Front vibration through steering

[RandallNeighbour]

I've battled wheel and body vibration in my boxster since I bought it. New tires fixed the problem twice, so I'd definitely agree with LB on this one.

If you did use a Hunter 9700 series machine to road force balance the wheels, I'd take it back and ask them to do it again and recheck their work.

Sometimes the weights should be put further toward the outside or inside of the rim to be in perfect balance, so ensure they are dynamically balancing them as well as road force balancing them.

[Cloudsurfer]

Balance checks, and yes to the Hunter. What's concerning me is the possibility of damage to the hub/ bearing/ carrier assembly from hitting whatever it was that I hit. Short of swapping it all out and going for a drive to see if that cures the problem, anyone else have any ideas? I'd hate to replace all that if it didn't need to be. I suppose a bad bearing is a possibility as well.

Other than that, what else is there to blame?

Patrick

[Lil bastard]

Next thing I'd check is a bent suspension member such as a Control Arm. These are alloy and would likely show some 'scars' after hitting some debris.

[Cloudsurfer]

Already replaced the control arm and outer tie rod ends (both sides). I find it hard to believe, but I really am leaning to thinking there is damage to the hub/ hub carrier/ bearing.

Patrick

[RandallNeighbour]

Yesterday I took the box down to discount tire to have them dynamically balance the wheels and use the Hunter 9700 road force process to insure the heaviest part of the wheel was matched with the lightest part of the tire to get the best fit.

This was done when I bought the wheels and tires, but not done since. My fronts were close enough to correct with weights. My rears, however, had moved 14 inches and had to be knocked off the rim and rotated around more than a foot so they'd line up again. Obviously, the weight of the motor and the force of hard acceleration and braking moved them a fraction of an inch many many times.

I still have some vibration up front though... so bearings are my next issue. I would imagine that your front end vibration is coming from a wheel bearing if you've had your front wheels dynamically balanced and road force balanced.

I doubt it's the wheel carrier itself. I've seen one torn down and everything bolts onto it nice and tight.

[Topless]

Sometimes you just get a bad tire that is slightly out of round or has a delam. internally that no one can see. That should get picked up on a careful wheel balance though.

[Cloudsurfer]

Swapped a set of factory wheels with factory tires on the car today and went for a drive. Exact same problem. The issue is not with the wheel or the tire.

I think I'm going to replace the hub/ hub carrier as thats really what I'm suspecting to be the culprit here.

Patrick