else has an actual steering box out on the front of the frame. So that might be something to look into. Everything from the previous post has been replaced already. So thank you for suggesting something that's not obvious. I'll look into that.


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## Asleep (Jan 19, 2003)

Any progress?


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## Icecreamassassin (May 14, 2012)

Actually found that the wheels aren't centering up on the hub. The lugnuts willget it close but it still has a little play. 1/8 inch or less side to side overall if even that. But thats enough to get a high spot as it rolls. Now just trying to figure out how to remedy it is the problem.


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

Hub-centric vs. Lug-centric...that'll do it.
Got the wrong rims or the wrong lug nuts


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## Asleep (Jan 19, 2003)

jdg said:


> Hub-centric vs. Lug-centric...that'll do it.
> Got the wrong rims or the wrong lug nuts


I'm going with wrong lugs.


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

Me too, but with kids these days putting fat rims and fat tires on vehicles, trying to slam things that shouldn't be otherwise slammed, wrecking alignments with half-ass install jobs, ya never really know what's actually going on...
Yes, I know the O/P said "bone stock" in the first post, but...again, ya never know...


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## rogoman (Dec 16, 2004)

Icecreamassassin said:


> Actually found that the wheels aren't centering up on the hub. The lugnuts willget it close but it still has a little play. 1/8 inch or less side to side overall if even that. But thats enough to get a high spot as it rolls. Now just trying to figure out how to remedy it is the problem.


The centerbore of a wheel is the machined opening on the back of the wheel that centers the wheel properly on the hub of a vehicle. This hole is machined to exactly match the hub so the wheels are precisely positioned as the lug hardware is torqued down. Keeping the wheel precisely centered on the hub when it is mounted will minimize the chance of a vibration. Some wheels are vehicle model specific and will come from the factory with a bore machined to match that vehicle. Some wheels are designed to fit multiple vehicle models and will use a CENTERING RING SYSTEM to reduce the bore size to match the hubs of different vehicles. These rings keep the wheel precisely positioned as the lug hardware is torqued down.

Some wheels are non-hub centric by design. These are known as lug centric wheels. With these wheels it is critical that you use the proper lug nuts and torque the lug hardware with the vehicle on jack stands, off the ground. This allows the nuts or bolts to center the wheel and torque down without the weight of the vehicle pushing them off center.


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## trmn8r (Apr 16, 2005)

im sorry but after all that. did you even re balance the tires?
sometimes the tires can get out of round. i really dont think its all that crazy ness thats going on. ive had the shakes in my car before. one thing that can cause this is fix a flat in the tire. if you have a lot of liquid in the tire it will cause all types of really randome shaking at various speeds. i mean thats the first thing i would check.


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