1990 Miata with 1.6 with shimmy in possibly the driveshaft.

Thanks for the input, last night I took off the front wheels and
shook the wheel, and I think the front bearings are either wore out or
low on bearing grease, I was wondering if you can just replace the
front bearings like you can do the back ones or do you have to replace
the entire hub? Have you found a place to order the bearings at a
decent price? Thanks Trent
Christopher Muto wrote:
> i would think it is more likely due to a wheel bearing. the question is
> which of the four. i ended up replacing all of mine at about 110,000 miles
> because of a little shimmy in the front at high speed. the ones removed
> just fell apart and did not require a press to remove them so it was good to
> have done them all.
>
> "Trent" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> > I have a '90 Miata with a 1.6, I have only had it for about a
> > month, I have started driving it on a regular basis to work and noticed
> > a shimmy feeling in the car, I took it and had the wheels balanced and
> > rotated over the weekend, but as I was coming in to work today, I
> > noticed the shimming is still there, to describe the shimming goes
> > something like this, at about 60-70 mph, the car vibrates for a time
> > then stops for a time, it's like the driveshaft is unbalanced, after
> > the wheels were balanced, the vibration in the car has stopped but the
> > shimming has continued... does anyone know what the shimming may be...
> > thanks for the help... Trent
> >

In article . com>,
"Trent" > wrote:

> Thanks for the input, last night I took off the front wheels and
> shook the wheel, and I think the front bearings are either wore out or
> low on bearing grease,

Have you gotten a decent wheel balance yet? Don't start replacing
expensive parts at random until you've eliminated the most-likely source
of the problem.

--
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

Lanny Chambers > wrote in
:

> In article . com>,
> "Trent" > wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the input, last night I took off the front wheels
>> and
>> shook the wheel, and I think the front bearings are either wore
>> out or low on bearing grease,
>
> Have you gotten a decent wheel balance yet? Don't start replacing
> expensive parts at random until you've eliminated the most-likely
> source of the problem.

Agreed but the OP should inspect and grease the wheel bearings, that's
apparently needed. It may or may not have anything to do with the
shimmy but it still needs to be done and I'd consider it to be urgent
if there's any evidence of dry or bad bearings.

the bad news is that the front wheel bearing is integrated with the hub and
so it is expensive ($150 per side vs $30 per side in the rear). the good
news is that it is easier to install than the rear wheel bearing.

but i have no sense at what point these things go bad, i replaced mine at
about 110k as one in the front was clearly bad. i did both sides on the
front because it just made sense, and then i went ahead and did the rear
since i was replacing the rear rotors and had a history of problems with the
rear brakes rubbing... turned out they were about to fail too. yet i
still have that rear rubbing noise in the rear despite new
calipers/rotors/pads... and will be installing new slider pins next (were
hard to find but i finally found them)... pretty soon the only thing
original will be the vin (so heed lanny's warning or you will end up like
me).

"XS11E" > wrote in message
...
> Lanny Chambers > wrote in
> :
>
>> In article . com>,
>> "Trent" > wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for the input, last night I took off the front wheels
>>> and
>>> shook the wheel, and I think the front bearings are either wore
>>> out or low on bearing grease,
>>
>> Have you gotten a decent wheel balance yet? Don't start replacing
>> expensive parts at random until you've eliminated the most-likely
>> source of the problem.
>
> Agreed but the OP should inspect and grease the wheel bearings, that's
> apparently needed. It may or may not have anything to do with the
> shimmy but it still needs to be done and I'd consider it to be urgent
> if there's any evidence of dry or bad bearings.
>
>

"pws" > wrote in message
...
> Chris D'Agnolo wrote:
>> THANK YOU LANNY! Damn, one (probably incorrect) response and it was off
>> to the OFF TOPIC FRENZY! What were you people thinking! Kids!
>>
>> The guy even said thanks for the great help! ........inseams my arse!
>>
>> aaahhhh,
>> Chris
>> 99BBB
>
> If only that were true. I still act like a kid, but the body gets harder
> to fool every day.
>
> To get back on topic about miatas with shimmy problems, did you hear that
> Britney Spears gave birth to her second child? ;-)
>
> Pat

The first child drove her to the hospital.

"Trent" > wrote in
ups.com:

> Thanks for the input, last night I took off the front wheels and
> shook the wheel, and I think the front bearings are either wore out or
> low on bearing grease, I was wondering if you can just replace the
> front bearings like you can do the back ones or do you have to replace
> the entire hub? Have you found a place to order the bearings at a
> decent price? Thanks Trent

Like Lanny said, you'll want to make sure the less expensive stuff is in
order first, but if it does come to replacing the bearings, you do have to
do the whole hub. I got mine from Rosenthal Mazda
(www.finishlineperformance.com) a couple months ago for $140 (add something
else small to get the free shipping for purchases over $150). The
replacement job was pretty easy. If you can do a brake job, you can do a
hub. My 94 had 170k mi when it decided it was time for that job.

If your bearings/hub need to be replaced, I would expect more than just a
shimmy. There was a very pronounced whirring sound when mine went.

-Scott

this may now be the longest off topic rant I've witnessed!

I have a 34" inseam.....

Chris,
99BBB

"Iva" .> wrote in message
...
> Pat wrote:
>> Iva wrote:
>>
>> > Yes, that's true. But it does leaves nasty stains on the carpet and
> seats.
>> > Although I imagine with the correct upholstery and carpet color, they
>> > wouldn't be as noticeable. <g>
>> >
>> The '93 LE might be a good choice.
>>
>> NOW we are back on topic. Thanks Iva. :-)
>
> Don't know about the LE - isn't it difficult to get blood stains out of
> leather? And yes, the blood will match while it's fresh but I'm concerned
> that it will be too dark after drying to continue to match.
>
> (Topic? What topic?) <g>
>
> Iva & Belle.)
> '90B Classic Red.)
> #3 winkin' Miata
>
>

Chris D'Agnolo wrote:
> this may now be the longest off topic rant I've witnessed!
>
> I have a 34" inseam.....
>
> Chris,
> 99BBB

One NG I frequent has such long off-topic threads that they've started
marking the ON TOPIC ones as OT.

But, seriously, how *do* you get blood stains out of the leather seats? I
don't remember seeing any Meguair's product for that problem. <G>

Iva & Belle.)
'90B Classic Red.)
#3 winkin' Miata

Chris D'Agnolo wrote:
> this may now be the longest off topic rant I've witnessed!
>
> I have a 34" inseam.....
>
> Chris,
> 99BBB

Aren't you over 6 feet tall?
Bunch of short-legged, long-bodied mutants...... ;-)

Pat (not even going to put NMC in the subject line, what's the point?)

Iva wrote:

> One NG I frequent has such long off-topic threads that they've started
> marking the ON TOPIC ones as OT.
>
> But, seriously, how *do* you get blood stains out of the leather seats? I
> don't remember seeing any Meguair's product for that problem. <G>
>
> Iva & Belle.)
> '90B Classic Red.)
> #3 winkin' Miata


You can't get it out. With modern DNA testing, you have to cut the car
up and completely dispose of it or they will catch you.

At least that is what I heard......

Winston Wolfe