Steering Wheel Vibrating at Certain Speeds

[CX-7Pilot]

Hi everyone. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with my new-to-me 2007 CX-7 with about 110k on it.
I just had the engine swapped out for a re-manufactured engine and had the transmission rebuilt while everything was out for safe measure. The car was driving just fine with no weird noises or vibrations prior to engine swap. So after I get the car back from the swap and trying to delicately break the engine in, after about 5 minutes I start to hear a weird knocking noise that is related to speed and also whether or not I'm accelerating hard, or decelerating. Gets worse with time (louder and with knocking in the steering wheel as I roll) Turns out it was the driver's side CV axle. I guess it must have gotten a little beat up in the tranny removal. So that's fixed...

Now I still have a *slight* similar noise coming from the right side front-end. I figure the right side CV is toast as well and have that replaced. Okay, so no clunking noises anymore. But just before I had the right side CV axle replaced, I noticed a wobbling of the steering wheel after the car gets warmed up... say, 4-5 minutes into driving it. It starts up at about 40 MPH and goes away about 50-55 MPH. Don't really feel anything in the brake pedal so much as in brake rotors, but can't entirely rule that out...I'm thinking it's the wheel balance or alignment maybe?

I take the car to the tire shop and have the wheels balanced. They were about 2oz off on each tire (which only have about 5k miles on them.) So I drive home thinking this may have fixed the problem and same thing happens. Ugh! Wobble from 40MPH up to about 55MPH that smooths out pretty nicely at 60-70 MPH. When the wobble is happening if I hit the brakes at all it seems to make the wobble worse. I still don't feel the wobble in the pedal all that much. There might be a tad bit of rotor warp, but this problem seems to be independant of it.

So I'm asking what should my next step be? I think the wheel bearings are OK. The tie rod end on the left side was replaced by the mechanic that did the engine swap. He said he measured how many turns the old one was in and repeated the same amount of turns for install, but I suppose it's possible the alignment went out. The strange thing is that I never really noticed this after the driver's side CV axle was fixed and the really bad noise and vibration stopped after that. Maybe it takes time for alignment probems to manifest themselves? Anyway, please share thoughts as to where to go with this. So far we have sunken a LOT of money into this *great deal* of a CX-7 that was about ready to throw a timing chain and had a bad turbo. I can get it aligned for $80 at a local Midas. Any other common problems I may have overlooked? Thanks!

[mituc]

Just to rule that out, the first and cheapest thing you can do is to balance your tires.

The rotors were pulled before the axles to there's a chance that the mechanic who did that did not clean the hubs properly and the rotors did not seat correctly.

Also, because almost the whole front suspension was removed and put back along with the cross member and everything, you should also do an alignment and make sure everything is ok. Some heavy cars with electric assisted steering may mask the alignment issue up to a point.

P.S.: Nobody will like your "wall of text" style of post.

[08mzr]

I would get the wheels road forced balanced to rule out any wheel and tire issue, is possible a rim is bent.
You also need an alignment, you had front end parts replaced, and the while front suspension apart when they did your engine, but I have NEVER seen an alignment cause a vibration.
As for the tech replacing the tie rod, but counting the turns so you should be alright, is a bunch of shit. Every part is different, and it does not matter if you count the turns or not, you NEED an alignment, he only got it close.
Also, have a shop turn your front brake rotors, I have personally expirenced warped rotors causing a vibration with normal driving and you stated it gets worse when you hit the brakes so I would start there

[CX-7Pilot]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've already had the tires balanced, so I'm going to have the rotors turned and checked and also replace the pads while I'm in there. I'll have an aligment done after all that and report back. Car is getting detailed as I post this. Priorities, priorities!

[lildisco]

I'm on Tapatalk & can't see your profile, but if you're awd, you may want to keep the driveshaft in mind too. Had mine replaced. Car would vibrate anywhere from 40-70 mph

[08mzr]

You may have had them balanced, but were they road forced balanced? Also how are your axles? When they go bad they usually shake when accelerating, but it's possible they could be causing a vibration under normal driving.
@lildisco; also has a good point about the driveshaft if you're awd. Bad u joints, or a bad center support bearing will cause vibrations. If you are awd and want to check if it's the drive shaft, you should have a way to disable the AWD, or even remove the driveshaft.
But if it's in the steering wheel I doubt it's the driveshaft, but it doesn't hurt to try.

[Omega]

It could be a few things I've had this issue and for me it happens to be a bent rim......

[lildisco]

There's no way to disable awd without removing the driveshaft. I believe it's always spinning while moving down the road, but only engages the diff if it feels it's needed.

[CX-7Pilot]

Good imput from you all. I'll consider taking the drive shaft going to the rear wheels out of the equasion if I can't track this down. I did notice some splashed up grease from the center support (U joint?) behind the front transaxle. it has some movement up and down, but didn't seem loose or anything. I'm sure removing this would throw a code? Waiting for my new OBD II reader to come in the mail.

Front brake rotors are off and will be turned first thing in the morning. New brake pads are going on all 4 wheels. Are rear disks prone to warp on this car? If not, I'll probably just do the pads.

After brakes I'll get her aligned and see if it's off. Crossing my fingers that the rotors and new pads fix it. The vibration definitely gets worse after getting the brakes hot such as going down a long hill.

Wasn't planning on "road force" balancing the tires unless the tires were really out of whack on the regular balancer machine. 2oz didn't seem crazy bad, just way off. Good card to keep up my sleeve though.

I'll post the results of the brake job tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback!

[08mzr]

Since it's getting worse when braking, it's a good idea to just replace the rotors since they're probably out of spec. I've found that any pulsation while braking means the rotors are out of spec and should be replaced.
As fo the rear rotors, you should cut or replace those as well. There is a glazing on them from the old pads that needs to be removed before the new pads can properly bed in. Sure you could probably get away with it. But there is a chance that you'll get a bunch of noise while braking.

[mituc]

If the pulsation remains after changing the rotors, the bearings and hubs are next. This may get expensive.

[Jakeypoo]

This is a nightmare. I think I counted 4 or 5 possibilities. Above and wanted to mention that my Ford Focus did something similar when one front strut died. No other symptom other than the freakin wheel that would bounce up and down at a specific speed.


Gedit: Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CX-7Pilot]

Well I wish I had more news, but I blew out a caliper piston gasket while messing with the brakes. Need to wait for a caliper rebuild kit. Front rotors were turned and are still "in spec" in terms of minimum thickness, but if I get pulsing again I'll take your advice, 08mzr and replace the front rotors with some R1 concept rotors. Not looking forward to replacing the hubs if it comes down to that. I also have some new lug nuts that will be waiting for me after I get back from a work trip. Project is on hold for now. At least I will get that brake fluid flush in!

[Pu Manchu]

aside from stuff that was listed (wheel balance, bent wheel, bad strut, etc) check the bushings on your control arms

[08mzr]

Originally Posted by CX-7Pilot Well I wish I had more news, but I blew out a caliper piston gasket while messing with the brakes. Need to wait for a caliper rebuild kit. Front rotors were turned and are still "in spec" in terms of minimum thickness, but if I get pulsing again I'll take your advice, 08mzr and replace the front rotors with some R1 concept rotors. Not looking forward to replacing the hubs if it comes down to that. I also have some new lug nuts that will be waiting for me after I get back from a work trip. Project is on hold for now. At least I will get that brake fluid flush in!

There is a min thickness spec, and a runout spec. It's not really that important, but if turning the rotors does fix the issue, expect for the pulsation to return. My speed had a pulsation when I bought it, so I turned the rotors which got rid of it for 2 months before it came back and was worse. But that isn't every case.
As far as your wheel bearing being bad, if they aren't noisy and don't have play I wouldn't worry about it. I have been a mechanic for quite a while and have never seen a wheel bearing cause a vibration. Even when the wheel bearing got extremely noisy on my speed it did not cause any vibrations on the highway.

[CX-7Pilot]

Well, after getting the gasket set in and fixing the blown out caliper, I got it all back together with the new brake pads installed and it drives perfect now. I noticed the old pads, which were about 85% gone in the front were worn sloped at an angle. I've never seen this before, but then again, I always replaced my brake pads when they still had quite a bit of meat left on them. Not sure if this had anything to do with the warped rotors, but with everything back together and perfectly torqued, no vibration. If it comes back, I'll just replace the rotors with some good quality ones. Perhaps just rotating around the rotors from left to right changed things up a bit. I read a good article fom Raybestos that talked about indexing the rotors, which can't be done on the CX-7 due to the offset rotor set screws. I elected to swap sides with them to switch things up instead. Just happy I don't have to do anythings crazy with the front end to have a nice driving experience. Thanks everyone for your input.

[CX-7Pilot]

Now that I have been using the CX-7 for my commute I've noticed the steering wheel vibration coming back at certain speeds, and not all the time. Sometimes it will be fine when I start out, and then start to rear its ugly head again, and then go away all on its own.
Today, when I got to work I carefully touched each rotor and found that the driver's side front rotor was much hotter than the passenger side front. I suspect that the caliper is not releasing properly, so I have ordered a rebuild kit for this side as well and I'll make sure the sliding bolt is lubed up extra. Hope I didn't warp this rotor again.

[mituc]

If the wheel vibrates then most probably the rotor is done.

[torquemaniac]

Removing the layer of rust on the brake caliper where the pads goes (the steel clip in fact!), will help them slide better (release more easily...) and prevent overheating/warping...some lube on the pad ears is also beneficial

If the pads are very hard to slide in place, the rust thing might be the issue (happened on my OEM brake after just two winter...)

[CX-7Pilot]

I'll get to cleaning everything up carefully on Monday. Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll probably have to order a new set of front rotors, but for now I'll see how far I can get with the stock ones once things are working normally. Fortunately the front left one isn't staying warped all the time while driving it.

[mituc]

Originally Posted by CX-7Pilot Fortunately the front left one isn't staying warped all the time while driving it.

No, it becomes worse while it heats up.

[silentdoer]

I hope the problem ends with replacing the rotors.

[thrisnospork]

On my ms3 I experienced vibrations in the steering wheel at 65 to 75mph. Replaced the rotors up front with new OEMs along with pads just because I needed new brakes and that didn't solve it. Turns out it was my tires (Kumho Ecstas ASX), from day one they were causing vibes. I read a review on tire rack from an ms3 owner that mentioned having the same issue but I disregarded it at the time since I felt it was unlikely the tires would be the actual cause but boy was I wrong. Glad to be rid if those tires!

[mituc]

If it was the tires you'd see right away when attempting to rebalance them, as this is the first step to take when the wheels vibrate.

[thrisnospork]

I had them rebalanced many, many times, but it's possible the guys at that shop are just idiots. One time I had to drive back immediately to have them rebalance them again since they allegedly used the wrong weights. Never did get the vibes to go away completely as long as I had those tires though.

[HawkeyeGeoff]

Check:
- Control arm bushings (a looked past thing a lot of times. Cracked or worn out bushings can cause this)
- Wheel balance and or tread wear

[CX-7Pilot]

I got the left front wheel brake caliper apart and the pistons were really jammed in there good. I think when I put the new brake pads in and compressed the pistons, road grime and brake dust got into the piston area. Anyway, long story short is after rebuilding the caliper piston on this side with a $8.50 kit from fleBay it's all back together and I'm not having any issues after 2 days. I made sure to put the clips in carefully and make sure the pads aren't binding on the spring clips that hold them in place. Brake rotor temperature is about the same or less than the other front brake rotor now.

Problem solved and no more vibration or drag. That's another thing that I've noticed is improved. It rolls much nicer now with the foot off the gas. MPG should improve from my 255 Miles on a tank (17 gallons) of gas. It was about 15MPG! Ouch!

Thanks again everyone for the tips. I'm sure it will help someone else down the road.