Hi all.

My Chevrolet Captiva 2.0D, 4x4, automatic, 2007 is acting up. From about 120km/h the steering wheel shakes with different intensity depending on "road condition". It shakes more violently when going down the hill, less when going up. It looks the same as in this video:


Any idea what could it be? Been to several shops but they have no idea. I have done the "usual vibration checks". Replaced the rims and tires, shocks, done the balancing, changed the steering oil.. no change. The vibration does not change if for example i downshift and it does not change with higher speeds. Below 120km/h all is fine.

Thanks!

 

the front tires are out of balance. if there is mud in the rims...wash them out with a pressure washer. if the rims are clean...have the tires road forced balanced. tires with radial tire variation can balance perfect on a dynamic wheel balancer but will fail a road force balance.

 

Thank you but i don't think it's the tires. It's doing the same thing with the old set (rims + tires) and with the new set (new rims + new tires; bought because i was told the tires/rims were the problem). No difference. Alltogether i tested 2 different rims on 3 different tires (all clean), no difference, shaking remains.

 

Also, the shakin changes depending on the situation driving up/down/left/right hill, acceleration, braking is ok (rotors are fine).

And sometimes, i can feel the vibration "moving" to be back of the vehicle (rear seats vibrate and the steering wheel vibrates less).

Weird...

 

front wheels transmit into the steering wheel. rear wheel transmit thru the body of the car. since its a 4x4 have the driveshaft checked
when did it start doing this? after any repair.
are the cv shafts ok
a vibration analyzer can measure the frequency of the vibration and correlated it to tires wheels axles or engine trans

 

I started noticing this after the hand brake malfunction (the hand brake assembly rusted so it was causing constant friction, causing extreme heat; you could not touch the rim - i only noticed when it got REALLY bad). Then they replaced the rotors, pads, cables... braking is fine, hand brake works fine... but now there is the shaking.

Also at the same time (few days prior) i had the transmission oil changed (flush). Could this also be a source?

 

its not the transmission oil change. the rear brake stuff would not transmit into the steering.

 

So the only thing that remains is the drive shaft? How can i test the support bearing?

Can i remove the drive shaft to test drive without it?

 

i can tell you no, as i learned this from tech. removing the cv shafts will cause bearing failure due to improper (none at all) torque on the hub bearing assemblies. the rear driveshaft is different as is the front driveshaft in awd or 4wd vehicles as they dont connect directly to hubs

 

I'll start by replacing the center support carrier bearing and possibly ujoints.

Are ujoints in the drive shaft "universal" or do i have to buy "captiva specific" ones?