paula

I live in VT. Its cold but I have never had this problem b4. The last 2 times I have driven the car in the morning (both last week and now today) its fine until I get on the highway. When I get to 60 mph the steering wheel shakes big time and there is a big vibration. The thing is, it stops and never comes back.
It happened the first time last week when I drove to NY, it stopped after 50 mi.
I drove it all around NY and home and it never did it the whole trip.

Today I drove on the highway, again in the cold morning, and same thing only much worse vibration, really scary vibration actually.

Got to my destination going 60 so it wouldnt do it. drove around Burlington and a few hours later on the way home it was fine no matter what speed.

Any thoughts?
thx
Paula

Protege 5
2002
60k mi.
snow tires on it

Olestra

Have you checked your wheel alignment lately?

paula

no, i have not checked that lately

paula

found this and guess i found my answer:
Wheel Balance: Out-of-balance tires will cause a car to vibrate at certain speeds, usually between 50 and 70 mph. A tire is out of balance when one section of the tire is heavier than the others. One ounce of imbalance on a front tire is enough to cause a noticeable vibration in the steering wheel at about 60 mph. To balance a wheel, the technician will mount it on a balancing machine which spins the wheel to locate the heavier part. He will then compensate for the heavy part by attaching a lead weight on the opposite side. Many people are pleasantly surprised at how smooth their car drives after balancing all four wheels.

Most high quality tires will hold their balance fairly well and go out of balance very gradually. If you notice a vibration that wasn't there the day before, it is possible that one of the lead balancing weights fell off. If you feel the vibration mostly in the steering wheel, the problem is most likely in a front wheel. If the vibration is mostly in the seat, the problem is probably in the rear.

For those of you who are very sensitive about vibrations and your shop can't seem to get that last bit of vibration out, check to see if you have locking wheel lugs. Some locking lugs are as much as 1.5 ounces heavier than the other lug nuts which translates to about 1/2 ounce at the wheel rim. Try putting a 1/2 ounce weight opposite the locking lug and see if it helps.

dentinger

a) if your wheels are out of allignment, your car will just pull to one side when driving
b) your right about the wheel balancing. and things like, rocks stuck in your tires can offset the balance about .25 to .5 ounces....
c) also, i think having the proper PSI in your tires would help too.....

Da P-Funk!

Could also be snow/ice stuck to one of the wheels affecting balancing - but then melting/slinging off.

Olestra

The snow would go away eventually/not make a huge difference over a long period.

J-Protege

I get this all the time. Happens even more if your car slips on ice or 'drifts' sideways, and loads the rim with snow. Also, it gets cold enough here that the bottom of the tire becomes 'flat' to the pavement overnight, and it feels like square tires for the first 15 miles or so.

Temp drops at night can lower tire pressure and cause this annoyance. Usually only happens at -20 or colder though.

Da P-Funk!

What made me suspect this -

Vermont gets snow (usually... )

It goes away after a little time on the highway. It does not persist.

DaleK

How cold and snowy has it been? If it's a lot below freezing and you're not at the proper inflation of your tire, you may be feeling a flat spot thing, which will go away after you drive a while. Although flat spots usually are noticeable at low speeds. If it does this when warm, it's likely a wheel out of balance. Note that an out of balance wheel can 'go away and come back', even at the speeds it is most noticeabel - if the 2 front wheels are out of balance, depending on how they are rolling with respect to each other, the toal out of balance condition can change.

Check that you don't have any big rocks stuck in the tread, and your inflation. If both are OK and you have good tread, you may want to get the wheels balanced.

Good luck!
Dale.

Olestra

Paula - you said you have snow tires on? I hope they checked the balance before they put them on b/c if they did, unless you hit some big ruts, they should still be fine. Next time check that whoever mounted your tires balanced them before putting them on the car (and if they were put onto your stock rims then for sure they had to balance them).

Rusty

If there was a previous owner, it's possible that someone pumped a can of Fix-A-Flat into a tire. It can spread out as the tire warms, causing it to even out and stop vibrating. When you park, it will puddle up and throw it out of balance until it warms and spreads out again. You damn sure don't want to be riding on Fix-A-Flat in the snow and ice.

I see this thread is a few days old. Have you resolved the problem yet?

djs2571

It's the flat spot on your tire, like J-Protege said. It's more noticable in the winter for two reasons... #1 the pressure is a bit lower, so the flat spot is likely to be bigger... and #2 it's friggin cold so the tire isn't as flexible and will hold the spot longer. You can run a test easily, leave your car even for a few hours, jack up a free wheeling tire and spin it. I had my tires balanced a while back (84 RX7 with 205 50R15 dunlop SP sport A2's) and it was a hand balancer, it's was plain as day to see a flat spot even with him spinning the tire by hand.
Different tires do this worse than others, I don't recommend the SP sport though they changed them a bit and changed the name, though they have awesome traction for a cheap tire.