When accelerating there is a wobble at 35 MPH?

Tiny
PIMINHS3500
  • MEMBER
  • 1995 TOYOTA CAMRY
  • V6
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 172,001 MILES
So, my car has been wobbling once I had about 35 MPH steering wheel gets a real bad wobble car shakes as well but it only doesn't want to accelerate when I decelerate it's smooth accelerate it wobbles so I put it up on some jack stands took the tires off accelerated had a friend accelerate while I looked at the axles and it starts jerking I don't know you'll see in the video but please give me your opinions on what it may be. Thank you
Thursday, November 7th, 2024 AT 2:11 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,871 POSTS
Couple of observations. Thank you for posting the dandy video. The first thing you should look at is the left brake rotor. Use at least three lug nuts and be sure the rotor is held tight to the hub. Without the wheel, you might need to stack some washers under the lug nuts. I saw what appeared to be a slight wobble in the rotor. Normally if that is a potential suspect, I would use a dial indicator to measure the rotor's "lateral runout". If it's excessive, it will shove the brake caliper back and forth once per wheel revolution. That mass can tug back and forth on the steering linkage, then you'll feel it in the steering wheel.

Next, your description of the symptoms sounds very much like a problem I used to run into with the inner CV joints. For this to act up, the drivetrain has to be under load. You'll never see this when running it in gear while jacked up.

There's three rollers inside the inner CV joints. They run back and forth on very highly polished surfaces. That allows the joint to go through angle changes and changes in length when turning and when the suspension system moves up and down. With some wear in the housing, those rollers bind and don't want to roll smoothly. Putting the vehicle under load, such as when accelerating out of a parking lot and turning, causes the binding joint to push and pull on the wheel bearing / steering knuckle. Since the steering linkage is connected to the knuckle, that gets tugged back and forth too, and it shows up in the steering wheel. Those I was involved with always showed up worst around 25 - 35 mph. I never noticed the wobble at highway speeds. Also, only one was caused by the left inner joint. I had over a dozen of these caused by the right inner joint.

Before I spend a customer's money on a new shaft, I inspect the housings first to be sure I found the correct one. This means pulling the half shaft out, removing the boot, (a messy job), and pulling the joint apart. Once the grease is cleaned out of the housing, run your fingers along all six of the polished rolling surfaces. In the unlikely chance you feel a little wave in them, you really have a badly worn housing. I was only able to feel that in one or two housings. Instead, you need to shine a light in there, then look at the reflections in those six surfaces, similar to inspecting a custom paint job on a car at a car show when you can see ripples and waves reflecting the grass near the bottom of the car. If you see that very slight irregularity in the reflections, that is the wear that's causing the rollers to bind and create side forces that get transmitted to the steering linkage. That can easily be bad enough to cause that corner of the car to jump up and down during acceleration.

The good news is brand new half shafts have come down a lot on price. Just the inner housing from the dealership used to cost over $400.00. Today it's not uncommon to find entire half shafts for less than $100.00. We used to be able to buy rebuilt shafts, but often the people who inspected the cores didn't know to look for that wear. We often ended up with a shaft just as bad as the old one. That can't happen when you buy a brand new half shaft.

Getting back to the rotor, you might take a peek at this article for more information:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/symptoms-of-a-bad-brake-rotor

I don't have a good way to show how the dal indicator is used, but if you want to pursue that, Harbor Freight Tools has that tool. As I recall, it costs less than $20.00. You are also likely to find one at an auto parts store that rents or borrows tools. In my city, they make you buy it, then you get a full refund when you return it. Some people want to keep the tool, but you still return it, then they order you a brand new one.

Let me know if sounds like we're on the right track.
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Thursday, November 7th, 2024 AT 6:17 PM

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