Help with suspension issue

Hi guys really need your help, a week ago now I'm getting a horrible shake in the steering wheel almost feels like torque steer. The wheel shakes to the right and doesn't matter the speed. It shakes the worst if I coast the car in neutral, also if I let off the gas or step on the gas for a split second. But if I'm steady with the gas it won't shake at all not matter what the speed. So far I've balanced the wheels, outer tire rod, ball joints,control arm bushings, struts and mount, dog bone and trailing arm bushings. Wheel bearing seem fine no play and no noise, axles seem good as well no play and no noise. Car only does this after driving for 30 minutes or so will not do it when cold. Also brakes are good. Any ideas guys? I'm wondering if my transmission is starting to go just at a loss.

99.5 jetta to
320,000 5spd

If you didn't say axles were OK I'd suspect an axle. Otherwise I'd look for a broken engine or transmission mount.

The axles seemed to be ok no play and no tears in boots, the dog bone mount was shot I replaced that, the other mounts are good also. Would a car really out of alignment cause this issue Also? The only thing I can think of is I hit a pot hole a couple of weeks ago and it seemed to throw it off? Just really weird that the symptoms only occur after a 1/2 hr or so. I haven't aligned the car yet just was hoping that I could find a remedy before aligning in case it's something else and have to pay to get it done again.

Cars way out of alignment can cause some strange behavior. I'd check and make sure all the bolts are tightened to spec and have it aligned, see what happens.

Any accumulated ice or snow on the wheels? Are the tire balancing weights still in tact?

JB05 said:

Any accumulated ice or snow on the wheels? Are the tire balancing weights still in tact?

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^^^This has happened to me more than once, it felt like a bent wheel and the car was near uncontrollable. Snow packed into the wheel will do it.

So I ended up dropping the car off and I got it aligned and the tires balanced and went for a 25 min drive and so far so good. I looked over the alignment paper work and it looks like the toe adjustment was way off one side was 1.04 degrees and the other was 1.13 no there back to -.05 and .02. I'm guessing that the wheels are fighting to stay straight when off the throttle.

Were the tires showing abnormal wear? If things have been like this for a while they should. If not, and these aren't "new" tires then something happened fairly recently to knock things out of whack.

If it all holds up OK then that should be the end of it. I'd be monitoring closely for a while.

The tires are good, there only about 4 months old, the only thing that I can think of that caused this was I hit a pretty bad pot hole about 3 weeks ago and a week later it developed the shake, when I jacked the car up the only thing that looked bad was the right strut there was oil on it, so I replaced both struts and did the other parts to freshen it up a bit. The only thing that seems weird to me is why would the car not shake first thing in the morning after sitting for a while? Just hoping all stays ok when I take it to work tomorrow.

Cold tires might not have been gripping real well, so they were slipping a bit more. Seems there's always that demarcation point in which something goes from being imperceptible to being perceptible.

A good pot hole will certainly cause suspension grief. With a refresh it's always a good idea to have an alignment done: many will do it themselves, but I like to have someone else do it as that gets me another set of eyes looking over things (following suspension work).

cdiddy said:

The tires are good, there only about 4 months old, the only thing that I can think of that caused this was I hit a pretty bad pot hole about 3 weeks ago and a week later it developed the shake, when I jacked the car up the only thing that looked bad was the right strut there was oil on it, so I replaced both struts and did the other parts to freshen it up a bit. The only thing that seems weird to me is why would the car not shake first thing in the morning after sitting for a while? Just hoping all stays ok when I take it to work tomorrow.

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Did you have it aligned after doing this work?

wonneber said:

Did you have it aligned after doing this work?

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Yeah, that question popped into my head as well!

And just a quick note that one needs to put some miles on a newly refreshed suspension prior to having it aligned. Things need to settle a bit. If you don't do this it's possible to get an alignment and then find that after the suspension settles down that you're now out of alignment.

UhOh said:

Yeah, that question popped into my head as well!

And just a quick note that one needs to put some miles on a newly refreshed suspension prior to having it aligned. Things need to settle a bit. If you don't do this it's possible to get an alignment and then find that after the suspension settles down that you're now out of alignment.

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Agreed.
My problem is if I put it off it gets forgotten.

So the car has been great for 200 miles no issues, now this morning it's starting to shake but not as bad, the steering wheel will only shake when I let off the gas or put the car in neutral and coast, with the car in gear and accelerating everything feels normal. Any thoughts I'm really at a loss?

I wonder if I have a sticky caliper cuz the other thing I noticed is first thing when I'm driving when I hit the brakes no vibration no shaking or anything and then at the end of the drive an hr later when I use the brakes I can feel a wobble when hitting the brakes and it feels like a warped rotor. It just seems like if it was a bad rotor is feel it all the time?

Look closely at your wheels' hubs. If you have a brake/caliper sticking it'll show up as a drier wheel.

If there's an issue here I'd first look to clean and lube the slider pins. Brakes are pretty important so I'd be looking to go through them completely (which includes brake fluid flush).

I'll have to grab my heat gun from work and check temps on my ride home, when all this was going on I thought brakes and pulled the pins and clean and regreased. Maybe it's time for a new right caliper just seems really weird the wheel shake. I've had bad calipers before and it never did this.

Check that you didn't have a brake pad separation. Severe shake can be produced with one like this: happened to me.

I'm almost leaning now towards the drivers side c.v. inner joint now I'm getting a clunk on accel and feel and my wishbone mount is brand new

A bad inner CV will show as a steering wheel shimmy on acceleration which will disappear immediately and entirely when you get your foot off the go-pedal. If the shimmy is still there or shows again on braking, then you have another problem in addition to the worn inner CV joints. Last time I had this problem, there was shimmy on braking as well as acceleration. The shimmy wasn't the same, however. The solution was (for me, anyway) swapping the inner CV joints side to side and buying new front rotors and pucks.

HTH.

PH

Just an update, my transmission mount was shot. I ordered up a new one along with new stretch bolts. I had a friend from work let the clutch out while watching under the hood and it's toast. Hopefully that takes care of it.

I'll let you guys know what the verdict is once I get everything in the mail and installed.