front wheel vibration

I have a 96 Dodge Stratus with a vibration coming from the left front
wheel area. Anyone else experience this and have a solution? i am
pretty handy with the tools and would fix it myself the car runs great
don't want to get rid of it just yet!!

reddevil wrote:
>
> I have a 96 Dodge Stratus with a vibration coming from the left front
> wheel area. Anyone else experience this and have a solution? i am
> pretty handy with the tools and would fix it myself the car runs great
> don't want to get rid of it just yet!!


Look for places where there used to be a balancing weight that got
knocked off. Another cause for vibration is an accumulation of mud in
the rim, if you have been driving on a dirt road. Could even be loose
lug nuts. If you can't figure it out, you could switch the tires on
that side front to back and see if the problem follows the tire.

I bought a tire once that went bad within a few hours. We were on the
highway, and it started vibrating and kept getting worse. Finally I got
out and looked at the tire, and it was sort of egg shaped instead of
round. Vibration could be caused by all kinds of things.

"reddevil" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I have a 96 Dodge Stratus with a vibration coming from the left front
> wheel area. Anyone else experience this and have a solution? i am
> pretty handy with the tools and would fix it myself the car runs great
> don't want to get rid of it just yet!!
>

Check tire/wheel balance; also check wheels for roundness. A tire on a bent
rim can be balanced, but still cause vibration. Try moving the tire/wheel to
isolate the problem. If not tire/wheel related, then it could be something
like worn CV joints or engine/trans mounts, but eliminate the easy, common
stuff first. Good luck.

bob

Dennis wrote:
>
> > I bought a tire once that went bad within a few hours. We were on the
> > highway, and it started vibrating and kept getting worse. Finally I got
> > out and looked at the tire, and it was sort of egg shaped instead of
> > round. Vibration could be caused by all kinds of things.
>
> Actually you can do this on a brand new tire. Hit a really bad pothole and
> you can break the steel belts (tire will start to thump and will actually
> look egg shaped as you described.)

Yeah, SOMETHING happened to that tire, although I never figured out if
it was something I did, or if it was just defective. The worst part was
that I couldn't do much about it besides put on the spare because I was
halfway between Laredo and Del Rio at midnight. My bad tire was on the
back of a Caravan, but it was able to cause a side-to-side wobble even
in the back because the tread had deformed in a sideways direction,
meaning that if I had driven slowly in loose dust I would have made a
track that wobbled side to side about 2 or 3 inches. I can imagine that
such a tire would cause a lot of commotion in the steering wheel if it
was on the front.

> I bought a tire once that went bad within a few hours. We were on the
> highway, and it started vibrating and kept getting worse. Finally I got
> out and looked at the tire, and it was sort of egg shaped instead of
> round. Vibration could be caused by all kinds of things.

Actually you can do this on a brand new tire. Hit a really bad pothole and
you can break the steel belts (tire will start to thump and will actually
look egg shaped as you described.)