I have a 1995 Buick Park Ave (I know this is Bonneville only, but Buick owners do have this great web site for help!) and I have a vibration comming from the front of the car. The car currently has around 93K mikes on it.

So far I have replaced my inner tie rods, passenger side lower A arm (this includes bushings and ball joint), front struts and upper strut bearings (Monroe senseatracks), passenger side wheel bearing, and passenger side half shaft. I also bought new rims and tires and have had a few wheel alignments and balancings. I have been told everything in the front end is tight, which I believe because the mechanic I took my car to would really like to make some money off me if he could.

I will describe what is happening to my car and maybe you guys can give me a hand:

1) While in park and the car running, I can move my steering wheel right and left and hear a "clunk" noise when turning the steering wheel enough to start the wheels moving. My mechanic said that the rack felt good, but I’m not so sure. There is no play in the rack when you have the car on a lift and “wiggle” the wheels, but I have the “clunk”. With the engine off, I can turn the steering wheel about 1/4 of the way before it becomes hard to move. There does not seem to be excessive play in the wheel when I drive the car.

Does the rack mount to the car with some type of bushings? Could the rack be good but be "moving" back and forth on it'* mounts? Is my rack shot where the the pinion gear meets the rack?

2) While driving, I usually get a shimmy that starts around 60MPH and intermittently comes and goes away. The shimmy is less noticeable on rough roads as compared to newly paved roads. When the car is shimmying, the steering wheel shakes pretty bad and the car shakes too. This is the problem I am really trying to solve. I can't stand to drive the car this way much longer!

3) While accelerating from a stop and turning left, I feel a vibration from the front of the car while accelerating medium to fast speed. I do not feel the shimmy when I take off lightly. I also feel a shimmy when I have four 200 lb. passengers and am accelerating medium to hard and turning or going straight.

I really like the car, but I’m not sure what I can do at this point. Is this a Rack problem? Motor mounts? Front sub-frame monts?

Please help!

Jaime

Strut Bearings. The reason I say this is becausse you get a clunk when you turn your wheel and this is one of the things that happens when these go bad. And since you have done all those other things I can conclude that is the last thing I can think of that would make a noise like that.

Sorry, replaced thoes.

Jaime

Omg then that the heck... It clunks when you turn.... maybe its your steering rack? if that was loose or bad it could vibrate when you go down the road. this is a tuffy but thats the only other thing that I can think of.. Check it and if not I have not a clure because it seems that you replaced most of everything up there. CV Shafts New??? That could do it too if one was ripped and dirty inside.

I haven't tried anything new recently, but the front end had developed a new noise to go allong with the vibration. Sometimes while turning left and accelerating, I get what seems to be a rotating clunk that you can hear and feel in the floorboards for about 2-3 seconds and then stops.

I believe this may be my left halfshaft. I think I will wait for the noise to get worse before I start replacing more parts...

This problem is driving me nuts and draining my bank! I wish someone could figure out what the heck is going on!!! I am tired of having my car put on a rack, having someone wiggle the tires around, and tell me everything is ok. Would I bring my car to a repair shop if everything was OK? Gee, I sure would like to dump a bunch of money in your bank accout!!! Ya right.

Jaime

I'm gonna bet on the rack, but I'm not going to discount the struts or strut bearings. They can make you think other things are bad. I had a thunk when starting forward or reverse. Thought it was a bearing, it was struts.