2002 Taurus SE problems

[BroncoJoe19]

That's a good idea... swapping in "known good" parts.

IF the shaking is significant enough, another rider in another car may be able to actually "see" which of the two tires is shaking as you drive down the road.

[jfjohn]

Originally Posted by robinpa

I took the car to the same guys who rebuilt my Mercedes front end. They specialize in front end and suspensions. They couldn't find anything wrong with it. I took them down the highway and at 80 mph, the car and steering wheel was shaking. They put it back up on the lift and still nothing. So now I'm going to borrow my father's Taurus and swap rims and tires to see if maybe a rim or tire is out of round. He has the same rims and new tires. If that takes care of the problem, then it's just a matter of isolating the specific rim and tire. I hope....

I hope you live in a very rural area if you're doing 80 on the highway

[theoldwizard]

So what about the motor mount(s) ?

[bigdaddyii]

I have had a lot of 96 and up taurus and 89 and up thunderbird rotors that where almost new that shook BAD when you stepped on the brake this seemed to be a warped rotor apon closer inspection the rotors had gassed out causing very small pits in the rear face and when the brake pad would hit this spot the would grab a little more and you get a very bad shimmy I have seen this on almost 20 different replacement rotors over the past 2 years and I only deal with cars within my family .

[allclear]

2000 Taurus SES. Had a similar vibration and shimmy at highway speeds. Got worse as you went faster, especially on certain roads. Went through the tire thing, balancing, front end check, alignment, etc.. Noticed my new tires were starting to cup on the inside. Replaced the front struts. Problem solved. You may want to look into that if you haven't already.

[robinpa]

Update... Ok I swapped rims and tires with my dad's Taurus. His car does not shimmy and shake with my set of wheels on. My car on the other hand, still shakes horribly at speeds over 70 mph and it 's bad at 80 mph with his set on. So I have ruled out the wheels. I also removed my rotors which were repalced by myself around 700 miles ago. I had these checked for warpage and there is none. The calipers are pulling away as they are supposed to. So I ruled out the brakes. I have no play in the outer or inner tie rods, so they are out. I did replace the right side motormount because when shifting in and out of gear and my foot on the brake, the motor jumped forward way too much. I still have the shimmy and shake over 70 mph. The post from allclear has me wondering if he might be right. When the car is on the lift, the struts do look like they are brand new and original. But yesterday I pulled into my parking space at work and something interesting happened. We have those concrete parking stops in the parking lot. Everyday I pull my car all the way in till I hit that concrete parking stop because of heavy truck traffic in the lot. Last night I got into my car to go home and there was this horrible crunching sound under the car as I backed up. I got out and looked under the car and the splash shield under the bumper had ripped away from the underside of the bumper. I put it back in place and went home. I am at work now and parked in the same space, but before I shut the car off, I backed up and no crunching sound. I pulled the car forward and parked exactly as I normally do. I just went outside for break and put the car in reverse and the splash shield was pulled back again. I think the struts are probably leaking down after the car is parked. Does anybody think this is possible?