Re: Bad vibes

["Arun Rao" <rao@frisbee>]

On May 21,  3:13pm, Chris Newbold wrote:
> Subject: Bad vibes

> Given a cold car and a cool, rainy day (wet roads and
> damp car) the steering wheel will shake, as if the front
> wheels were badly out of balance, when the car is
> driven at about 63 MPH. The shaking will last anywhere
> from 10 sec. to several minutes, and then subside, not
> to return until the car is cold again. If I speed up
> or slow down, the shaking increases (or decreases) in
> frequency slightly, but vanishes below 60 or above 65.

	My bet would be that it has something to do with
	your CV joints.  Last year, I had a rock (or something:
	I never found out) caught in the CV joint which
	got in their via a ripped boot. The symptoms were
	identical to what you're describing except that they
	occurred at lower speeds, too. By the time I got the
	car into a garage, the symptom was *gone* without a
	trace. I made sure the joint was OK and replaced the
	boot -- no problem in 18 months or so.

	A fellow netter ( I forget who it was) also described
	a similar problem that he had at the time: water would
	freeze inside the boot and cause all sorts of problems --
	and disappear completely when it got warm.  I doubt if
	it's that cold this time of the year (don't know where you
	live, though), but it's another data point.

	Hope that helps!

	-Arun

--
Arun Rao
Scientist
Pixar Animation Studios
1001 W. Cutting Blvd.
Pt. Richmond, CA 94804
(510)215-3526