Shaking and bouncing

[dbeach84]

Just got my new (to me) '99 Sable wagon home tonight. I drove it about 30 miles this evening and noticed that it shakes and shudders alot. It's not transmission shudder...its as if there's nothing soaking up the bumps. The whole car's frame shakes and it crashes over bumps. Even on the newly-paved road to my house, it shimmies and vibrates. It's not horrible, but it's a bit alarming for a car that's more "comfortable" than I'm used to (having just moved out of a '97 Neon). I understand that my car is a junkyard special so there's a good chance something could be bent or misaligned, but I need to know where to start looking before I take it into the mechanic. My guess is either shocks gone bad or maybe even subframe bushings. Any ideas?

[the_intimidator_02]

Sub-frame bushings, control arm bushings, strut mounts/struts. Could almost anything, only way to know for sure is to look it over and verify what is good and what needs replaced. Replace what needs to be replaced to eliminate the obvious stuff. You can't do a good diagnosis on something like that till you eliminate the things that can contribute to a problem.

[dbeach84]

I've got an appointment with a local garage on Monday to check the front and rear end, subframe, brakes, and wheel alignment. I had a $4K budget when I went to look for a car and since this one was only 3/4 of that, I'm gonna put the rest into making it run and drive as good as I can. At least (that I can tell, browsing around online), parts seem to be extremely reasonable. Even the struts on my little Neon cost about 50% more than what I'm seeing.

[Bull Geek]

They made over 9.5 million of these cars on a slightly modified platform for 1986-2007 model years. More cars, cheaper prices And plenty of sharing of parts too helps between the different years.

[Breeves002]

So many suspension things to look for... I'd guess struts (quik struts are only about $110 each plus labor unless you do it), any bushings (subframe or control arm), sway bar links, ball joints....

Hey, a good driving car is a good thing to have. Could just need an alignment too!

[04 SEL]

Check out all the parts on Rock Auto as well before you go buy them elsewhere. Lots of times they have discount codes posted here.

[dbeach84]

Well, got it back from the garage today. The back rotors were pretty rusty so they replaced those with the pads, tightened up the sagging e-brake cable, did a front and rear alignment, and re-balanced the tires. They told me they thought the struts were good and so were the bushings. Said I'd probably need rear tires before long. Paid $300 and went on my way.

Yup, still shaking.

Even on a perfectly smooth road, there's a constant light shimmy in the steering wheel, and you can feel a quivering vibration through the wheel and gas pedal. On bumpier pavement, the whole structure quivers - hit a bump, feel the vibration through the whole structure of the wagon. Even closing the doors causes a bit more body quiver than I would think is normal. The vibrations are most noticeable between 30-60 mph. Above 60, it starts to fade, although the bumps still cause quivers. It's there while braking too, but it's not rotor shake, brakes are smooth. I'm running out of money in my repair budget so I can't afford to replace every suspension component...it's not that the car is undrivable, I mean, I've certainly seen worse vibration in cars, but it's annoying and makes me worry lol. I'm at a loss as to where I should put money next, and maybe wondering if I shouldn't get a second opinion from another garage...

Thoughts?

[behlinla]

I would pass judgment until you get new tires. Even though they balanced the tires, sometimes you can't get them perfect. Their balancing machine might be old or out of calibration.

Despite what they said, you still might have some worn-out suspension components. I would try another shop.

[Architect]

Originally Posted by dbeach84

<snip>
On bumpier pavement, the whole structure quivers - hit a bump, feel the vibration through the whole structure of the wagon. Even closing the doors causes a bit more body quiver than I would think is normal.
<snip>

This is not solved with new tires.

At your next visit I would specifically ask them to have a careful look at the ball-joints.

[dbeach84]

Got new tires finally...General AltiMax RTs...I like them so far, some of thr vibration is gone but it still crashes over bumps and there's a shimmy in the steering while...the steering is a bit sloppy, although Im used to the tighter steering in my Neon. Sometimes I have to readjust the steering a bit, as if the tires arent going where I point them. There's a noticable clunk when going over larger bumps at lower speeds. There doesnt seem to be any play in the wheels when grabbed at either the 9-3 or 12-6 positions. I'm going to try to get it into a local shop that was recommended to me but getting off from work to do it might take a while.