Car vibrating in the front end.. need suggestions...?

Question

First off.. the intention of this question is to get some ideas BEFORE I go into a repair faciliy ... I *know* I should take the car to a mechanic.

The car is a 99 Cavalier .. 76k miles... one owner car (me), and I'm the only one that drives it.
The tires are 2-3 years old BFGoodrich (15k-20k miles on each), but good quality with 80k mile warranty on them. Low miles.
I had the tires checked out on Friday and they told me: no bubbles, no separation and they were balanced. No bent rims.

I notice this bumping at slow speeds (slowing down, speeding up from a stoplight), and a vibration at higher speeds (45-50). It feels like when you have flat spot on the tire or bubble in the tire.
But again, I took this into the Tire store (Discount Tire) and they ruled this out.

No other mechanical problems that I can detect.. car runs great.

Ideas? Should I try taking the car to another Discount Tire to have them checked out again.. they won't charge me.
I'm out of space.

The tires do not have a lot of wear on them, and there are no "worn" spots like you'd have on a bad alignment. In fact the ones on the front are the newer tires with 15,000 miles on them. .. and yes it feels like the front end.

The deal here is, I just noticed this about a week & a half ago and nothing special has happened with this car. Drive it 9 mi. each way to work surface streets ... other than that it basically sits in a parking lot @ work or in carport here at home.

I did find the receipt for Friday and there is nothing on there about a rotation - so I think I'll try that... maybe tomorrow after work.

Yes, I know Discount Tire employees are not repair technicians.. however through my experience w/ cars this felt like a "bad tire" to me ... and that is where I bought the tires and had a warranty on them there. There isn't a repair shop around here that doesn't charge $100-$125 just to LOOK at your car.
And I don't need them charging me $100 to tell me it's a bad tire. So it was done as a "process of elimination" more than anything else.

I do realize if it's not a tire, next stop is the repair shop .. but I am looking for ideas, not cures. It just gives me something to work with so please humor me. I am not a mechanic myself so I will be paying someone to do the work.

Answer 1

Are all the tires doing this or the front ones only?

Check the alignment as others have suggested. I would also add to try putting those front tires to the back.

How are they worn compared to the ones in the rear? Are they the same?

If you want a cheaper way to test to see if its alignment or tires, put them in the back and see if you can still feel those bumps. If you do feel them from the front, its something else and not the tires.

Your alignment has to be really out to get that kind of wear. Out of alignment problem should show on the tire as "feathering" not a bump.

So try it on the back and see if you still feel it. I believe they ARE out of round or you could have flat spots that the eye cannot see.

By the way, Discount Tires are not technicians. They simply replace tires. They dont really know how to troubleshoot. This is an actual quote from the managers at Discount Tires here.

When I submitted my answer I saw the one after mine. If a tire is placed in the wrong direction, you get a whining sound because the tred is running against the road. You do not get vibration.

Answer 2

You have several good leads here, but I noticed that noone has mentioned the possibility that you may have a brake rotor gone bad. Rotors (disks) can sometimes warp when exposed to high heat (under hard braking for example) particularly if they are wearing a bit thin. This results in the rotor not turning true and can give a thump thump sound which gets faster the faster you are driving.
Another possibilty would be a CV (constant velocity) joint. This is essentially the driveshaft on a front wheel drive car like yours. Seems a bit early in life (76k) for that to happen, but one never knows.
First thing to try though is to rotate the tires from the front to the back and see if anything changes. If the noise remains, you should be able to rule out the tires as the culprit and move on to the mechanical issues.

Answer 3

When a car vibrates in the front end at high speeds, it has to do either with the tires, or the direction.

If the tires consideration is out, then it gotta be the direction.
Sadly, in that case the only way to be sure is taking your car to the mechanic and let him check it, because no one that is not a mechanic will find out is that the direction is the problem.

Answer 4

if your steerage wheel vibrates whilst utilising the brakes, you have a warped front rotor. Mechanics won't be able to tell this whilst checking your brakes. All a brake verify does is confirm there is sufficient cloth on the pads/shoes. Checking rotors for warpage might require disassembling the brakes and putting the rotors on a lathe. some thing that isn't oftentimes executed in a regular brake verify. there's a small danger of oil or grease on a rotor/drum yet this might in straightforward terms practice if your brakes have been serviced at present and the mechanic did a poor interest.

Answer 5

Wheel mount bushings

Front end alignment

Tire balance

if RADIAL tires, check AIR PRESSURE, make sure ALL tires have the same minimum air pressure.

Also check tire for uneven wear.

If it's front wheel drive, were you in even a small fender bender recently? Get the frame checked if so!

Answer 6

It could be your tires. You could check the ball joints, etc all the joints in the front end. Also check the alignment.

Answer 7

first no one wont's to read all that, but it sounds like your tires are off balance its really nothing unless you don't do any thing about it take it to a tire shop and it should take 15 minits and cost no more than 55 bucks

Answer 8

Get a front end alignment.

Answer 9

it can be a mountain of things ranging from you transmission to engine mounts it hard to tell with out driving the car

Answer 10

Your front end might be slightly out of line.
Your castor camber, tow in and tow out
needs to be re-aliened