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Tire wobble?

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Old Oct 30, 2011 | 01:52 PM
  #1  
kona0197's Avatar
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Tire wobble?

I have a slight wobble in the front wheel on a '90 Cutlass Ciera. Just the tire needing to be balanced on a bent axle? wobble disappears at highway speeds.

Sorry if this is not the proper sub-forum for this question.
Old Oct 30, 2011 | 02:55 PM
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I don't understand the term wobble! Are you trying to describe a shimmy, vibration or does the car feel like its moving from side to side.
Old Oct 30, 2011 | 03:24 PM
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Yeah it's a vibration coming from the front end. I can feel it in the steering wheel. at low speeds the wheel slightly jogs back and forth.
Old Oct 30, 2011 | 03:33 PM
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mur59's Avatar
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bad tire swap front to back see if it goes away
Old Oct 30, 2011 | 03:36 PM
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I'll try that, thanks. I would assume if it was a bent axle I would have bigger issues. Just wanted to see what others thought about it.
Old Oct 30, 2011 | 05:22 PM
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Belts going away - check the date codes, you'll be surprised!
Old Oct 30, 2011 | 05:23 PM
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Date codes? Where are those located?
Old Oct 30, 2011 | 06:29 PM
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Wobble? Or waddle?

Here are some threads to help you out - I was down that road before...
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...le-waddle.html

I think tirerack's site has the date code decoder.
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...e-dilemma.html

QUACK, QUACK!!
Old Oct 30, 2011 | 06:34 PM
  #9  
kona0197's Avatar
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Thank you. I'll take a look tomorrow.
Old Oct 31, 2011 | 06:41 AM
  #10  
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What they said!!!!
Old Nov 2, 2011 | 01:12 AM
  #11  
scumdog's Avatar
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From: New Zealand
Originally Posted by Rickman48
Belts going away - check the date codes, you'll be surprised!
Just had to replace left/front tyre on our '83 Ciera, symptoms were just like yours, the steering-wheel had a rythmical slow 'shake' from side to side at 30mph and you could feel the car also doing a small shake.

Turns out the tyre was crapping out (tons of tread though) and it had two raised areas about 10" apart on the tread, hard to pick with the naked eye but obvious when the wheel was on the tyre balancer.

New tyre fixed that.

Trouble was the tyres are 205/55 x 16" - and it cost NZ $202 fitted!
Old Dec 15, 2011 | 10:54 PM
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Well I found out that the tire has lost it's balance weight. Still waiting to get them rotated. My big question is will this wobbling break the drive axle? Or will the u-joint prevent that?
Old Dec 16, 2011 | 03:17 AM
  #13  
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Originally Posted by kona0197
... the tire has lost it's balance weight.... My big question is will this wobbling break the drive axle? Or will the u-joint prevent that?
Naaaaahh. You're thinking too much. Just get the tire balanced and you'll be fine.
Best case scenario, really - be happy.

- Eric
Old Dec 16, 2011 | 10:52 AM
  #14  
72 cutlass455's Avatar
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From: Colton Ca
On my 99 grand am i had a warped front rotor that caused some of the symptoms
you described. At high way speed it was fine but if I pushed it to 70 It was all I could do to keep it on the road. The same car also broke a front coil spring on the same side don't know if it was related or not. Good luck and do tell us what you find out.
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