ok heres the deal...
i found a very large open area in the middle of nowhere to drift around in..
it was also large enough for me to get up to around 110mph

right when i got there i heard this god awful sound coming from the front left wheel...got out and looked and sure enough some peebles had gotten between the caliper and rotor on that wheel. With a little help from a pocket knife and a little more driving, all the pebbles came out. besides the new grooves on the inside of the rotor, everything seemed fine...
i proceeded to do some high speed runs, and then went back to drifting some.
everything seemed fine.
again i did some high speed runs, but this time, the car felt like something was off... i couldnt put my finger on it, but something was not right.
On my way home is when i got the rude awakening....
i passed a fleet of RV's, and at around 100mph, the steering wheel and front end were shaking like crazy, i couldnt wait to slow down!!! [not something you usually here from an evo driver]. something is defintly wrong.
I figured it was an alignment issue so i went to just tires co. today. When i described my problem they said it couldnt be the alignment, and was either an improperly balanced tire, or warped rotor. They balanced my tires, those where fine....so it seemed the culprit was warped rotors. They wanted to resurface them, but i told them i didnt have time (i heard it was a waste of money anyways).
here's the thing,...i do not feel ANY vibration at all when i apply the brakes! only when driving fast. It starts around 80, and gets worse from there. So i doubt its warped rotors, but i could be wrong.

any ideas? I'm stumped on what it could be.

thanks for reading that

cheese log

It's not your rotors. It could be faulty tires or it could be the balancing machine they used was good for soccer mom speeds but not for performance driving, or the tire tech simply didn't feel like doing it perfectly. To most people "good enough" is fine...I would take a good look at your tires & make sure there is no bubbling, deformaties, make sure the tread isn't starting to separate, wear oddly, etc. Since you were drifting, you may have flat spots on your tires. If everything checks out, take it somewhere else and have the tires balanced again, specifying that they should balance it with special attention because you have a sports car that goes fast. If that doesn't work, put the rear tires on the front & see if the vibration doesn't move backward. That should give you a starting point at least. In my experience with warped rotors, they don't shake your steering wheel that violently if you aren't using them even at high speed. I warped plenty of rotors on my BMW on the autobahn when lame *** trucks decide they are going to jump into the passing lane and do 100km/h because the truck in front of them is doing 99.9999km/h and I'm doing 220km/h hauling my *** down to not rear-end it.

Also, in a few cases, tires simply won't balance for speed, because they were made with a defect that makes it unevenly expand at speed, and there is nothing you can do about that except identify the faulty tire & get a new one. It normally doesn't happen with quality tires like the Advans but stranger things have happened. Good luck & be careful on these American roads.

warped rotor? yeah, right.

since their troubleshooting skill and knowledge is so awful, let's totally disregard everything they did and said. in fact I'd ask for a refund.

but anyway...

move the offending tire to the rear. see if the vibration goes to the rear too. if so, that wheel/tire is out of balance or the tire is out of round.

say the vibration is still up front. turn off your stereo and approach 80mph slowly. then slow to 20mph and put your windows down. hear any noise? if so, could be a wheel bearing.

if not, it's alignment. you can DIY alignment with simple tools, but it's best if you just pay a competent shop (i.e. not the same shop as before!) to set your alignment for you.

have fun,
~Colin

tt

update-
i went back to america tire co this morning...the front tires were balanced, but the rears were not!... im wondering if its possible the rears were shaking the car...

guess i wont find out until i go out and drive fast tongiht...

thanks for the input
cheese log

You might want to take a look at our Vibration Diagnosis Flow Chart It might help you narrow down, or even solve what the problem is.

steering wheel shaking at high speed is usually because the wheel are unbalance or your rims are bent. Get them high speed balance.

all the tires were balanced. I havent had time yet to go on some high speed runs so im not sure if the problem has been solved...
if the problem still exists, im thinking its a wheel bearing...thanks for that pdf neal cheese log

you can hear wheel bearings roar when they go. it's probably alignment if you're not hearing that.
I repeat-- switch shops!

I want to hear the result of this.

I hear drifting in an open area and high speeds and I am thinking it's something more then a tire. Like maybe the tc is going to take a ****.

warped rotors, had the same problem before