Severe wobbling at highway speeds!

[Bigbadbowtie08]

At highway speeds the Trailblazer jerks to the left and right, enough that it takes me into other lanes. At first I thought it was the wind doing this but there wasn't any wind.
Rear driver side shock has been making thumping sounds when I go over a bump. I have good year silent armor A/T's in the front that pretty worn down (to be replaced soon) Have Suspensionmaxx 2.5" in front I am running 255/70/16 TreadWright Puma's in the rear. My truck still has thee stock front shocks I have about 98,000 on her right now. In the Rear I am running Z71 Coil springs, along with the Z71 shocks. It would happen on straight areas of the highway a long with areas that there were curved. It would happen at 50-70 mph. It felt like I was getting hit with 75 MPH winds and was getting pushed all over the highway. Anyways.. what are your thoughts or your ideas of what may be causing this, and what a possible solution might be?
Truck has not had the tires realigned recently.
Thanks again for any help!
- Brandon

 

[smitty5150]

At highway speeds the Trailblazer jerks to the left and right, enough that it takes me into other lanes. At first I thought it was the wind doing this but there wasn't any wind.
Rear driver side shock has been making thumping sounds when I go over a bump. I have good year silent armor A/T's in the front that pretty worn down (to be replaced soon) Have Suspensionmaxx 2.5" in front I am running 255/70/16 TreadWright Puma's in the rear. My truck still has thee stock front shocks I have about 98,000 on her right now. In the Rear I am running Z71 Coil springs, along with the Z71 shocks. It would happen on straight areas of the highway a long with areas that there were curved. It would happen at 50-70 mph. It felt like I was getting hit with 75 MPH winds and was getting pushed all over the highway. Anyways.. what are your thoughts or your ideas of what may be causing this, and what a possible solution might be?
Truck has not had the tires realigned recently.
Thanks again for any help!
- Brandon

That's what my money is on.

 

[GregT]

Tie rod ends? Fix very soon the result could be deadly.

 

[Bigbadbowtie08]

Tie rod ends? Fix very soon the result could be deadly.

Oh, no doubt! Last night driving back from Alabama I drove home with my rear emergency LEDs on, tried to keep it below 55 as much as possible. I was pretty close to stopping and getting a hotel for the night, but I was determined to make it home.

What is the process on figuring out if it is the tie rod ends?

 

[gmcman]

Yeah....check the front end components quick like.

Have someone turn the wheel back and forth and watch the tie rod ends.

Grab the tire at the top and push/pull and see if you feel anything loose, this would isolate a bearing or ball joint.

I wouldn't drive it again until you figure out what is wrong. If all is tight then have your alignment checked. You can perform a somewhat simple check of the toe by with the wheels straight, measure the rearmost of the wheel at the lip that you can get a straight line to the other wheel, then measure the frontmost of the wheel you can also get a straght line on. 180 deg would be ideal but obviously the frame is in the way. You are looking for excessive distance at the front, an excessive toe-out condition is very unstable. Not sure if this method is possible but it's worth a try.

 

[gmcman]

Bigbadbowtie......how come you have a 2012 Trailblazer with 98K miles.

Is this the beta test?

 

[Bigbadbowtie08]

Bigbadbowtie......how come you have a 2012 Trailblazer with 98K miles.

Is this the beta test?

Haha does it say 2012? It's a 2005. lol

 

[GregT]

Oh, no doubt! Last night driving back from Alabama I drove home with my rear emergency LEDs on, tried to keep it below 55 as much as possible. I was pretty close to stopping and getting a hotel for the night, but I was determined to make it home.

What is the process on figuring out if it is the tie rod ends?

Do you work on your car your self? If your steering wheel is off center and feels like a lot of play in the front when you turn left or right meaning when you turn the wheel a bit and you don't get response most likely its your tie rod ends. You should get response with the slightest movement in your steering wheel It's hard to tell when it gets bad slowly over time and you don't really notice. If you feel comfortable doing this take the tie rod ends off see if the bolt in the tie rod end is very lose. Fix ASAP this very serious don't drive it in that condtion if you have to keep your speed way down. If it fails your wheel will go any direction it feels like you will have no control over it.

 

[navigator]

I would think it is either the tie rods or the worn tires.
If the tires on the rear are better maybe rotate them to the front to see if it makes it better or worse.
My bearings had no play in them at all and were so loud they sounded like mud tires.

 

[djthumper]

At highway speeds the Trailblazer jerks to the left and right, enough that it takes me into other lanes. At first I thought it was the wind doing this but there wasn't any wind.
Rear driver side shock has been making thumping sounds when I go over a bump. I have good year silent armor A/T's in the front that pretty worn down (to be replaced soon) Have Suspensionmaxx 2.5" in front I am running 255/70/16 TreadWright Puma's in the rear. My truck still has thee stock front shocks I have about 98,000 on her right now. In the Rear I am running Z71 Coil springs, along with the Z71 shocks. It would happen on straight areas of the highway a long with areas that there were curved. It would happen at 50-70 mph. It felt like I was getting hit with 75 MPH winds and was getting pushed all over the highway. Anyways.. what are your thoughts or your ideas of what may be causing this, and what a possible solution might be?
Truck has not had the tires realigned recently.
Thanks again for any help!
- Brandon

I am with Smitty on the tires. Get them replaced and an alignment. If there are any worn parts they will tell you that they can't do the alignment and why. For the shock I would look at the top shock mount first. It could also be the strut nut on top as well.

 

[Jkust]

Had something similar a few years ago with the van. Turned out I didn't tighten the lugs as tight as I thought by hand after r&ring a wheel and the symptoms started slow enough that it was almost too late before I realized I snapped all but two studs off. Stupidest thing I think I ever did.

 

[Bigbadbowtie08]

Ran the truck over to the shop today and had my friend take a look at it. Tires seem fine, however he did notice that the driver side trailing arm is bent.. nothing horribly but it is bent. He believes that this, possibly combined with the rear shocks that need to be replaced are causing this problem. Before I head out to a salvage yard I wanted to double check before dishing out money. Also, should I purchase the rear shocks for a 07 Tahoe? My friend thinks that with those two problems, combined with the truck could use an alignment would likely cause this problem that I have. I am also reading up on the front coil spring replacement, as well as the shocks.

Any recommendations as far as what shocks to get for the rear?

 

[djthumper]

Ran the truck over to the shop today and had my friend take a look at it. Tires seem fine, however he did notice that the driver side trailing arm is bent.. nothing horribly but it is bent. He believes that this, possibly combined with the rear shocks that need to be replaced are causing this problem. Before I head out to a salvage yard I wanted to double check before dishing out money. Also, should I purchase the rear shocks for a 07 Tahoe? My friend thinks that with those two problems, combined with the truck could use an alignment would likely cause this problem that I have. I am also reading up on the front coil spring replacement, as well as the shocks.

Any recommendations as far as what shocks to get for the rear?

I run Skyjacker N8030 but you could get the H7030 or other white body

 

[Regulator]

Ran the truck over to the shop today and had my friend take a look at it. Tires seem fine, however he did notice that the driver side trailing arm is bent.. nothing horribly but it is bent. He believes that this, possibly combined with the rear shocks that need to be replaced are causing this problem. Before I head out to a salvage yard I wanted to double check before dishing out money. Also, should I purchase the rear shocks for a 07 Tahoe? My friend thinks that with those two problems, combined with the truck could use an alignment would likely cause this problem that I have. I am also reading up on the front coil spring replacement, as well as the shocks.

Any recommendations as far as what shocks to get for the rear?

Do not mess with the Z71 shocks, they are worthless. Do some research and buy a pair of new white body shocks. I am running the BDS 5500's that I picked up for under $80 for the pair. Good luck

 

[fadyasha]

I am with Smitty on the tires. Get them replaced and an alignment. If there are any worn parts they will tell you that they can't do the alignment and why. For the shock I would look at the top shock mount first. It could also be the strut nut on top as well.

I'm betting on that too! My friend had a similar issue with his car few months back. I was surprised he could even drive that thing. He gotta good deal on used tires and that did the trick.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

I think you need to reconsider the rear being the issue. I bent the hell out of my arms and it really had no ill effects. If you are lifted and do not have an adjustable panhard bar, your rear is off center all the time anyway. It sounds like you need to check the hubs, ball joints and tie rods up front. Simply jacking it up and moving the wheel will show you where the play is. My hub went south and when I jacked the truck up the wheel would move about an inch.

 

[Bigbadbowtie08]

Bushings have deteriorated and falling off, this gives up the space that the bushings took up before and then allows that much more play.
Got the front of the truck on the floor jack and moved the passenger side tire and found play in it.
Here are the pics, I'm having trouble right now resizing for some reason
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c100/chevrolet18891/7936ecc9.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c100/chevrolet18891/2ece872f.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c100/chevrolet18891/b0021381.jpg

I'm currently looking at Energy Suspension bushings to replace the old ones. Anyone have past experience with their products?

Crazy to think that small of a gap would move my truck from highway lane to highway lane. Scary! Ball joints seem to be hanging in there though. Tie Rods look good. Just shy of 98k miles on Scuba Steve!