Steering wheel & car vibrations
 

hey when going at around 140 km/hr or 87.5 miles/hr the car, especially the steering wheel vibrates quite a bit. Is this the road or is this normal?

There are many possibilities.

1. Tire balance incorrectly
2. Suspension problem like lower control arm (did your wheels hit anything hard ?)
3. Alignment problem

Hope it helps :)

Disco_p5

Re: Steering wheel & car vibrations
 

A month or so ago, I hit a curb pretty hard (stupid ice) and I bent one of my steel rims pretty good. After I hit it, my steering wheel shook bad at 30 km/h and got much worse at 50 km/h. I immediately took it in. Turned out to be a bent rim and way out of alignment.

I've been up to and past 140 km/h many times...my steering is rock solid. Does your steering start to shake only as soon as you hit that speed? Have you tried going that fast on different roads?

I'd do as the previous post says and get the alignment, rims, and road issue checked out...starting with the road because that's free to you.

I also did the same thing on my previous car- bent the rim so badly that the steering shook at all speeds!

But this car is a month old. The steering doesn't really shake, but I feel vibrations at speeds greater than 130km/hr. Like holding a lawnmower, but not as intense. It doesn't bother me that much since I take short trips but I imagine if I took a road trip it would make my hands sore.

2K km more till my first oil change. I'll wait till then to ask about it. In the meantime I'll try some different highways.

i had snow on my rims and going 90 it shook bad, when i brushed it off it was okay again, also you wheels have to be perfectly balanced or you will feel vibrations, i feel really really bad vibrations on the wheel in my rav4 because they haven't been aligned or balanced for a while so i guess i gotta take it in sometime

If your car is only a month old and you didn't hit anything ever since you bought it I suspect it to be tire balancing problem, sometimes those stupid weights they stamped on the wheels will fly off if speed is high. If any of those weights is off then you will feel the vibration. You can only feel it above 130-140 km/hr is probably because the one that flew off is only a small one. But I am only making an assumption here. You should better check the suspension as well.

Oh also check your lug nuts, sometimes those stupid things might be loosen, haha I don't think you wanna end up seeing your wheel fly off 50 meters from your car :eek:

Disco_P5

I'll have it aligned right away. After the dealer changed my struts they didn't re-align. A few weeks later, I found all my tires were bald in the inside and have to replace all four immediately and it cost me some good $.

It happens to me when I have my 17 rims on

After i change it back to stock rims

it's fine for me

UPDATE:

tested car on new / smooth highway (hwy 400 north of 401). I definately feel some vibrations/rumbling above 130km/h. The weirdest thing I feel is the steering wheel feels like it wants to turn a bit itself when aiming/driving straight, sort of like driving on subway tracks. This sounds like alignment?

I hope this is covered on the warranty.

Other than what's been mentioned here, possible causes for the vibration include a flatspotted tire (from locking the brakes), or an otherwise damaged/defective tire- check the sidewalls and tread for unusual bulges. Another less likely cause is a damaged hub or axle, but you have to hit something HARD to cause this- in my experience, such an incident will usually *destroy* the wheel first. Poor wheel alignment does not explain the vibration (this is a commonly held misconception) but may explain why the car pulls to one side.

BTW Protege5, the most likely cause of your 17's vibration is that they're not hubcentric. Mazdas tend to be very sensitive to non-hubcentric wheels. Did your tire dealer and sell you some hub rings?

Trouble with most of our highways in Canada is that they are crowned so that water runs off easier. Basically that means that they are slightly angled towards the edges and it will feel like the car is pulling to one side.

An easy, but not really scientific, way to check your alignment , is to find a big-ass empty parking lot and drive straight in there and see if it pulls to one side.

In regards to thes vibrations/rumblings, does it feel like the car would turn if you took your hands off the wheel? Sounds odd to me and I'd get it checked out.

Canadian highways suck major ass, compared to US interstates. Guess it has to do with the harsh winters and all that freakin salt we use up here.

What's worse than the salt is the frickin' gravel that gets poured over the highways. I have so many chips in my hood and window it's incredible. My windshield looks about 5 years old already

:mad:

UPDATE:

I brought my car to the dealer and they did detect a tire imbalance and they said they fixed it. I even saw the guy take the tires off and bring it somewhere else. Though I still vibrates a bit at above 120 Km/h. Maybe this is normal? Yet my old sunfire was quite smooth at 150-160 Km/hr.

I didn't bang hard into anything. What should I do?

I say take it back and tell them it's still not right. It's NOT normal (IMO).

Sometimes even a good dynamic balance can't fix all vibration problems. You could try a "road force balance". I've had this done to three different cars some with bent rims even. Afterwards it was like driving on glass. Here's a link to the manufacturer of the balancing machine. the idea is match imbalances in the tire and imbalances in the rim. It works!

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/features/how.cfm

Keep hitting the "next" button at the bottom of their pages it explains the whole process. I beleive their home page has a store locator to see if someone in your area has the machine. Good luck.

Jeff M.

UPdate:

I store my car in the garage, and for my morning commute I feel the vibrations (South on HWY 400 in Toronto).

But then when I come home, after the car has been sitting in the sun all day, it feels pretty smooth.

Is this weird or what? But overall it feels smoother after they balanced the tires.

Every vehicle starts shaking sooner or later, and my Protégé has been no exception. Here’s what I’ve learned from my vast experience with the automotive DT’s.

The stock tires aren't all that great. A slight internal delamination in the tire case can cause a wheel shimmy that balancing won't fix. I've found that to be fairly common, especially in OEM tires. The only real cure is new tires.

If it's an out of balance condition alone, it can start uneven wear and take the tire slightly out of round eventually. From there it only gets worse. Balancing won't fix that either, after it’s gone on long enough.

Mis-alignment can cause uneven wear and lead to cupping and scalloping. Even after the alignment is corrected, the cupped or scalloped tire wear will still exist, as will the shimmy, which continues to perpetuate itself if bad enough.

Weak and worn shocks or struts can fail to sufficiently dampen natural vibrations and allow harmonic oscillations to occur on perfectly balanced and true tires. This problem is normally noticed along with some increase in bouncing in the suspension.

No matter what the cause, the shake will always get worse and occur at lower and lower speeds until the cause is corrected and the offending tire(s) wear back to round.

The one thing I didn’t see mentioned already is tire rotation. The back tires on FWD cars wear much less and more evenly than the fronts. And since an out of balance, or worn tire will be a lot less offensive in the rear, rotation is the single best way to stop the shake. As I recall the stock tires are bi-directional, so rotation should bring the rear set to the same side on the front, and the fronts to the opposite sides in the rear. This ensures the best wear, but verify the tires are bi-directional before swapping sides like that.

If the problem is still there after rotation, or starts up again in less than 5k miles, it’s time to find and fix the problem and/or buy new tires.