Once I get over 60mph my car begins to start to shake and shudder a bit. If I have a bottle in the cup holder it shakes pretty well. It does it stronger on some parts of the interstate than others, but doesn't seem to be connected to the condition of the road. Even after an alignment it continues to do the same.

What do you guys think? Unbalanced wheels, bent wheel, or that a blown strut is causing it?

I am planning on going to Wally World and getting my front 18's balanced for $7.50 a piece.

 

Spin the wheels & look for bent rims. I usually move the front wheels to the back in order to spin them easily. In fact, move them around & drive, to see if the shuddering moves around with them.

Balancing is the first step. For grins, see if they will measure the balance before removing the old weights. That might confirm the problem.

Otherwise, a small out-of-balance condition can be magnified by a blown shock.

 

I'll have to do as you said when I get some free time!

My car squeaks really loud when doing over small bumps. It did it even before I installed my suspension though. However, the crap struts I got are probably the problem.

I am going to try to get my wheels balanced tomorrow or move the front wheels to the back and whatnot.

Thanks for the help and i'll keep you updated!

 

If the squeaking is the same before & after the crap struts, then look somewhere else. Like maybe the sway-bar bushings.

Can you make it squeak by bouncing the car while stopped? Then ahve someone bounce it while you look around to pinpoint the location.

 

Well I am pretty sure the oem struts were garbage before and so are these ones.

But yes, if I push down on the passenger fender it will squeak. Odd thing is, is that it wasn't doing this a week or two ago....or if it was it wasn't nearly as bad.

If it were the sway bar bushings, would this explain the shuddering? Also, is it hard to replace the sway-bar bushings?

 

The bar (#1) just twists inside the bushings (#2 & 3) and from this picture it looks deceptively easy. Loosen the clamp bolts, try to work some grease into the rubber bushings, put it all back together.

But there might be other stuff (front subframe) in the way to make it awkward to reach those bolts.

Squeaking might also come from that big stack of stuff bolted to the ends of the bar #1.

 

Oh yeah... it won't explain the shuddering.

But what if it's the mount bushings of the radius rods (#8, 9, 10, 12 depending on what car)? That bar controls the position of the lower control arm (#11, 13) so if it's loose the arm can move around where it doesn't belong.

Look around for ANYTHING that's loose.

 

I hope you have good solid jack stands. Don't get under there & shake stuff when the car's on the tire-changing jack. Not even a hydraulic jack. There's not really any part of your body that can support the car if the jack decides to fall over.

 

I will have to check into this stuff as well. Hmm.... When I change my oil I have noticed some rubber bushings that are cracking.

I have some new jackstands. I cant remember if they are 4 or 2 ton but they are new. When get under the front of the car if its not on our ramps, I jack it up, let it down on the jack stands, and then put the jack in the middle of the car underneath and after it touches the tow hook I give it a small pump so it is resting on all 3.

 

So Jim, say nothing is loose, what else would cause the car to shudder? I just had all four wheels balanced and it didn't seem to help much. Hopefully I will be getting my struts replaced within the next two weeks.