Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Wheel shaking @ 65-75MPH

Mine used to do it but went away...

Its Your rear struts,Most likely. What You want to do is go out and rub your hands around the wheels , If you feel any flat spots, you need struts and it usually occurs at that speed. Struts go bad the wheel starts hopping !! thats causes the vibration or shaking

Wow, alot of people with this problem. Here's my story. I needed 2 tires on one of my long trips so I bought
the proper H-rated tires for my V6 SE Contour. On the way back (600 miles), I noticed a vibration at
about 70 MPH. Upon arrival, twice the tires were balanced and after enough complaining, discount tire
replaced them with the same tire as what was on back (NEW Yokohama Grand Touring S-rated). Vibration
was still there and it had crept to about the 60 MPH zone. I took the fronts to the back and vice-versa.
STILL THERE! I ruled out the tires and the rims. I then replaced all four struts and aligned the vehicle
(I couldn't do the rear struts myself thus Sears finished it off along with the alignment). No difference and
more lost $$$$! Next "fix" was to try new rotors although my "old" ones were less then 1 year old.
Chunk-Ching, more lost cash down the drain! I even stripped a Caliper mounting bracket in this process but
thanks to www.car-parts.com, I picked one out real cheap from a shop in OKC. I next grinded out the
OEM ball joints and replaced those with MOOG brand greasables. It seemed to have raised the vibration
speed back up to about 70 mph, but I still have the problem. Tonight I was trying to see what else might
be loose. I found out that the anti-sway bar is very loose and I'm able to push it back and forth along the
bushings! I still don't think this is the problem but just another end result of the problem and this vibration
is driving me NUTS!!! It's getting costly and taking a lot of time to do these things myself. Tomorrow, I
plan to put the car on ramps and inspect the inner tie rods of the rack and pinion! If I should find
something that does cure this problem, I'll make sure and share it with all.
I also have a set of bearings for both sides but I'm having a hard time convincing myself that the bearings
are bad since I can't "shake" the raised wheel and have no grinding noises!
A very frustrated and tired Contour owner,
Gary

If you have aftermarket rims, than it may be the Torque setting of the lugs. After I painted my calipers over July 4th weekend, I went for a drive. I was puzzled to find out that after I hit 60, the entire car became like a giant paintmixer... Went to my buddy at Discount Tire, where they retightened the lugs to the proper setting, and guess what? No more shaking... Good luck to you man!

Sorry, these are the OEM "FORD" 8-spoke rims the car originally came with so that's not the
problem. They've even been torqued with a torque wrench umpteen times in my "quest"!
I think the surfacing of the vibration and the tire change were coincidental because
I've had 4 different tires on the front and the back-front rotation didn't do anything either (recall
I didn't have (and still don't) the vibration on the rear tires, prior to the new tires and now
those "old" tires are up front). The CV joints don't make noise, even under a power torque
turn doesn't reveal any noise, nor can I feel movement by trying to move them around.
The outer tie rods still feel solid and last I don't detect any damage to the A-arms. Like I
said before, the vehicle was aligned also. Haven't checked for "run-out" but I have doubts on
that cause the vibration is only high speed. Heck, I even had the wife take it out at 75 while I
ran....ok...while I followed her on another vehicle and could not notice any "hopping" at all.
WEIRD!! I'm running out of patience for this car even though I love the engine.

BTW, this car has the ground effects like the SVT's do and if anyone wants to sell me the
rectangular looking plastic inserts that attach on to the side skirts, let me know (I need black,
but I can paint any color). I lost mine by monking with them and loosening them up (one
side only, which equates to two inserts). I'm changing the subject, sorry!

I'll put it on the ramps tonight and see if anything obvious jumps out at me!
The 3 month saga continues!!

BTW, my V6 Contour SE is a 5-speed and I've taken it out to the problem speed, hit the clutch
and the vibration is still there. I've also taken it on 1st gear to around 5K rpm's and no
vibration thus because of this, I can safely say that the vibration is relative to speed and not
engine RPM nor do I think it could be the transmission (low speed only). could be the tranny
at high speed but would that make sense????
SIGH!

Gromero sorry to hear about all the headache you've gone through! I'm glad you posted though because I was about to go through the same thing (replace struts/bearings/the works). I had the shake under warranty (on my Cougar) and they refused to acknowledge it existed. Maybe now that I have to pay them for inspections they might turn up something (my oil leak was "of unknown origin" until I brought it in after warranty, wish I kept the reciepts from the first inspection..)

Please post if you find the culprit. I search google almost every day for documents related to this issue (seems very common) but never find any. My guess is the majority of people don't mind the vibration unfortunately I'm not one of them!

I feel the same way about my Cougar: I love the looks and engine but the shaking has to go. I want to supercharge it but I have to find the source of this before investing more money.

If you can't find anything I'll let you know what my dealer says. I'm already predicting "could not duplicate".

Did they check the bushings?

I get the slightest shake starting at about 70. I think it's the snow tires I have on there, because I had inner and outer tie rods replaced 3 months ago.

My 95 SE 5speed started doing the same thing in the last month! I just had the Front axles replaced (My CV joints were starting to make racket) my ball joints and hub bearings are okay and I have fairly new (less than 3k mi, balanced tires). So what the he!! is causing the vibration, I was going to look at the struts next. Something common must be causing these vibration problems, I just can't figure out what.