Vibration in cars.

[raceengineer]

I have had problem with vibration in my car quite many time, and its for different reasons. It has been the tire, worn joints in the suspension etc. I would like to install a sensor on the wheel or the suspension arm, on all wheels, to be able to locate the source of the vibration quickly.

Does anyone have suggestion for what type of sensor to use, and what I need to read the output from the sensor. I have imagined a piezo-electric accelerometer and a digital multimeter for readout.

 

[IRstuff]

One accelerometer is probably not going to tell you very much, since presumably response as a function of speed is a critcal parameter as well as location on the car.

Moreover, you probably need a data acquisition system of some sort, since most handheld meters measure RMS and you should get nothing on DC.

After all of that, you'll need some sort of data analysis so that you can see how the different parts of the car are behaving relative to each other as well as removing the forcing function of the road itself.

Seems simpler to get a mechanic to look at it though...

TTFN

 

[raceengineer]

I only want to know the amplitude of vibration in the 4 different wheels, to establish where the problem most likely is.

 

[otaio]

raceengineer

IRstuff hints at the challenges that lie ahead.

How often do you find that a solution begins to suggest itself once you have read round a subject.

I offer the following starting point to you. A useful primer on vibration measurement will be found at:

http://www.bksv.com/bksv/?bk_view_SHTML&ID=1989

Perhaps others can build on this reference and help raceengineer to progress to the next level of his quest to build the data logging and analysis system that he seeks.

B