Okay, here's the deal. The other night when I was driving home, I was cruising at about 70-75 when this stupid Volkswagen Beetle driver decided to change lanes on top of me. I nailed the brakes pretty hard and managed to miss HER (no offense ladies, but it's true what they say about women drivers.) However, I seem to have a vibration now coming from the front end. I can feel it in the steering wheel. If I get moving and let go, the wheel looks like it's vibrating pretty severely and the car pulls slightly to the right. Now, I had a similar situation in another Mustang I had and it turned out that I had flat spots on the front tires. I wound up having to replace those two tires in order to resolve the issue. My question is, what could be the problem? I really don't want to have to spend the kind of cash it would take to get new tires. The vibration is more of an annoyance than anything. Oh, and it gets worse the faster the car is moving. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Well to me it sounds like a wheel balance issue possibly. Go to a tire shop and ask them to balance the front two tires only. its like 5 to 10 bucks a tire, see if that clears things up for you. if not try a front end alignment. start with the tires first as it is cheap and most likely your problem. although it could be other things but if it happened after you slammed on the brakes I'm thinking one of your balancers came off the tire.
Thanks for the advice. There's a Discount Tire store about three minutes from my house..I'll have them check it out this coming week sometime. Dang ricers.. If only they'd drive normally instead of driving like they're in The Fast and The Furious, I wouldn't have this problem in the first place....
I'm actually going to go the other way with this. I do not think it is the tires, I think the brakes are now out of round (warped) from slamming on them so hard. They heated up real quickly and then cooled real quickly with the air. I believe therin may lie your problem. Doc
Your input is appreciated I probably had them locked up for about 3-5 seconds which I'm guessing would be long enough to heat'em up quick at that speed. I'm going to check into the balancing idea first only b/c I'm broke as a joke. If that doesn't solve the problems, the brake system will be next on the list of things to check. Thanks again doc.
Mean03V6: Let us know your cars status in a follow up message. I'm interested to know what exactly was the culprit. Doc
ya know, i think it might be the tires, my old mustang did the same thing, it had bad bump steer, i call it that cause i had a jacked up truck and thats what it was called with that, and come to find out, i had huge flat spots in one of my tires i didnt know i had, i had the two replaced and it drove smooth after that, so it might be the tires
I think it is tire related not the rotors because warped rotors should only shake the car when you apply the brakes.
Try swapping your front wheels with your back wheels. If it is your tires the vibration should go to the rear! Plus it wont cost you anything to try.
Thanks for all the advice everyone. I haven't gotten her into the shop yet, but just as soon as I get the chance I'll post an update on her condition.
Well, I know everyone has probably forgotten about this thread by now, but I said I'd post the update when I solved the problem and I was just now able to get the car by the shop...lol. It WAS in fact a balancing issue. After a rotation and balance, the car drives just like new again. Thanks guys for all the help and advice with this situation.
Oh yeah. It's a good thing it WAS cheap and easy, b/c right now I can't handle an expensive and difficult problem....money's pretty tight at the moment.
