As some of you know, I just got a front wheel bearing replaced. It was very noticeable to see that the wheel showed a lot of slop consistent with a bad bearing.

But still, when going over staggered bumps at higher speed (one front wheel hits before the other side), the front end and steering wheel "shudders".

When the car was on the lift, we couldn't see any of the ball joints moving. The only thing we saw was the wheel bearing. But then again, we were literally trying to move the wheels while grabbing at the 9 and 3 o'clock position and 12 and 6 o'clock position.

We have H&R coil overs that I believe has been on the car for over 200k miles now. But H&R coilovers "aren't supposed to wear out - as per H&R, of course.

1) Is there a better way to check balljoints?
2) Should we be looking at other areas of the car to find this shake? Could it be the front shocks going bad regardless o H&R claims?

 

check the bushings at the end of all the control arms and the tie rods

 

^ what he said. I'd also look into rebalancing the wheels and tires if you haven't done it in a while. Perhaps you have some uneven wear on your tires due to the coilovers?

Are you running non-hub centric spacers by any chance or running aftermarket wheels without hub centric rings? These issues can cause the vibrations/shaking.

 

Just an idea...I had an avalanche that did that = STRUTS ; Chevy 2500 = Struts....I had a nissan truck that did that = STRUTS...soooo, from experience with NON-AUDIs and the shaking bump syndrome, I'd say it's your Struts...I did them on my Gold Audi at 268000 (it wasn't shaking YET)...and when I undid my coil overs (I just wanted to do the struts) 2 of the springs broke on the tensioner (they didn't look bad), the ends just snapped off the coil......then I had to buy complete NEW coil overs.....

Check your struts and your springs, but as I said, every truck I've ever had that did that, hit a bump and the steering shakes/shudders has been the struts....

 

It's not the balancing of the wheels. The "shudder" only occurs when hitting a bump. It appears (not 100% sure yet) that the shudder occurs when I hit the bump driver's side wheels only. If I hit the bump (manhole cover) on the passenger side, it appears the car is fine. So it almost seems like I could have a dead H&R shock issue on the driver's side. When I jacked up the driver's side and tried to wiggle the wheel at the 9 and 3 o'clock position and 12 and 6 o'clock position, I can move the wheel vvvveeeerrryyy slightly (steering wheel is locked) in the 9-3 position. But it's not "wiggling". So I'm thinking this is probably normal.... [sigh]

So I think I will need to get the whole car on a lift to take a much closer look.

To markymark's point...uuugghhh... I'm thinking it might be the H&R coil over on the driver's side...

 

Armand, if you ARE going to do it, do all 4 if you can, take them off, look at the springs etc....I ended up doing all 4 on my old Audi.....

 

I know I SHOULD replace all four... But with $294k miles, I'm only doing the fronts. But if I like the handling of the Bilsteins, then I'll suck it up and do the rears as well. I'll even do the work myself on this one. The thing is, I'm not 100% sure that the problem is the coil overs. The spring on the front driver side looks fine. I guess I'm just at a disbelief that the H&R's would actually "wear out".

I see the Bilstein HD's at the Tire Rack for $76 each. My worry is that with the stock springs (which we saved), I'm worried that the car will be returned to "stock height" - which is hideous. With the coilovers set at max height, it still looks like a pretty good drop.

 

Just like every time I buy something BRAND NEW and it doesn't work, and I'm like WTF????

I know this is going to sound CRAZY...but if you have the time...switch the left with the right and see if it follows ...If I remember right (it's been over a year), it's NOT that hard to remove the whole shock and the front two are the same....but like I said, it's been awhile...and I did it without a lift......on a dirt parking lot

3 bolts on top, and below on the axle there's a couple, but other than that, I think it took me less than 30-45 minutes to get it off.....UNLESS everything is rusted......

 

It doesn't sound crazy at all... In fact, I've thought about it also. But I believe that the shocks are different from left to right and I can't just swap them like that.

 

Both of my fronts were the same shocks and springs....so it should work...but as I said...don't remember off the top of my head and I didn't switch mine, just put new ones in....