twowheelmarc

This has happend 2 or 3 times now, and am not quite sure what it might be, hoping the brain trust here can help.

2003 - 122,000 miles - BC racing coilovers

I am driving the car and everything feel great, then all of a sudden I get this huge wobble in the steering wheel, the same feeling you might get if a wheel was really out of balance. Then when braking i would get a huge shutter. the felling you would get if your rotors were severely, and i mean severely warped. Then after a very short while it completely goes away, no more wobble, no more brake shutter, car feels great again. No dash alerts or warnings

Happened to me yesterday, I drove about 160 miles (80 each way), on the way out car was perfect, on the way back car was perfect for the first 85% of the ride, then I hit a little traffic, and shortly after the traffic I got the symptoms mentioned above for about 5 minutes, then car was back to normal for the rest of the trip.

I am at a loss.

Help!

Yuille36

Just a suggestion, make sure that your lug bolts are torque properly. Then you can scratch that one off your list.

twowheelmarc

I checked the lug bolts, that is not the problem.

Yuille36

It could be that corrosion has developed on the wheel hub matting surface. And since the rotor rest on it, it's no longer perfectly flat there by causing the rotor to wobble upon brake application. Mimicking the symptoms of a severely warped rotor. Guess a thought

PieRat

No idea really but could it be the sbc applying the brakes like it's meant to do when there is water on the rotors to keep them dry? That system might be bugging out? Car isnt lowering at all is might be a strut failing briefly somehow and putting the alignment out?

does it match any rpms? I think my power steering pump and/or rack is ****ed and get steering wheel vibration at around 1.2-1.5k rpm or something.

Yuille36

Could it possibly be that your tires are cupped?

JoeJErnst

The next time it happens, pull on the parking brake release and physically push the parking brake pedal UP with your foot and see if it immediately goes away.

This happens on my car occasionally because I have the parking brake adjusted incorrectly and it rubs sometimes, eventually causing it to heat up and cause a bad vibration. Pulling up on the parking brake is enough to make it stop, so I've been too lazy to fix it properly.

bbirdwell

Verify inner and outer tie rods. Verify ball joints. Verify bushings. Verify shock mount bushings. Verify steering gear. Verify front brake pads are not intermittently dragging, overheating the rotors, and causing the issue (this one you can check with an IR temperature gun both when functioning normally and when vibrating). Verify wheel bearing runout.

Lots of possibilities and in hindsight, after you find it, it will be so freaking obvious....

Let us know what you find.

SICAMG

What Joe said. Ran into that on the way home from the track one time Crazy vibration and I thought the wheels where coming off ,had to pull over only to discover the driver rear shoes where hanging up.. E brake shoes where smoked on that side when I got home and puled it apart.

twowheelmarc

Thanks for all the feedback guys, just as an update i have been trying to drive the car a little more often, and the issue has not returned. I have no idea what it was but if it comes back I will certainly check on all the thing you suggest, my best guess is that it is related to the brakes.