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I have a slight bumping feeling coming from one or more of my wheels.

2K views 5 replies 2 participants last post by  dubina 
#1 ·
It reminds me of the feeling I used to get when I drove into deep snow and got snow hard-packed in one or more of my wheel spokes. I could clear the "bumping wheeling feeling" by cleaning the snow out of my wheels ... but in this case, I see no snow sticking to my spokes / rims. We do, however, have a foot or more of snow on the ground, so I do not rule out snow as a possible cause.

There's another problem, possibly related, that sounds like a suspension problem to me. Occasionally, when I back out of the driveway and the right side of the rear end is higher than the left side, I hear a "thump" as though there's something wrong with the right rear shock assembly where it fastens to the lower control arm. That is my intuitive guess at the source for now because I can't see a problem in that assembly when the car is moving and I also can't see the problem when the car is not moving and I'm in a better position to see.

In addition, two of my tires (front and rear right side) are very slightly under-inflated (by about 1 psi). I will inflate them to match the left side tires tomorrow, but I don't expect the ever-so slight bumping feeling to go away.

Does anybody have any idea what might be going on? I bought the car used with 78k miles from a woman who knew nothing about maintaining a car, replacing brake pads, etc. I replaced the front brake pads, but I have not replaced the rear pads and I have not looked at them for more than 6 months.

Many thanks for any ideas or advice.
 
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#2 ·
Yeah, you might want to check the sway bar end links and sway bar bushings first. And you need to do a thorough inspection of all of the front end suspension. Since you don't say what year your Caliber is, one can only guess. The front suspension on the Calibers is know to be of poor design and quality and is notorious for wearing out bushings. Lower control arms can be had from rockauto pretty cheaply. I'd just replace the whole thing if any parts of it are bad, ie, rear busing or ball joint. Also on the rear suspension, you need to check the watts link and make sure it's not broken (aka trak bar). If you're not familiar with jacking the car up and checking the ball joints and tie rod ends and other things, you should just take it to an alignment shop and ask them to take a look at it for you.
 
#3 ·
Flyinghigh,

Let me fill in some pertinent information that I didn't mention or know a couple of days ago. Please advise if that info points to something in particular.

First, the car is a 2007 Dodge Caliber R/T with 94k miles.

Secondly, the wobble becomes barely perceptible at or about 45 mph and it's not too bad at 55. We haven't driven above 55 because road traction is not that good.

Third, I shoved the right rear fender /chassis down hard to see what kind of restitution I had in the right rear shock assembly and it was pretty positive. I then made the same test on the left side and got the same result. I don't know what that proves, if anything, or what it might point to as a more likely cause of my occasional "thump" from the vicinity of the right rear wheel well.

I will dig into the service manual and bone up on bushings, lower control arms, etc. I vaguely remember replacing something in the front end suspension of a 2007 Caliber R/T that my wife had before she wrecked it, so that is a possible DIY project. I might take it to an alignment shop too as it was -17 degrees here yesterday and not exactly toasty in my garage.
 
#4 ·
The wobble being speed related, could be a defective tire. Maybe try rotating the tires front to back and see if that changes things. If so, then it's either the tire or the wheel. The bump sound has me puzzled. I wonder if maybe some snow got into the emergency brake and is frozen (due to your temps) and causing the bump as the shoes may release occasionally? IDK, just speculating.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I do not see uneven tire wear and the roads are too messed up with snow to notice hands-off drift to the right or left.

If front end misalignment causes wobble and/or drift, shop alignment might fix the problem, yes? I think I do not have the tools to detect misalignment so it sounds like I should take the car to a shop. On the other hand, if something mechanical is worn out and needs replacement, I understand the parts replacement should be done before alignment Come to that, if someone at an alignment shop recommends parts replacement, then alignment, how could I know or at least suspect that alignment alone would fix the problem?

Another point now I think of it: I put a new set of Michelin tires on the car 16,000 miles ago. They were balanced, but I do not remember if I got alignment with the tire deal. Probably I did. I will call tomorrow and see if the seller still has a record of what they did.
 
#6 ·
I took the car to the store where I bought the tires. When I bought the tires, I also bought periodic rotation and balancing for the life of the tires so I took car in for tire rotation and balancing. The guy who did the rotation and balancing also added three psi to each tire to bring them back up to placard pressure. The roads are still too uneven to check for signs of misalignment, but the wobble has either gone away or it is much less noticeable at 50 mph.

Case closed for now.
 
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