Loud Thumping

[AlbinoMonkeyRat]

I just switched to snow tires on 15" steelies about 2 weeks ago, but last night, I had to go on the thruway. Everything's fine. I round a corner at about 50mph and when I came out of the turn, the front passenger-side wheel starts thumping (sounds like I have a flat)

But it didn't affect the handling at all. It didn't get lower, and it doesn't pull. It does vibrate like hell though. It didn't look at all different once I was able to park it.

Other observations since this:
-thumping/vibrations only occur faster than 30mph
-light/mild braking make the sound loouder, but slamming on the brakes is much smoother than normal and hushes the thumping 100%
-thump/vibration are lessened to almost nothing with acceleration, but cruising and light braking make it louder.

any thoughts?

[alero168]

did you check the inflation?

my friend had the same thing when he took his car in for some work, after he got it back he heard thumping, when he drove by me i could see the wheel wobbling turns out the lug nuts werent turned tight enough, try tightening the lug nuts

[AlbinoMonkeyRat]

it's not the inflation. I pumped them up to 35psi today. yes the thumping is less, but before the incident, there was no thumping at all. When I get a clear parking spot (no ice or snow) I'll jack it up and check the nuts...though I'm sure they're tight.

[AlbinoMonkeyRat]

this is wierd: the sounds cam from the passenger side. I am sure of that. I finally got a chance to look closely at the wheels...more specifically, the lug nuts. The DRIVER side front wheel was loose (all 5 lugs!!!), when I know for sure when I put the wheels on 2 weeks ago, I almost fell on my ass tightening them. So I jacked it up, pushed the wheel flush with th hub and tightened them.
test drive came back silent. problem solved.

So I guess this doesn't help Daytona at all though. Sorry dude.

[alero168]

ha i was right

[Daytona]

That's good news for you. I'm bringing my car in next Wednesday to be checked out. Gas mileage is now down almost 5 mpg and she shakes alot more than usual at 70+ mph. Damn!

[alerochick242]

My husband just fixed a car (a Ford Contour) that had a similar problem. When he took it apart, he found that one of the sliders that one of the caliper bolts go through has sheared in half. It was making the same bumping sound, but was better when the brakes were applied. He replaced the slider and no more bumping!