Hello Everyone,

My baby needs some work and I need advice from you experienced folks. I believe I am encountering some suspension issues or an improper alignment. I have a 2005 SRT6 with just over 50K miles and very well looked after. Suspension is by no means my strong point so any advice would be appreciated!




Here's the symptoms;

• Slight vibration of the driver’s wheel at speeds over 50 mph.
• Howling coming from front end at speeds over 10 mph and increases in intensity with speed. (The howling was apparent with two different sets of tires and wheels, Blizzaks and BFG's g-force.)
• According to my floor jack, the right hand side of the car rides 1/2 inch lower than the left (the jack will not fit under the jack spot on the right hand side.)
• Excessive tire wear (positive camber) on the left side only. RH side is fine. Cords showing on LF and LR tires. Tires no longer on car.
• After getting the front end up on jacks, I noticed the RF wheel had play in it and gave me a mild "thunk" when I moved it left to right and up and down. The 'thunk" seemed to be coming from farther in then from the wheel hub itself. Same with the LF but much less so.

I think the wheel bearings may be shot on the front of the car. I have not had time to search further and am not exactly sure where / what to look for? I can take the hub out, that's not a problem. I don't have the proper equipment to pull the bearings / racer out if that's one of the problems.

I had the car aligned at my local 5 Star dealer last spring, they told me it was just "ever so slightly out of alignment" but the technician said if it were his, he'd leave it alone. They also said the car does not have alignment for camber and the parts were expensive to replace in a methodical sequence until the problem was found. There was no mention of wheel bearings at that time.

If anyone could offer up some advice to proceed I would appreciate it. I would consider myself and average (+) mechanic but would be willing to attempt the repair myself and I like to work on my own car. I can get help if needed.

Anyone know a good place to purchase parts at a reasonable price? ie.,wheel bearings, tie rod ends, ball joints? If needed.. I am in Denver or would consider a reputable online source.

I did search the site for help but couldn't find anything helpful nor is the repair posted under the common Crossfire problems / repairs page. If it is, I could not find it. (wheel bearings)
Thanks for your time!

 

Try this: While driving relatively fast so you hear the "howl" pretty good, do a weight transfer left and right to see if the howl changes pitch or goes away. The left-right weight transfer will unload the wheel that has the bad bearing and make the noise dissipate, in general. If you quickly turn left and noise disappears, it's the right wheel bearing that is bad... and vice versa. If both are bad, well, the noise won't go away totally, but it might change pitch/sound so that you know which of the two bearings is "worse off". Give that a shot.

On on open highway with nobody nearby, just doing this across a couple of quick-left-then-right sharp freeway lane changes should tell you something. Quick left/right alternating back and forth and listen for sound changes.

 

If you have "play" up and down when the car is jacked up on the front wheel then it is almost certainly the wheel bearings. They are easy enough to get at so just take the hub off and look at them but be sure to check the bolt as if it is loose then that is how the bearings got bad ........incorrect specs for the nut holding the hub. The wheel should have a little deflection but not enough to notice moving the wheel up and down. Moving the wheel side to side is just indicating the ball joints and pitman arm mostly so don't use that for the bearing check. Altho if you have a lot of movement without the tire actually moving then the tierod ends and or ball joints are suspect. If you can have both wheels off the ground at the same time check to see if the wheel oposite moves as much as the 1 you are moving........but howling and getting louder as speed increases is almost always a bearing.

 

Will a wheel bearing that bad cause the wide diviation in the height? If the suspension is damaged or defective, fix that first then look for associated damaged parts. This is based on the OP having another vehicle for a DD until the fault(s) can be found and repaired. If not, remember the tires will pay the price for driving while troubleshooting.

 

Using your eyeball and measuring tire top to fender well can be misleading. Best to measure from wheel hub center to another fixed point. The side-to-side weight differences can cause different "viewable" sizes. (i.e. if you have saddle-type gas tanks, one on each side, and only the left side is full, and you weigh 200lbs, when you get into the car, the left side will be lower)

 

Just to add to the above advice; after fixing your suspension issues, also a good idea to install a new steering stabilizer if you haven't already done so.

 

Thanks for the advice and comments. I will have a chance to look closer this weekend and will follow up on the forum. I really appreciate it.

 

Side to side height, confirm same tires on both sides and same air pressure, I had 1/4" difference, it happens. Your clunk sounds like control arm bushings??????? You had it checked recently so I dont understand the clunk. Jack the car up with the tires up and slip a shovel under the tire, lever it up and down to see and compare the vertical motion. Should not clunk, be sure to check this out soon as clunks may be serious. Let us know. Wdy

 

If you aren't comfortable working on the front wheel assembly, I would take it somewhere that does that work.... running 50 mph, jerking the car back and forth, and the wheel coming off wouldn't look pretty....lol.... and sooner or later, the wheel is coming off...but usually buckles under the front fender, ruining the rotor, inner fender, fender...well, you get my point... front end problems isn't for the faint of heart....get her fixed...
And, Woody, I only say this because he said there was side to side play in the wheel when jacked up... a "thump" I think he stated, not a clunk...lol

 

Am I wrong in thinking our cars can't be aligned? Thought I read that before somewhere on here, having to do with the different size wheels and something about the rear suspension linkage.

 

If you are lowered, it's a bit of pain to align, especially in the front. Even with MBZ camber bolts,fronts will have -1.4 inward camber after lowering unless you get the KMAC bushing set. Using MBZ camber bolts will only allow 0.5 of adjustment. In the rear, you can get camber arms and keep the rear pretty much spot on spec. If not lowered, you should be fine and adjustments are possible. Lots of threads on this around. Run a search.

Some other input:

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...your-ride.html

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...no-camber.html

 

I recently had the ball bearings replaced and an alignment done, but the car rides for s*** now and the alignment is still a little off. Anyone know why it could be riding worse than before?