MotorCityRick Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Flew to Mt. Prospect Il. on Saturday to take delivery of the '99 STS pictured below. Smooth flight, prompt pick up by the seller and 15 minutes to complete the paperwork. So far a flawless eBay transaction and I'm thrilled with my new toy. It did take awhile to get the memory seat adjusted and programmed and to figure out all the new controls and functions but soon I'm on way home. Several miles of serface roads before getrting to I294 and the difference over my '95 is significant. Feels like it is brand new! Once on the freeway and coming up to speed with traffic, around 60 MPH, the steering wheel starts to shake violently. Nothing else appears to be wrong, no noises, warning messages, nothing. Speeding up to 70 MPH changes the "pitch" of the vibration but is to fast for 55 MPH speed limit and traffic flow. Frustrated, I'm forced to drop below 60 MPH to eliminate the shaking. I've got 300+ miles to get home and I'm not in the mood to drive a STS 55 MPH for the next 5 hours! Once in Michigan the speed limit jumps to 70, which means if your under 80 you don't even look for cops, and I find that around 75 - 78 MPH things smooth out to a very tolarable level. Slowdowns due to traffic bring the vibration back but it seems slightly less intense. This vehicle spent it's first two years here in Mich as a lease, then the last two in Oak Park Il., only a few miles from where I bought it. The previous owner had it serviced at a local Cadillac dealer and the last visit was in July of '03 and since then only a few hunderd miles were put on it. The tires are brand new looking Vogues and there are weights on the rims as if they were balanced at some point. I'm wondering if it is possible this car sat unmoverd for 5 or 6 months and flat spotted the tires? I plan to flip them to blackwall and rebalance them but I don't know if that will fix the problem. Has anyone ever encounterd this problem before? Do they eventually work themselves out or do I need to chuck 'em out? THANKS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHE Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 It sounds like a tire balance issue to me. Kevin '93 Fleetwood Brougham '05 Deville '04 Deville 2013 Silverado Z71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotorCityRick Posted March 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 That's what I'm hoping. Since it is the easest and cheapest thing to try, it will be done first. I know there are Vogue fans out there that think I'm nuts for changing them around but I like the black/chrome contrast, especially with the white diamond exterior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHE Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Rick, Considering how much those Vogue "Tyres" cost... if there's a decent amount of tread left on them, you might want to buy a new set of tires and sell the Vogues. Before you have the tires balanced, make sure there is not any grease on the inner portion of the rims - sometimes, a blob of grease (from the ball joint fitting) will drip onto the inner portion of the rim. Kevin '93 Fleetwood Brougham '05 Deville '04 Deville 2013 Silverado Z71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDK Posted March 16, 2004 Report Share Posted March 16, 2004 Flipp'in tires - eh? Do you plan to flip the tires -uch that they are rotating the same direction as before? Sounds dumb maybe, but what I mean is are you going to swap the passenger side to the driver side - so the tread is rotating the same direction as it was when the whitewall was on the outside? The reason I'm asking is that I believe it is preferred to maintain the same rotational direction on a given tire. In other words, radial-ply tires do not follow the old, classic bias-ply tire roatation scheme of moving the tires around the car. This has something to do with tread sepearation, yada, yada- but might only apply with hot weather and sprited driving... As much as this forum's members love to go on about tires, oil and octane - I'm sure there are a lot of "informed opinions" on this subject. The vib itself might be balance-related and easily cured. I just didn't want a new problem (with the flipp'in tires) introduced with such a fine ride. Good luck Add power to leave problems behind. Most braking is just - poor planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted March 16, 2004 Report Share Posted March 16, 2004 It is my understanding that same direction rotation is "old school", that is, it was true when radials first came out but not any longer. My owners manual recomends rotation that switches sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHE Posted March 16, 2004 Report Share Posted March 16, 2004 Flipp'in tires - eh? Do you plan to flip the tires -uch that they are rotating the same direction as before? Sounds dumb maybe, but what I mean is are you going to swap the passenger side to the driver side - so the tread is rotating the same direction as it was when the whitewall was on the outside? The reason I'm asking is that I believe it is preferred to maintain the same rotational direction on a given tire. In other words, radial-ply tires do not follow the old, classic bias-ply tire roatation scheme of moving the tires around the car. This has something to do with tread sepearation, yada, yada- but might only apply with hot weather and sprited driving... As much as this forum's members love to go on about tires, oil and octane - I'm sure there are a lot of "informed opinions" on this subject. The vib itself might be balance-related and easily cured. I just didn't want a new problem (with the flipp'in tires) introduced with such a fine ride. Good luck You can cross-rotate radials without any problems unless the tire is specifically a unidirectional tire. Kevin '93 Fleetwood Brougham '05 Deville '04 Deville 2013 Silverado Z71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted March 18, 2004 Report Share Posted March 18, 2004 MotorCityRick, Find a shop that has a "Road Force Balancer" and pay for the whole deal. Keep in mind that you may only be able to afford to have two tires at a time balanced. Some tire shops charge upwards of $12.00 per tire for a road force balance....with additional charges for matching the tires to the rims. This may not revel a bad tire, but it could show up a bent rim or any number of other defects. Make sure the tires are "Hot" (more like warm) and do not set for a long period before getting the balance job started. About 30 minute of running should "normalize" the tires. The objective here is to get the road force down below 15 pounds....below 5 pounds would be great. It has been my experience that you can still feel 15 pounds of road force at 68 to 72 MPH in the seats and steering wheel. At least you know why the car was for sale! Never underestimate the amount of a persons greed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill K Posted March 18, 2004 Report Share Posted March 18, 2004 It's about a $!00 around here for a Force balance but its the only way to keep the vibrations out. Well worth it..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg P. Posted March 18, 2004 Report Share Posted March 18, 2004 Yeah I'd start with having the wheels/tires balanced. For some reason, these cars are VERY sensitive to tire issues. When I had my 99 STS, it seems like I needed to get the tires rebalanced at least once a year. Also, the Vogue tires look good but dont have the best reputation either. If getting the tires balanced doesn't solve your vibration issue, the factory service manual has a very detailed section on finding and correcting vibration problems. It can be caused by lots of different things, and finding the root cause can be frustrating. Hopefully, It's just a tire issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotorCityRick Posted March 18, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2004 Thanks guys for all the input. Y'all were right on the money with the feedback on the Vogues. Good looking (to many folks), but not the best of handeling charactistics at highway speeds. Went to the local Discount Tire (DT) to have them turned around and re-balanced to the complete astonishment of the African-American clerk. He could not believe what I was asking him to do, he even called over the store manager, pointed out the window to my car and said "You will never guess what this customer wants me to do with those Vogues!". They were laughing so hard one of the mechanics came out from the back to see what was so funny. The clerk finally composed himself and told me that if I don't like the way they look, I would be better off to just replace them and sell the Vogues. (Sound familiar Kevin?) I had no idea what they retail for and he showed me on his computer that DT's retail price was $230 EACH! The clerk used his little gauge to check the tread wear and all four have 10 of the origional 12/32's on them. Sounds like selling them is a very viable option now. I had been surfing the internet to get an idea of what it would cost to replace the tires in case some defect was found on the Vogues and they could not be re-balanced and so was prepared to bargin about price. Planned to go with the Michelin Pilot XGT H4's but he must have been out of stock so they offered the Pilot MXV4 Plus for the same priec ($120 ea). Done deal! Needless to say, I got a chance to crank it up 80+ MPH this morning and no more steering wheel vibration at all. Smooth as glass and very quiet too! Thanks to all for the input/feedback. Anybody wanna bid on the Vogues? :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willie Hank Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 I have a '73 Mustang that will sit in the garage for months, then I'll take it out for a quarterly drive, and early vibrations will occur. It will disappear...(its a project, and the kids sports take precedence). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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