04 Ion Bad Steering vibration at 60+ mph

[radtek]

I have been working on my Granddaughter's 04 Ion 3, 186K. So far new timing assembly and rebuilt cylinder head. Engine runs nice and smooth now. But discovered new problem today. At 60+ mph a fairly bad vibration starts and gets worse as it hits 65. I had the tires balanced at Les Swab as she got her tires there last year. They balanced them and only notice the need for brakes on the front and no obvious suspension issues. It tracks straight as a pin up to 60. Could this be the lower control arms, sway bar bushings or maybe even the motor mounts. I had the front mount off when changing head it looked fine but dont know if I may have buggered up something raising and lowering the motor while working on it. Anyone else have this vibration issue and figured it out?

[radtek]

UpDate: It seems Les Swab did not do a proper job on their balancing act! They told me tires are balanced and only thing they saw suspension and front end wise was it needed brakes. Yesterday I installed new brake pads and happen to notice there was no weights at all on left front wheel. This seem not right! What are the odds of having a perfectly balanced tire and wheel ...so anyway took the wheel back up to them had them re-balance and low and behold it now took 1.25 oz of lead to balance that wheel. It also eliminated the shake and shimmy at 60 mph.

[goaliemo]

It may not of needed any weight when the tire was new. I have ran into that myself before. On my personal vehicles and customer vehicles.
But once worn a little bit, its good to have them re balanced. Also a good idea to keep up with rotating for even wear across front and rear.

[radtek]

Originally Posted by goaliemo

It may not of needed any weight when the tire was new. I have ran into that myself before. On my personal vehicles and customer vehicles.
But once worn a little bit, its good to have them re balanced. Also a good idea to keep up with rotating for even wear across front and rear.

The issues was these tires had about 9 mos of wear and they were balanced the day before. I went for drive after the tires were back on the car and it shook worse then before. I came back the next day with the tire with no weights and it then took 1.25 once of weight and steering shake was gone. I think whoever balanced them just spaced it and forgot to add some weight? its all good now