Car question where does it belong?

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by tw

What manufacturer and model tires? Why do you (he) know the tires are not defective? How do you know shocks are good (since struts must never fail)? Bent axle on a front wheel drive car? Where did that come from?

Scalloping tires are most often due to bad struts.

What kind of noise? Does the steering wheels shift right-left or just the car goes up and down?

If not this and not that, they the reason why must also be provided. Based upon what was posted, everything remains on the list of suspects because 'reasons why' are not provided.

Of course, there is always Car Talk on PBS. I suspect they would have fun with scallops.

The current tires are Dunlop signature all season radials. While the problem started when I got these tires at around 84k miles, it was likely coincidental since the problem remained when we swapped to snows which were Nokian hakkapeliita (sp?) We don't know the tires are not defective, they may be, but it seems odd that all four would be bad. We had a road force balance doen and while the machine did not indicate a tire or rim problem, the tech said he still suspected the tires.

I have no idea if the shocks are still good, the dealership mech said the front end looked good to him, would he be able to tell if the shocks/struts were bad by driving and inspecting the vehicle? Since I assume they are consumable parts and not part of the drive train, I imagine he'd be happy to sell them to me. What are the symptoms of bad shocks/struts? (I've heard scalloping tires, but no one thought that was the case with my tires. Who knows?)

Bent axle? that was BrianR.
Noise? who said anything about noise? There is no noise, just a vibration which has now extended from 20-30mph to 20-45mph. The steering wheel judders back and forth in a small arc. The car doesn't bounce like a car with bad shocks does. It handles nicely with the exception of the vibration.

A new development is that when you come to a stop and make a left turn after complete the turn and you straighten out the vibration is noticibly lessened. After making a right turn it is noticibly worse.

We'll see what happens tomoorow.

As bullitt points out "Once you lose traction..." I find that point comes a little later with good snows. Then again, you never know how fast you can corner until you wipe out.