flubyux2

yea, i was coming back from norwalk (it was rained out, and we got asked to leave cuz i was drifting in the pits)

anywho, when i drive down the road, the steering wheel vibrates. but not all the time. itll come and go as i drive. like ill be cruising at 70, and the steering wheel will be fine, then all of a sudden, it vibrates. starts out VERY slight, then gets worse, and then itll slowly start to disappate.

but, i got goin 110 for the fun of it, on the way home. and the faster i went, the worse the vibration got. it felt kinda like an tire w/ flat spots. but, i clutched it and coasted. and it got WORSE, a bad shuddering vibrating low pitch noise. i think i heard its something w/ the driveshaft u joint. i thought thats what it said somewhere on mazdatrix's website. but im not sure. that doesnt explain the steering wheel vibration.

if i kick my driverside front wheel, itll clunk. but the thing is, i already did a brake job on the front and repacked the wheel bearings and tightened them down like they say to. what if its the mount where the strut bolts to the strut tower? could it be that?

thanks
chris

Amur_

Do your brakes clunk or creak or snap sometimes when you're stopping?

It may be a broken bolt somewhere in the front suspension. I've read that the bolts on the stabilizer bar that connects to the control arm (triangle mounts) sometimes break.

I get a little vibration in my steering wheel at high speeds, and the aforementioned clunking (as well as clunking over rough roads.) I'm planning on tearing into the front suspension this Saturday...

And how long has it been since you've had your wheels balanced?

JarrardB

sounds to me like you need a front-end alignment....cost $25 or so from your local tire place....

if your front end is out it will vibrate the faster you go.....

and if you put the clutch in and you still got virabtions through the steering wheel I would guess it isn't your driveshaft....

get a front-end alignment and then go from there....

opelbits

iTrader: (5)

How are your struts?

flubyux2

i dont remember the last time it was aligned.

so that can only help.

it doesnt ever Clunk or creak, so thats kosher.

im bettin that the steering wheel vibration, and the vibration that gets worse when i clutch it while coasting at high speed, are 2 differnt problems.

it would probalby help to get new tires up front, but i dont wanna spend money on that...i wanna spend it on stuff that makes me go fast. i guess i cant go fast w/o tires tho, can i?

chris

opelbits

iTrader: (5)

Wheel and tire problems tend to show up harmonically between 50 to 80 mph. It's a frequency thing. If you have a bad strut or two the whole wheel will bounce up and down like a basketball being dribbled. But WAY faster!
What kind of tires do you have? What condition?

Amur_

I 'spose I should mention that my struts are wa-a-ay past needing replacement.

And I believe that poor alignment is more likely to show up in a car's tendency to drift either left or right when you're trying to go straight down a road (more readily noticeable at higher speeds on a highway...)

And, yeah, new tires would be good. How's your car supposed to go fast if she can't even hang onto the road?

flubyux2

my front tires were on the car when i bought it. they were pretty new at the time.

Seiberling 195's

i put some bigger ones in the back, i got them at Western Auto.

Viper HX 215's

but they are almost bald on the inside, cuz there is a butt load of negative camber in the back.

i know what happens when struts go bad. but thats not the case here. i know what that feels like, and this aint it. it DEFinitly feels like a harmonic thing, since the steering wheel is smooth, then shimmies softly, then a little more harsly, then slowly smooths out untill its gone. its not constant. and its there over any road surface, but only becomes noticable at freeway speeds.

the other vibration, which shakes the whole car, only gets worse w/ road speed. and say it shakes a tiny bit when your goin 100, but if you push in the clutch and coast, it gets 2x as bad. but when i let out the clutch and continue driving, the shaking isnt as bad.

what do you think?

chris

Amur_

Since the clutch has a direct effect, let's assume that the vibration is coming from the rear drivetrain. After the transmission.

I read elsewhere on the Forum about a week ago (or was it the rotary newsgroup? - I'll look) that a failing/pooched u-joint will cause a 7 to shake like a bitch.

I'll check the rotary newsgroup. I'm sure that if you do a search in the Forum for, "u-joint" you'll get lots of 411 about attacking the problem (if it is the u-joint.)

Josepi

Yes it will. Depending on the drive of the car (how and when it shakes) can help narrow it down. Pull off your driveshaft and inspect the bearings.

bob13bt

iTrader: (9)

Could be the rear end alignment. My 87 TII also has a lot of negative rear camber, and Ive also noticed it toes in in the rear, too.

I have a hell of a vibration that starts at around 60 and gets worse until about 100. THEN IT GOES AWAY.

One day I did a top speed run. Got up to 140 then backed off. The car had never been smoother. I swear!! There was NO vibration after 95-100 MPH. Very interesting.

My wheels have recently been balanced. I think the rear toe eliminator bushings and rear outer control arm bushings I got may help the situation. I just got them, and will put them on Sunday (hopefully).

I also have MASSIVE axle hop when I do a burnout. Surely a related problem. Ok, I need new struts too.

opelbits

iTrader: (5)

If something is vibrating, it is unlikely that it "goes" away at higher rpms. The frequency rises to a range that it seemslike it's gone, but it isn't. It is still there doing the same damage, but faster.

flubyux2

i thought it was the drive shaft ALONG time ago. actually a U joint. according to mazdatrix, i was under the assumption that the front u joint was shot.

i never did replace it. but while i was under the car doing an oil change, i noticed that the rear trans mount had the lower rubber bushing MISSING. so the tranny could be moved up and down about 1/2". i unbolted it, found several washers that had the same inner diameter, and outer diamter as the bushing so that the original bushing washer would fit over it. i tightend the SOB down till it began to compress the Upper trans bushing (Between mount and trans case).

i buttoned it all up, and the thing sounded like it was a Dogmission w/ straighcut gears. for those of you who never heard one, put GT3 in your playstation 2, pick a car, install a FULL race transmission, and choose the Inside view and do a couple of hot laps...it sounded EXACTLY like that, and it shifted like MAGIC too. w/ the new shifter bushings, it felt SOOoooo good. i was extemely pleased. but, its gone down hill, and doesnt sound like it used to, i think the trans mount bolt backed itself out and is loose again. i need to use loctite this time.

and it seemd to get rid of the vibration which i had originally suspected as the front ujoint also.

maybe my rear trans mount is loose again. ill have to check it soon.

thanks
chris

Amur_

Maybe not related. Isn't the DTSS/rear suspension the cause of axle hop? There are 7 owners out there who have removed the DTSS to get rid of the hop. I heard it's a bitch to do, though.

rx7_ragtop

Hmmmm... I had a similar problem... wheel shaking at particular speeds... mine was more pronounced when turning slightly though. Turned out to be a bad ball joint.

Brad

rx7_ragtop

p.s. the clunk fits this too. Jack your car up and see if you can move the top/bottom of the wheel in and out. if so, that's probably the problem... COULD be a tie-rod end or wheel bearing too.

Brad

christi

Could be the alginment - or a ball bearing lose and/or broken. I would get it checked out quickly before something gets damaged more.

Amur_

To expand on that a smidge, grab the wheel at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock and yank them back and forth, like you're trying to work the wheel off the hub. The wheel shouldn't budge. If it does, time to replace a ball joint.

Have you gone over the all your suspension mounts, front and back, to make sure that they are tight? And check the top diff mount. It's a bitch to get at - you'll have to pull off the rear left wheel.

flubyux2

you know, im starting to think it could be a ball joint.

cuz when driving through traffic, ill pull up to a stop light. and if im rolling about 3-5 mph, and Then i step on the brakes, ill hear and feel a click coming from the driver side front wheel. i did kick that same wheel too, and itll clunk...wtf.

could it be a broken sway bar endlink? cuz that would explain my massive understeer... unless its just that i dont have much wieght in the front.

thanks
chris

rx7_ragtop

Ball joint would affect handing too... in a negative way. Check that. I think you will find the culprit. They are only about $50 for a new one, and 15 minutes or so to change. (you need a ball-joint-separator, you can "rent" them at Auto Zone, etc.)

Jack the car up and remove the wheel. Unbolt the swaybar end MOUNT from the control arm. It also holds the ball joint in place IIRC. Remove the nut from the top of the ball joint where it connects to the spindle. Insert the ball joint separator (looks like a fat tuning fork) between the spindle and the ball portion of the ball joint. Give the tool a couple of decent whacks with a hammer, it will pull the tapered shaft out. Slip the new one in and start the nut on the top. Re-assemble the lower portion of the ball joint and the mount for the swaybar onto the lower control arm, then tighten everything down. Done.

Brad

Amur_

An update on my inspection of my front suspension on Saturday. Almost everything was snug. Two nuts/bolts needed tightening, and one caliper had bolts on the body (not the mounting bolts) that, while not loose, were not tightened. My brakes don't clunk as much anymore. But I think that that problem may be due to crappy organic brake pads (based on a recent thread of mine - I'm now trying to hunt down semi-metallic pads.)

What I did find were two bushings, one on each end of the stabilizer bar, that were pretty much gone. Just a smidge of rubber left on each side. I didn't have replacements handy, so I wrapped the hell out of them with electrical tape (gotta order bushings, too.)

Tonight I had the girl up to 192km/h and the steering wheel didn't vibrate nearly as much as the last time I got above 130km/h. I think that I've found at least part of my problem.

Best of luck with the ball joint!

MarkPerez

I just went through that crap..speed sensitive vibration,
look no further then the u-joints..it's the u-joints !

jackaburl

My 7 had the same exact problem, I would be drivin, the steering wheel would shake on and off no matter how fast I was going.
Check your grease fittings on your ball joints, if they're cracked or leaking, thats your problem.
On mine there was no grease fittings, I replaced the ball joints and now it holds steady and straight at 80mph with no vibration.

flubyux2

yea, i was layin in bed last night, and couldnt get to sleep, and i thought about my cars.

i came to the conclusion that it HAS to be my ball joint. heres what the symptoms are, they may not all be due to one culprit:

1.clunk/click when applying brakes @ 5mph
2.Severe wander/pull in the lane when rainy or snowy (white knuckle driving) it feels like torque steer, and it actually pulls the whole car left and right.
3. on and off steering wheel shimmy (comes and goes)
4. car vibration @ highway speeds, gets worse as speeds go up
. 4a. when at high speed, vibration gets REAL bad when holding the clutch in and coasting.
5. lots of wheel hop, even when spinning the tires on wet roads
6. lots of understeer (probalby due to extensive weight reduction in front, but not rear)
7. clunk when i kick the top of the driverside front tire

im gonna go out and check my rear trans mount see if its still tight, and while the car is in the air, ill grab both front tires and wobble them top-to-bottom (hands on 12 and 2 oclock) see what noise it makes. ill check all the other suspension links and bushings too.

thanks guys
chris

PS, i love rx7s...you know, they make some cars that dont even have removable ball joints?! JEBUS CRIPES...

Green

I had similar problem.. vibrations bigtime... but when I pushed the clutch in.. they didn't change..
it was indeed ujoint/driveshaft...

Also, you should sell your seven and get an eclipse or something if you are having vibration problems that big, and you still go out and hit 115 or whatever... your car won't last long... unless you spend 5 hours maintenance everyday take care of the seven and it will take care of you