Questions and Answers

Vibrating Comanche Q. I have a 1992 Jeep Comanche 4x4 pickup with a 4 liter 6, 5 speed manual transmission, stock tires and rims. I have 147,000 miles on this truck. Last year the drivers side front brake locked up and turned red hot thus warping the rotor.

After the problem was fixed I changed both rotors and brake pads. Shortly after I had both front u-joints replaced.Recently I have acquired a very bad shake in the front end and steering wheel if I hit a bump just right between 50-60 mph. I had the tires balanced and rotated and also replaced the steering damper. Now it has a slight shimmy at all times at these speeds. When I had the tires balanced they also checked the tie rods and ball joints, all were tight.

Could it be the tires weren't balanced correctly or maybe a bad bearing? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Jason

A. The wheel balance is easy enough to check, just have them rebalanced. The wheel balancer will tell you if they are okay or need additional weight. If the balance is okay, rotate the tires back and see if the shimmy goes away. If it does, you know you have a bad tire.

If everything checks out okay, then I would say you probably have a wheel bearing problem. A shop can put the truck on a lift and check the bearings easily enough.

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