A few of us have had a problem we could never find

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/417...rom-73-88-mph/

 

Awesome thread, thank you. Having my stockers inspected tomorrow at a Roadforce equipped shop, looks like there is a 50% chance that is it. But also very interested in it possibly being an aero + road surface issue affecting our sensitive cars. Sounds like quite a few individuals were able to solve or at least affect the issue via hardtop or top / windows down.


If tires don't solve it, I will be able to try a diff stretch of highway this weekend and weather permitting I will put the top down. See what happens. Will report.

 

Glad to see others with some similar problems, I'm going to get it aligned tomorrow, so we'll see if that affects it. I'll post back, and then if that doesn't, it will be time for tire rebalance. If THAT doesn't fix it, I plan to look at hubs/bearings, and if that doesn't... driveshaft.

Keep the thread alive and post any findings if you make progress! We're all in this together

Also, excellent find. That describes my situation perfectly, though I've never gone up that fast with the car yet, as I've been scared to shake stuff loose. I'll be following both threads for any answers.

 

I'm going to ask the tire place tomorrow to give my axle nuts a once-over as well as long as they have the wheels off. That sounds like a likely culprit in many situations.

I think the fact that my car is so mechanically young and absolutely bone stock and an AP2, it will provide a decent base line for other people's issues. AKA if a basically new car can have this issue, then its certainly not just mods/age/wear and tear. If its not my tires, then it is something inherently built into the car from the factory.

 

Tire shop found a bubble on my left rear inside shoulder. Getting it replaced to see if that was the only cause.

Edit: took it on the highway. Problem is solved for me. I will count myself lucky that it wasn't one of the more severe causes.

 

I guess I'll add a little history for my car..

It's an 03 with 88k miles. Pertinent mods are: fairly new wheels and tires (255 RS3s squared), exedy diff collars. The collars have been on the car for 10k miles with no problems. I'm 99.9% sure these are not causing my issues.

About 2 months ago I had a squeaky wheel bearing and before I got a chance to replace it, the wheel bearing blew out on the highway. Earlier that day I drove about 20 miles with a slight vibration and then all of a sudden the vibration became massive and I knew the bearing blew. I pulled over and had the car towed home. I called up a friend and he brought over a hub grappler and we replaced the faulty hub/bearing. In hindsight I should have gotten that bearing replaced IMMEDIATELY after it starting making noise.

Days later I'm driving on roads as smooth as a baby's ass and I'm noticing an on/off shudder. Real subtle, but definitely there. Noticed my rear shocks had a bit of oil on them, so I replaced the rear shocks/springs with a set off an '00 car. That seemed to take care of the subtle shudder, but something is still off. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but I absolutely cannot shake the feeling that something's not right. The car is just twitchier and the ride quality is bad and it's never smooth unless I'm on the nicest of roads. The car just feels different than before the bearing, in a bad way.

At present my rear sway bar is disconnected, my OEM suspension is mismatching ('00 in the rear, original '03 in the front) and I still haven't gotten around to doing the axle nut TSB. I'm going to fix all 3 of those obvious things and then I'll update.