[JMphskal85]

I swear if something else goes wrong with this car I am going to drive it off a cliff..

Okay, so I posted about a minor problem I was having about a week ago. The thread can be found here:
http://www.mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=85648

To sum it up, whenever I was rolling at a slow pace, between 1-15ish mph, I would hear a slight rubbing noise and shake that sounded like a tire was rubbing coming from behind me. The noise disappeared at speed. However, the tires weren't rubbing, so I ruled that problem out. Anyway, I didn't drive the car for a few days, and spent an entire day on the stereo, and when I drove the car next, the problem seemed to have completely gone away.

After I drove the car around for about 45 minutes, as I was coming back home, the car suddenly started shuddering like one of the rear tires was flat and about to fly apart. So I pulled over, checked everything out, seemed fine. No flat tires. Go to drive the car home, same thing. The car shudders when I drive it, and the shuddering gets far worse the faster I go. The shuddering continues in gear and out of gear, so a drivetrain problem seems unlikely. After limping the car home, I haven't driven it since.

Anyone have any similar experiences? Any ideas of what's wrong? It's been raining the past several days and I haven't had access to a garage, so I haven't been able to jack the car up to take a look. Also, I have had some clutch issues with my Spec Stage III.. could this in anyway be related?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[AndrewMcG]

HAHA, I hate to share this experience but a similar thing happened to me and for two days i couldnt figure it out. One of my wheels were loose and I just need to tighten up 4 or the 5 lugs. I would check that and also see if the axle allen bolts have backed out, near the tranny.

 

[JMphskal85]

Haha 93smgturbo I hope that you are right and it's just something silly like this. Thanks for swallowing your pride to help me out!

 

[NoSirItsAToyota]

If its not that, its probably a wheel bearing.

 

[JMphskal85]

NoSirItsAToyota, how exactly will I be able to single out the wheel bearing? Thanks for the help.

 

[NoSirItsAToyota]

I would jack up that tire so its off the ground and see if you can wiggle the wheel at all. Then I would take the wheel off and spin the hub and see if it spins smooth while listening for any grinding.

If it does it more on turns than when just driving straight, then its definitely the bearing.

 

[JMphskal85]

I would jack up that tire so its off the ground and see if you can wiggle the wheel at all. Then I would take the wheel off and spin the hub and see if it spins smooth while listening for any grinding.

Awesome walkthrough - Thanks so much.

If it does it more on turns than when just driving straight, then its definitely the bearing.

It actually seems to go away when I make turns and then comes back when the car straightens back out. Hm.

 

[NoSirItsAToyota]

Still probably the bearing.

Now that I think of it, thats what my bearing did on my eclipse back in the day. It only made noise when going straight.

 

[JMphskal85]

Thanks Nosir.

Still real rainy, so haven't gotten a chance to check it out. If it does end up being the wheel bearing, how much would it cost to replace? difficult installation?

 

[JMphskal85]

Okay just to let you guys know what was up, turns out my lugnuts on one wheel had come completely loose. 2 of them had fallen off, and 2 of them were about to fall off.

THANK YOU 93SMGturbo for saving me time and effort trying to troubleshoot as honestly I wouldn't have thought this was the problem. Because you mentioned it, this was the first thing I checked.

Anyways, thanks everyone for the suggestions. Hopefully if anyone else has this issue they'll stumble upon this thread.

 

[AndrewMcG]

HAHA, Im not the only idiot. Wo0t!!!!

Glad you found the issue.