Tires: Rear Wheel Wobble, wheel wobble, nissan xterra

Question
QUESTION: I have a 2002 Nissan Xterra and I've been noticing a side-to-side wobble in my rear driver's side tire.  I was informed that the tire may be damaged so I replaced it but I'm still getting the wobble.  It is more pronounced at slower speeds (10-25mph) and seems to dissipate at higher speeds.  Could my previously warped tire have damaged the axle or wheel set up?  Am I looking at some expensive repairs?
ANSWER: Josh,

First, since you replaced the tire and the wobble is still there, then the tire is obviously not the source of the problem, so, of course, the tire could not have caused the problem.   

It's hard to diagnose these things without looking at the parts involved, but either the rim is bent - very likely and not too expensive - OR the axle is bent - not so likely, but very expensive to fix.  Let's hope it is the rim.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Well now I'm a little more concerned.  I've not only replaced the tire with a new one (I replaced 2 of them) but I've also rotated my tires in an effort to find the problem.  Since the wobbling still exists even though I've rotated my tires, it sounds like the bent rim scenario might not be plausable.  The wobbling is less pronounced with the newer tires, but when I rotated an older tire from the front to the rear, the wobble got significantly worse even though there was no wobble while the older tire was on the front.  Since it sounds like I have a bent axle let me ask these 2 questions.  1)How does this sort of thing happen?  I haven't been in any accidents involving the rear of my vehicle and I really didn't notice the wobbling until I rotated the older tires to the back.  Now it seems no matter what tires I rotate back there, the wobble is sitll there.  I was run off the road a couple of years ago where I was forced to drive over the curb at about 25-30mph.  Could this have bent the axle?  I would think that an Xterra which is supposedly built for off-roading would be able to handle that without damaging the axle. 2)Can you give me a dollar range for "expensive"?  Are we talking $1500-$3000 or higher?  I really appreciate any advice you can give me.  Thanks  

Answer
Josh,

After I answered your first question, I had a chance to reflect and decided that there were more possibilities than just a bent rim or axle.  It could be a bearing, but it could also be something else.

Let me explain it this way - You say "wobble", which is a physically visible kind of thing.  Needless to say, you can't see the wobble when the vehicle is moving, because you are inside the car.

So I suspect when you say "wobble", you mean vibration.  And misalignment can cause a tire to wear irregularly, which will be percieved as a vibration.

So I think the first thing to do is get an alignment and see if they see anything bent or broken.

So to answer your questions:

1)  You've described a scenario where stuff could be damaged - bent, broken, etc.  But the alignment should reveal what the problem is and that should narrow the possibilities.

2) I'm sorry, but I'm a tire engineer and while I have a sense of repair costs, I really don't have a good feel for how much is "expensive".  For example, I did a head gasket job myself for $140.00, but I am told that is a $3,000.00 job.  Yes, it took a lot of my time and effort, but the lesson was that I just don't have an idea of what others charge for these types of things.

Hope this helps.