If the thing with the tires doesn’t work out or tell you anything I will mention that w/ my '95 Caravan we have had a history of problems w/ getting the engine/trans mounts all arranged and torqued properly. There is a apparently an art to this, and if one doesn’t know how to do the “dance” it produces anything from a whole car shake to squiggle when accelerating. As you would expect, at slower speeds it tended to be a slower & “bigger” shaking and more like a vibration at higher speeds. It would also all but disappear at middle speed range.
We finally got it fixed when I brought it to the “right” garage - the guy who owned it had one one of these and had gone though this problem himself for quite a while before really getting it figured out. It had something to do w/ loosening mounts, getting the van up on a rack, running motor in gear and torquing mounts back down after things had more or less settled into place and rhythm - or something like that. I never did get quite clear about it.
I don’t know how much of the story w/ the mounts changed between '95 & '01, so it may be that none of that applies. But it is feasible that the tow may have messed w/ things in some way.
Thanks for all the replies. We took it on a 2 hour trip today and I found that after the tires were rebalanced, the 35-45 mph shake is much slighter, if not gone. But over 60 it shakes.
One thing I noticed now though, is that at different speeds in the “shake zone”, the shake will move from the front/steering wheel, to the back & my butt. And the front/steering wheel is smooth at that point. So the shake is moving from the front to the back and vice versa depending on speeds (all above 60…if I remember correctly, around 65/70 it’s at the front, 75/80 at the rear).
Does that help at all with further diagnosing this?
Researcher, I will try the swap just to see if there’s any difference.
AA - I will check out the mounts, thanks.
And finally, circuitsmith, I did drive next to the van while my wife was driving it and couldn’t see any wobble, not visible to my eye anyway.
Will keep you updated, any more ideas are more than welcome…!
Rotated the passenger side front wheel/tire to the driver side rear, and the driver side front wheel/tire to the passenger side rear.
The vibration is a bit better, but now it’s mostly on the left side, used to be mostly on the right, and I can feel it in my legs. It was pulling to the right a bit before, and still does that.
So it does sound like the tires, but I think it’s worth getting the alignment checked too. Any ideas/comments?
Thanks Roadrunner. I’ve got a bad feeling about the tires too, now. So we’ll probably be following up the alignment with new tires. I’ll let you all know how it works out.
Currently, I am facing the same problem as you have. Mine is a 98 Villager van.
Recently, I had a maintainence service and found that one rear brake cylinder is leaking badly.
So, end up replacing both brake drums, shoes and one cylinder. Nothing is done to the front brake.
After that, the car shakes at high speed (over 60 mph). I do feel some slight bumpy feel at low speed.
Then, have the 4 tires balanced -> doesn’t fix the shake
Then, I replaced the both front ball joints & one tie-rod (as they were worn out) -> doesn’t fix the shake
Then, I took the tires back to Costco (where I bought the tires). They inspected & balanced it again -> doesn’t fix the shake
I am still trying to figure out the problem.
One thing in common to your case is that we both have the brake drum replaced. Could the drum generate the shake if it is not properly installed or it is deformed?
Hi Terry, thanks for your post…Very interesting, I suspected something with the rear brakes but dismissed it, thinking that it couldn’t affect the van this way.
I had both wheel cylinders replaced since they were leaking, and then new drums and shoes on both sides, too.
This is beyond my diagnostic ability - can anyone here weigh in and let us know if this is just a coincidence or if a rear brake job (including cylinders) can cause this kind of shake?
I’d really rather not get new tires if they aren’t the problem.
I can’t speak for Terry, but I’ve been going to an independent shop that’s been in business for 21 years and employ some good mechanics, and I am friends with the owners/operators. They’ve been doing their best to figure this out.
I’m kind of leaning towards out of round brake drums, even though they were new. I just can’t get myself to accept the huge coincidence of two complete sets of wheels and tires both going bad at the same time after both were completely smooth before.
I am also wondering if a NEW brake drum would be out of round and possibly creates vibration at high speed. Because before the service of the drum, there was no vibration. Right after the service, vibration appears.
Yes, and I’ve been doing some web searching and have found that quite a few people have bought new drums only to find they were out of round, out of the box…
I wonder if switching sides first would help diagnose this? I don’t have one of those tools to check for out of round conditions.
I decided to just throw a couple of new drums on there to eliminate them as a possible problem before I start throwing boatloads of money at this extremely annoying shimmy. Bought the cheapest ones they had for $40 a pop. Put them on, and PROBLEM IS SOLVED!!
I took it out for the test drive and it was smooth all the way to 85 mph…this was on back roads so tomorrow on the highway will be the final test but I’m pretty sure this is it!
Extremely happy at this outcome, was going crazy trying to figure out how this shake happened. I’ll be taking the old drums back for a refund tomorrow.
Terry, I hope this is the answer to your problem as well. For $80 (or less), you might fix your shake too. Sounds like your techs have eliminated the suspension/steering components and tires as the problem, and your shake started after the rear brake job too. Let me know what you do, and/or your results.
My experience is much more painful.
I took the car back to the mechanic and told them about possible drum problem. They put on another new set. Car STILL shakes. They suggest to replace the tires.
Got 4 new tires (another $500 gone). Car STILL shakes.
They gave up. I took it back to the dealer. They done a number of tests and said that either the drum or the tire. But, the tire is new. So, they concluded that it is 90% the drum problem.
Went back to mechanic and told them to order another set from a different manufacturer.
After putting on the new set of drum (from DIFFERENT manufacturer), *** NO MORE SHAKE ***.
The first & second set of drums from that manufacturer are all NO GOOD. Probably the whole batch are NO GOOD. Not just one or two.