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A family member of mine has a 1993 Cadillac Sedan Deville with 70,000 miles. It had a lateral wobble in the front, right wheel which caused excessive tire wear. Both front tires were replaced and rotated, and a front end alignment was preformed at a big chain repair shop. A brake pulsation was noticed, but otherwise I thought the car drove fine. Today, the car was going fine, until all of the sudden the front right wheel began to wobble a huge amount while going about 35MPH. I pulled over, examined everything, drove away and it got continually worse, so I pulled over a second time after only about 1/2 mile(The wheel literally felt it was going to come off.). My brother(the owner) said there was a small amount of intermittent wobbling prior to this(but after the alignment.), though it wasn’t enough for me to notice when driving the car.
Upon close inspection, it appeared that 2 of the lug nuts were not 100% straight in line with the bolt. I hypothesized that the nuts were improperly threaded, and decided to remove the wheel. One of the nuts was difficult to turn throughout it’s removal because it was very improperly threaded(Hard to explain, you know, when a nut/screw is at a slight angle, and you force it in.). The other was less bad, but still at a slight angle. The worse one damaged the bolt’s and nut’s threads badly, easily noticeable to the naked eye.
I put the wheel back with 4 out of 5 nuts, and there was a tiny wobble, but nothing at all similar to what it was like prior, so I drove home.
Do you think the shop simply messed it up? Or is there another possibility?
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I can’t blame someone because I’am not there. Either the lugs were already cross
threaded causing the original wobble/tire wear or The shop put them back on and either
cross threaded the lugs or they were already cross threaded and just put them back. :ohmy:
Two things to do here. replace the damaged studs or try and run a dye over the threads to
straighten them. If it were me I would replace the two studs.Older GM lug nuts often have this issue. I’d recommend replacing the bad ones and repairing or replacing any damaged studs.
You might also find this helpful.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/determining-the-causes-of-vehicle-vibrations
Please keep us updated on what you find.
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