Warped Wheels?

[Fordman]

When I bought my car, I noticed that the car had a vibration in the front end. The previous owner told me that the front wheels were warped. I'm not sure that's what it is. Anybody know how I can find out for sure? It's not a constant bad vibration. Most of the time, its barely noticable, but ever once in a while it gets bad enough to notice and then goes away. It's like the wheels get in the correct position to make it worse.

Any help is appreciated.

[90lx86svo]

You can check by jacking up the car and spinning the wheels. Look for any large dents. I bet it will have small ones. Do you feel it in the steering wheel? Have you tried to rotate front to rear? My bet is you have the same problem I had, your front control arm bushings are bad. I rebalanced by wheels 4-5 times (I have a balancer) and rotated 2-3 times and nothing fixxed it. I finally swapped another set of wheels (thanks Lon) and it still did it so I knew it was the suspension. I put the car on the rack and I could move the control arm easily. Any normal out of roundness is greatly accentuated (sp) by worn out bushings. I ended up putting urethane bushings in and it fixxed the shimmy but it rides like cr^p now over expansion joints. Fair trade off. I am keeping an eye out for SN95 stuff so I can put rubber back in it.

Bud

[Fordman]

Yea, I feel it in the steering wheel. I was in traffic one day going about 10 or 15 mph and it got worse. The whole car was rocking back and forth. It was like the wheels were in sync to cause this. The guy I bought the car from said, he had someone look at it and they told him the wheels were warped (like someone spun the back end around and warped them). That manner doesn't seem possible to me, but the headlight panel is cracked and the radiator core support is bent, so it looks like someone ran over the top of something. Maybe the wheels were bent in the process. I was thinking if it wasn't the wheels, it may be the rotors are warped because the wheels weren't torqued when they were installed. I've been told that can happen with Aluminum wheels.

[Otto Man]

I fit IS the wheels and they are either "out-of-round", bent, or warped you can get them straightened. If you can't find a place nearby you can try Wheel Worx in Maryland (near me).
They will true them up, strip them of old clearcoat, and refinish for 125 a pop. Or 100 each if you show them proof of SVOCA membership.
They do great work, had mine done there last April.

[Fordman]

Wheel Worx can straighten them? I was wondering about that.

[Otto Man]

Yup
And they do a darn good job!

[90lx86svo]

Originally posted by Fordman
Yea, I feel it in the steering wheel. I was in traffic one day going about 10 or 15 mph and it got worse. The whole car was rocking back and forth. It was like the wheels were in sync to cause this. The guy I bought the car from said, he had someone look at it and they told him the wheels were warped (like someone spun the back end around and warped them). That manner doesn't seem possible to me, but the headlight panel is cracked and the radiator core support is bent, so it looks like someone ran over the top of something. Maybe the wheels were bent in the process. I was thinking if it wasn't the wheels, it may be the rotors are warped because the wheels weren't torqued when they were installed. I've been told that can happen with Aluminum wheels.

From you description it sounds like your control arm bushings are in very bad shape. Have you jacked up the car and spun the wheels? If it wobbles that bad at 10-15mph the wheels should be tacoed.

Bud