Scotty, i have a 2005 Buick LeSabre Limited at a little over 103k miles on it. At a range of speed between 60mph to 75mph, there is a bit of a shake that, after a few moments of sustained speed, goes away on its own until i slow down due to traffic and get back up to speed. And while idling at a light, there's a noticeable vibration throughout the car and the RPM gauge is hovering a little over the 500 mark.
I have yet to have the opportunity to check the ball joints for wear and, given the lack of any noise, i doubt that any of the wheel bearings are going bad. Are there any possibilities as to what might be causing the shaking that i should look for?
Clean your throttle body, mass air flow sensor, and idle air control valve. Only clean the mass airflow sensor with mass airflow sensor cleaner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWCKvU2FmDc
I'll do that, however there's still the intermittent shaking at highway speeds as well, any potential causes for that? A detail i forgot to include is that the alignment is solid, there is no drifting to one side or the other.
so quick question, how do i deal with the honeycomb mesh at the throttle body? These are on 3800 series 2 engines located between the hose and the MAF sensor. How can i get the mesh off without damaging anything to actually wipe off the cleaner?
Are your tyres correctly balanced?
If they are, are they new? Old, out of round tyres can cause the shaking/wobbling.
If the tyres are new, check your entire suspension system.
wouldn't unbalanced tires cause the vehicle to go out of alignment? Also, the tires are in excellent shape, the vehicle wasn't driven that often through the years and they still have a lot of life in them.
If left unbalanced for long enough, yeah it can throw off your alignment, but it’d have to be pretty severe shaking for it to get to that stage.
If your tyres are older than 6yrs, I’d be pretty certain they are the culprit. No matter what shape they’re in, or how much tread is still remaining. Lack of use only accelerates tyre dry rot & causes them to go out of round.
I'll definitely get them checked out, thanks.
The easiest way would be to swap them with 4 known good tyres from another vehicle. If the shaking goes away, you’ll know the culprit instantly. You can decide your further course of action post the road test with 4 other tyres. Good luck & keep us posted.
well, all 4 tires were in good shape, 3 were still balanced perfectly. One, however, was out of balance by an ounce. it's been corrected and the highway shake is gone.
Well done!
welp. shake's back after a few days. tires were in good shape, no cracks, not out of round, the shake hasn't thrown the alignment out yet but now that they're all balanced, i need to find out what else could cause it. I'm praying it's not ball joints.
Oh oh, you’ll need to find a reputed front end shop. Keep us updated.
will do
No, the vehicle can be aligned, but the tires can be out of round, or the rims.
You might also want to check the engine mounts, those things don't last forever. A broken engine mount won't dampen the vibration from the engine to the frame and you'll feel the engine vibration at idle. I'm not sure that would explain the vibration at highway speeds.
My 06 Mazda 6 was shaking at idle and when I checked the engine mounts, one of them was completely shot. After a replacement, it quieted right down.
