Vibration between 70-75?

[cyberbackpacker]

Okay.. three more days and I will be able to address my new to me L, but for now this problem is a bit annoying and hoping you guys can point me in the right direction for the work on the car this weekend.

Basically whenever I am in the 70-75mph range I get a vibration that seems to be isolated to the front of the car. It happens while holding steady, accelerating into, or slowing down into that range. 75+ and 70- no vibrations and rides smoothly.

I have a Jeep and it is similar in feeling to what they call death wobble-- relating to any number of suspension things- alignment, control arms (bushings), etc. However, this is no Jeep :)

The tires that are on it are 185/70/14's and they are probably at the last quarter of their tread life, so I think these could be the culprit.

The 70-75mph only thing though kind of has me a little stumped though, and prevents me from totally committing to my above theory.

The suspension is stock with 149k on it, so maybe the bushings do need to be replaced in some areas?

Any help in places to start or words of encouragement are appreciated.

[shazapple]

probably unbalanced tires or the tires are just shot.

[Wiscon_Mark]

probably unbalanced tires or the tires are just shot.

+1

[hubble1953]

Had a similar problem with my 98 legacy. The tread was separated on the front two tires, had plenty of tread left too.
Big problem if the tire comes apart, have it checked :wink:

[Huffer]

In these cars, if the tread is significantly different between each wheel (by tread I also mean treadWEAR), then there will be excessive vibration.

The worn shocks won't be helping to absorb any vibrations either, and as each wheel continues to wear (no tire wears exactly the same, or at the same rate), the vibrations will continue to get worse. As the tires are worn down, the wheel becomes more unbalanced.

I just replaced my worn all-seasons with some lightly used tires, all with even treadwear. I had similar vibration issues that you are describing, and these went away when the new tires were put on.

Also - if the tires are wearing unevenly, this puts stress on the differentials.

[cyberbackpacker]

Thanks for all of the replies everyone... as I said I thought this was the culprit, but wanted more experienced opinions. Guess I am asking the wife for tires for christmas! :)

[SHOfast]

Since your tires are fairly worn this might not be worth it but you can get your wheels rebalanced at a tire store. The hardest part here is finding a tire store that will do a good job balancing, it is very difficult around me. While the wheels are on the balancer they should be able to check if the wheel has more than one harmonic and also if it is out of round at all. These are things that you generally need to ask for them to watch for becuase they often just ignore them.

My luck always seemed to be that if I got a perfect balancing job I never needed to worry about them again in their life, even if it was a full 60k on a new set. If they don't do a good job on the first mounting I need to come back and have it redone, vibrations always got worse as the tires wore.

[cyberbackpacker]

Just as a follow-up... got new skins and meats today, and VOILA vibration is gone. Rides beautifully now at all speeds.

I will have to get pics up this week sometime to show you guys. Got some '05 WRX wheels put on.

Thanks.