Intermittent wheel wobble

[fast4door]

If I'm misusing this forum, please let me know.

I have a 2001 Acura TL. I had warped rotors, so I replaced pads and rotors, then rotated the tires myself. I found there was a vibration that got worse with speed, so I figured an out-of-balance wheel. I asked a local shop to balance the wheels - they have a road-force balancer. I told them *not* to rotate the tires.

Now there's an itermittent vibration. It shows up mostly at low speeds (<30mph) by wobbling the steering wheel. At freeway speeds the amplitude drops and the frequency goes up. However, it's intermittent because sometimes when I drive it isn't there, as if something shifted. The shop said one wheel is bent, but it's been bent for years and I haven't had this vibration.

Is there something in the suspension that could be shifting the alignment and causing the wheel to wobble? Like maybe something is loose and allows one of the wheels to go intermittently toe-in? A crappy bushing?

 

[patprimmer]

A bad tripod or inner CV can cause a wobble back through the steering. As the axle rotates at an angle to the joint, the bearings inside the joint need to slide back and forward. If they meet enough resistance to sliding as required, they push the axle in and out with enough force and distance to flex the suspension upright or knuckle and kick back through the steering.

Of course a bent rim wont help, but you can easily see if that is resulting in tyre run out.

Regards
Pat
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