Wheel Vibration Felt Through the Steering Wheel

Thanks for your responses.

I have rotated all the rims and replaced the tires with Michelins.

The is no clicking noise while turning.

No accident issues.

Still need to check the ball joints, bushings and bearings.

Jim

The vibe fading out at higher speeds sounds typical of a rim that's out of round, not just unbalanced. The first mag wheels I ever bought were second hand off a wreck. They looked OK but in fact all four were about one mm out of true on one or both beads. My old car had hard suspension and the steering joints were worn, so the shimmy through the steering wheel at ordinary motorway speeds was horrid, but out on the open road (ignoring the police) and sometimes under brakes they smoothed out remarkably.

The tire shop can reduce the "residual unbalance" of a free-spinning rim/tire almost to zero by adding those little lead weights, regardless of whether the rim is true or bent. But the variable radius of a bent rim/tire combo is a "mechanical forcing function" that only acts when there's weight on the axle. The phase angles between an unbalanced shake and an out-of-round shake will tend to vary with the car's speed as they interact with the road and the suspension, with the resultant two types of shakes mostly adding together but at certain critical speeds cancelling each other out.

Jim,

You need a competent repair shop.

And the brains to not drive a car that is defective.

OK, at least go SLOW.

How is it at 90??????????

get the wheels balanced,

get the wheel alignment checked at the same time.

There is one thing that might cause this. An area of delamination in the tread that allows the tread to bulge up and as it rotates it give a repetitive bump to the tire. A certain speeds this gets amplified due to resonance.

jack up each wheel and rotate the tire and feel for an area bulge. It will only bulge a little. Next the tire can explosively delaminate at speed = bad news.

All steering points of manipulation should have been examined at time of alignment.

Broken belts in tires possible but I'd suspect the tire balancing was not adequate.

Go back to the shop and have the car raised and remove the wheels and tires then run up the RPMs slowly and try to find that vibration; if no joy put tires back on and try again and if again no joy suspect broken belts.

Have you checked the brake rotors for warpage or looseness? Worn struts can cause a shimmy.

The fact that it changes with speed means that it is related to the wheel being off centered either due to balancing or the bearing is gone. The later should make a lot of noise though, so if you do not experience that it is not the bearing. Another possibility would be the struts and shocks. When did you have them replaced last? A good mechanic should be able to tell right off. The dealer for sure. Good luck.

I had a CV joint on my Toyota starting to go bad and it felt the same as you describe.

Some of the Toyota's requite an entire shaft because the CV joint is not repairable.

Go to a good mechanic.

To check the tires for out of round, do this:

Jack up the car till a wheel clears the ground.Put a socket, of any size, under the wheel, between the tire and the ground.Adjust the jack till it just barely clears the socket.Now rotate the tire by hand.If it hits the socket as it rotates, it is out of round. Check all 4 tires this way.

Another possiblilty is a bent drive axle.This will usually have a worse vibration when accellerating than when decellerating.

Good luck.

An out of balance condition from the tires or wheels will not be evident until 55 mph. A driveshaft or u-joint/cv joint that is out of balance or otherwise defective will usually start vibration at around 45 mph.

Hi, You need a simple tire and wheel balansement of the 4 wheel.

Does your car have a steering damper (looks like a little shock)? I had a similar problem with my car and nobody could solve it. Had countless parts replaced for no reason until I ran into my current mechanic, he told me over the phone to replace the damper and then if I needed his help I could bring it in. Took me 15 minutes to replace and solved my problem.

Thanks for the continued suggestions.

Everyone on this forum is great!

Thank you for your time and thoughts.

I will try to look at each suggestion cause this weekend.

Please continue to provide any additional suggestions.

Jim

It requires a little bit of effort ,but why don't you switch tires front to rear and rear to fromt and if the vibration moves then you can pin it down. If it is a wheel rim or tire you will definitely see and feel the difference.

h

Already rotated rims.

New tires.

Dynamically balanced.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Jim

sounds like a cv joint that needs replaced

please check the balancing of the rims.the balancing should be done every 3000kms

regards,

k.b.ghoshal

I have already had the tires balanced.

Thank you.

Poor camber can cause steering wheel vibrations that fit the speeds indicated.

If you had the wheels balanced (all 4 of them) the only thing left you haven't done is get that right side half shaft checked out as previously suggested. Driveline vibration can travel through the vehicle and especially if you can feel it coming from the right side and in the steering wheel There are some vehicles out there with questionable ball joints that don't give any symptoms and are found only by checking them.

h

Before spending more money, try this trick. Because you are confident it is from RF, just take that wheel off and push the brake pads away from the rotor. Now spin the rotor and watch the distance between rotor and inside pad, then outside pad. That should show rotor wobble, or warpage. One other thing you could do is to put the wheel back on in this condition, and use nothing but the parking brake to hold back the car. Then take it up to the vibration speed and see if there is a difference. then hit the brakes with a few short strokes to reset the pads. Did the vibration come back? BE VERY CAUTIOUS WITH THIS LAST TEST. The brake pedal will be very low the first time you hit it. Good luck.

Thanks.

Jim

Try having the wheels balanced while on the vehicle.

This is a specialist service but it accounts for the brakes and all the other variables.

Recommended by a mechanic friend of mine.....but he did say that some vehicles can suffer from this wobble even if set up perfectly but it is only noticeable at a very narrow speed range and then only noticed when going in a dead straight line.

Hello,

I believe you have described the same issue I have encountered with my 2009 Sienna. When accelerating up a slight incline at the speeds you noted, I can feel a vibration. Took mine to the dealer today and looked at it while it was on the rack. Right side CV joint was slinging grease for a while now ( 18K miles total on vehicle). Boot was okay but, apparently leaking at some internal seal area. I believe this will resolve the vibration issue and will find out Monday when it is replaced.