Alright guys and gals, here is whats going on:

My car vibrates (I know its been posted a million times but I am really out of solutions) sometimes at 50+mph, not all the time, but when it does its pretty noticeable. I have checked my tire balancing, my alignment, my tire rod ends, my sway bar bushings and my wheel bearings.

Could it be that the tires have a bad belt in them or something, could it be my rotors that do have a couple of hot spots on them, to me it seems like its something with my clutch or am I missing something else?

IDK, but any help will be appreciated.

 

Bad belts are difficult to spot. I had one & it never did any visible squirming, which I looked for while driving alongside.

Maybe a Hunter GSP9000 balancing machine can pick that up??

Rotors with hot spots would only shake while you apply brakes. Is that the way it works?

Clutch seems farfetched but try this. Downshift but stay at the same road speed. Does the frequency of the shaking increase with engine RPM or does it stay the same?

 

The only reason why I assumed rotors it that say I am going 50 mph and I feel vibration, then I apply brakes and the frequency of vibration stays the same, just the amplitude increases.

I am going to check the clutch right now....I'll post the results after noon....

Thanks man, you always seem like you know what you're talking about....are you a mechanic?

 

OK, its not the clutch, cuz the vibration remains even when I am in between gears with clutch disengaged....

what else?

 

Swap your wheels/tires around to see if the vibration seems to move to a different corner. Better yet, if you have snowtires on their own wheels (or swap with a friends wheels).

Find a shop with a Hunter GSP9000 balancing machine. Normal machines spin the wheel up in the air (not touching anything). The GSP9000 presses the tire against a roller while it's spinning. Not free($), but that *SHOULD* pick up problems with the belts squirming around. And then maybe the problem will be warrantied by the tire company.

How did you check your ball joints? If you only have one wheel up in the air, your anti-roll bar will be pushing on the lower control arm & holding the balljoint together. Lift both wheels, & better yet disconnect the end-link of the anti-roll bar.

 

Tires were rotated and the vibration and the noise did not move to a different place. I am pretty sure the sound is coming from left rear wheel. It is not loud, its your normal tire noise, but it reflects the frequency of vibration.

The ball joints were checked by a trusted shop when the car was on a lift.

PS, coming from lunch today the was no vibration for a while....like I said its on and off....

 

I had a bad rear wheelbearing that sounded like that. The bearing was making noise but it was NOT loose. And just to confuse me, it didn't hardly change sound when steering right or left.

I had to remove the brake rotor & spin the hub in order to hear it. The bearing wasn't even very tight - it spun pretty easily. For a long time I thought it was tire noise.

 

Ok, I have just jacked my car up and checked the free rotation of rear tires. Without removing the tires the right side spun a lot easier then the left, and one spot on the left side there was more resistance then throughout the spin. But yet again the rotors were touching the pads.......which could have caused that.

 

Sounds like you probably have a sticking caliper. You can rebuild or replace, but do both sides at the same time

 

Yes, the brakes would have caused that drag in one spot. That's sorta normal, as long as it's not a lot of drag. But still you could clean the caliper slide pins & make sure the pads don't stick in the caliper bracket. While the pads are out, spin the hub (all by itself) to check for any hint of the bearings NOT being smooth.