OK....big fwd car, most of you know what I drive
I have a significant shake from the front passenger wheel.
Can be felt when accelerating, maintaining speed, and more so when braking.
I'd say brake rotor, buy the shake is almost always there.
where should I start?
Wheel balancing.
I'd start having the wheel balanced. If it's bent, it will show up then, and if it's a very minor bend, they can usually take the shake out with weights.
Jack up the car & check your tie rods, ball joints & bushings, oh and strut mounts if applicable. Rotate your tires, preferably front to rear & cross them when you put them on the back.
Check your tires. I had a bad vibration problem with the Lovely Wife's Odyssey...new tires = no vibration.
I've had similar issues with my pickup, my dad's focus, and my motorcycle which were all cured with new balanced tires. If you run a tire into a curb they go out of balance and start shimmying.
On the mercedes I had a bad alignment and one of the tie rods was toast and had a similar bad vibration.
would a unbalanced wheel shake harder when braking?
it has hit a fair share of unavoidable potholes the couple months
Dunno. But it's the cheapest easiest thing to get done, and the most likely culprit. So, you really don't have anything to loose by getting that done as a tool for diagnosis.
get under there with a big pry bar and see what's loose. I'd bet you've got a bad ball joint somewhere.
If not, move that wheel and see if the vibration follows it.
Move the front wheels to the back, and that will make it apparent if the wheel is out of balance. I'm willing to bet you have bad ball joint, or even a wheel bearing going bad.
hmmmm... I think I am going to go with bushings. I had that same problem with my BMW when the "lollipops" went bad. When underbraking, the whole wheel assembly would shift backwards some, throwing off the alignment and geometry and causing some serious shaking issues. (violent ones)
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