Vibration/Wobble at high elevations + acceleration

[Maruzo]

Nice.

Getting a very small steering wheel shake on highway speeds. Comes and goes.

Seems to disappear once car is warmed up, and only appearing in first 10 15 minutes of early morning driving.

I've replaced almost all the front suspension parts, except the tie rods, which are still original, I think.

I also recently replaced the steering u-joint, which muted the click click sound that would show up when I do low speed turns.

Any ideas?

This is on my 2003 4.6is

[guntherrex]

my cheapo (hard rubber) summer tyres have a talent for getting flat spots when parked for a few days. Usually gives a bit of vibration when cold and goes away when the tyres have some heat in them.

[andrewwynn]

CV is top four suspect for idle jiggles. Nice find.

Flat spots on tires are well known to introduce shakes that fade however a similar thing can cause them;

If the shake also happens to be at a certain time along a repeated route it can often be crown/corner loading event.

Example; wife's X5 would steering shimmy like crazy: felt like a gnome was hiding in the footwell and jerking the wheel; but only on a half mile stretch of the 60 mile commute. Happened every time without exception.

Could not get the shake to reproduce until about two Micra later it finally started to happen with soft braking from 50-> 40 mph.

Then I knew it was the inward/wishbone control arms.

Since that I've developed a couple diagnostic tests for those Particular parts.

Mine have some degraded ball joints that apparently get enough today in them to tighten back up and work fine for months then suddenly shake like crazy.

Drive in a center lane, top of the crown and gently drive in a gentle s curve on your lane about 1-2' left and right.

If right as the steering wheel goes past zero degrees straight you get 2-3 tugs your wishbone ball joints are shot. I've never had an exception to this test. Hold the wheel very gentle as you steer past zero degrees each direction.

I suspect that it may tug more depending which side is worse but I've always replaced both at the same time.

Try the test you can almost assuredly rule that one out.

The other "warms up" situation that will induced wheel shake is CV joint issues. Cold grease will cause more out of balance issues than warm grease.

What's the ambient temperature when this is happening?

[Maruzo]

Early morning drive on the freeway @ about 45~55 degress Fahrenheit

The control arms, ball joints are fresh Lemforder parts installed in 2018. I've put in about 23,000 miles since the suspension refresh.

The shakes, while minor and infrequent, are very recent.

I don't drive the suv on weekends, so it sits for about 4~5 days then it gets 2 days of mostly freeway use.

I'm not sure if this has something to do with the tires. I've been using the same 4 tires since I got the truck in 2018.

They are Continental Extreme Contact. OEM tires I think. Looks a little worn but still has around 40~50% tread left.

I will attempt to run the test you suggest, andrew. I'm not too good at following directions so I'll let you know this weekend if I can find these anomolies.

Thanks!