Prius (Gen 3) :: 2012 Toyota - Front Tires And Steering Wheel Vibrate At 60+ Mph Speeds?
Mar 10, 2013
I bought a 2012 Toyota Prius 2 on Jan 28, 2013 (just a little over a month ago). The front tires and steering wheel vibrated at highway speeds (here in NY 65-70mph) and so I took it in, they said it needed wheel balancing and rotation. Fine.
Then I was told to wait it out because of the "snow" and "ice" could be the culprit, fine. Then a week or so later, same problem still, even when it got warmer. Took it back in. This time the wheels were "off balance" again. Hmmm, that's funny. So they did a dynamic or forced balance? I don't know exactly, but it was a step up from "normal" balancing (according to them).
The past couple weeks it hasn't been vibrating nearly as much, but it is coming back again intermittently. Today I was driving home from Watertown, NY to Syracuse. It's about an hour or so drive, and it is a state highway, so it isn't too torn up or potholed. Between 66-70mph the steering wheel vibrates quite bad and RANDOMLY at that. Some roads the car at 70mph feels super smooth others not! And the weirdest part is some of the roads it feels smooth on are bumpy or slightly torn up!
I've looked up all the causes of steering wheel and tire vibrations, and I see that there are about 5-10 potential causes. If I have to take this car in one more time I might just scream.
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I own a 1997 Honda Civic EX. Automatic. 160,000 miles. I have had the front disk rotors and pads replaced five (5) times within the past two years due to "warped" rotor issue. I recently changed the two front calipers as well to rule out caliper issues. Yet I continually end up with a warped right front rotor weeks after putting on new rotors. Here is what happens. Car brakes fine for a week or two with the new rotors. Then shortly afterwards, the right front rotor (passenger side) quickly develops a rubbing -like noise (not a grinding noise) when braking at a low speed. It's not a constant rubbing noise but a rhythmic swoosh swoosh swoosh noise as the tire rotates and the brake is softly applied. You can feel it in the brake pedal. This noise eventually gets louder and louder the more I use the brakes (or, the hotter they get?). It can also cause the steering wheel to vibrate at certain speeds when braking.
I have had it into four different mechanics.
Mechanic 1: Your rotor is warped.
Mechanic 2: You are too hard on your brakes causing the rotor to warp.
Mechanic 3: Did you go through a puddle of water lately?
Mechanic 4: You need new brakes. Period.
This is getting ridiculous. In all my years of driving, I have never encountered this problem. I am not hard on my brakes. I do not believe the "water puddle" theory at all. I should mention, although these are not oem rotors. they are not some cheap Chinese ones either. Something must be causing this rotor to "warp" if it's really warping at all. I have had the tires rotated to rule out a bent rim. It happens no matter what tire is on the right front car. What could be causing this? A bad front end alignment... bad wheel bearing... (although no mechanic ever indicated that as a problem)... bent splash guard... bad master cylinder? Air in the brake lines... old brake fluid???
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Just rotated my tires this weekend and noticed today that the steering wheel has a vibration in it at highway speeds, 65-70mph. It did not do this at all before I rotated the tires, why it's doing it now? Tires are fairly new and Bridgestones H/Ts.
I know my rotors are warped and need replaced but the vibration I'm referring to is when I am not braking.
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The 98 camry has steering wheel shudder after the new tires have been put on. Do I need alignment. will that work now that my tires are scalloped? The guys at the tire shop balanced the tires. the shudder was there on the old tires too, which were severely scalloped. or pitted. Can i do alignment myself?
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2003 Toyota RAV4, approx 130K.
A month ago I put a new set of Goodyear tires on my RAV. I drive on the highway 35-40 miles each way to and from work every day. Immediately after the new tires go on, I notice a vibration from the steering wheel at highway speed, above 60 mph. I took the car back to the tire shop (an independent tire shop, not a chain) and asked them to rebalance the tires. They did, and I took the car home. Drive to work the next day, vibration is worse. Next day, my dad and I switch cars so he can take it in. The tire shop says the front end alignment is off, and adjusts it. Small improvement, but vibration is still there.
I took it in for the 3rd time this weekend, and they swap the front and back tires at my request, thinking this might isolate the problem. The shop also checks my struts and says they are ok. (I don't even know what struts are, but apparently they are ok.) Now the vibration has moved out of the steering wheel and is coming from the rear and the floor. It does not happen when I apply the brakes or am on city streets. What this would be? Bad tire or tires? Something else going on altogether? What should I ask them to do?
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I had a problem with my steering wheel shaking at various speeds. Eventually I found a bad inner tie rod and replaced it. The shaking is gone, but whenever I get over 70 mph there is still a very small vibration. I had all 4 wheels aligned after changing the tie rod. Tires are brand new, less than a week old. The mechanic checked my ball joints while doing the alignment and said they were good. Could my struts be causing the vibration? They need replaced, not sure if the previous owner ever replaced them and the car has 225,000 miles.
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2010 FJ Cruiser has an intermittent shimmy that you can feel in the steering wheel at highway speeds. Noticed it not long after new tires. Go around a long curve and it starts, then stays until you go around another curve and then stops. It is as if the wheels have to align a certain way for some harmonic effect. I had the tires rebalanced and rotated. My mechanic said they balanced up very well. Shimmy is better but not gone. Wierdest thing is that when it happens, if I keep my foot on the gas and gently press the brake the shimmy stops and the returns as soon as I let up on the brake. When I asked my mechanic if it could be 2 slightly warped rotors he said the shimmy would be worse braking not better.
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The steering wheel mysteriously clocked itself slightly to the right after changing out the standard tires to same sized studded tires for winter. This has never happened before and I was unaware of any alignment/wheel clocking problems up to driving into the shop to swap out the tires on the wheels.
Air pressures were all good and even all around--but I don't know if they were even before the change-out. Also, the wheels were balanced and the drive afterwards revealed no pulling either way or vibrations. On top of that neither the tire store nor my Toyota dealer had any explanation(s).
I'm only guessing at this point that prior to studded tires there might have been a clocking error so slight it was not perceptible in over 5K miles and with the studded tires now it is perceptible.
Q: Is it possible under my circumstances for a different set of tires on the same wheels to make this sort of difference?
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I was driving my wifes 2005 Lexus 330 on an Interstste between 65-70 mph. Suddenly the steering wheel started to vibrate as if I had a flat tire. I pulled over, checked-no flat. Cautiously started slowly then picked up speed til I was at 65 again. No problem. Drove all the way home (150 mi) next day, no problem. About 3 weeks later, the same thing happened to my wife on an interstate. Sje stopped, checked, no flat. Started up cautiously, then faster. A ll OK. Came home-no repeat of the problem. Took it to our dealer. Up it went on the lift. Diagnosis: 2 tires had steel belts that were out of shape and the car needed a slight alignment. $800+ bucks. A week later, on an interstate, she had a repeat of the problem. Lexus took the car and the service guys took turns drvng it home at interstate speeds. Couldn't get a repeat of the problem. I don't know if this would have any bearing on the situation, but the only thing we've done out of the ordinary is use regular gas about 3 of every 4 fill-ups ...
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got an issue with my 01 excursion. When driving the steering wheel with vibrate or shimmy. As in if the rotor maybe warped or tire has a small bubble in it. Here is the kicker. It does not do it all the time. Some times I can drive it and it drives just as smooth as can be and I can go all the way to town and back. Then sometimes I can drive it to town and either turn a curve or hit a bump and then it will start doing it. Then I will come back home. Then the next time i jump in it and start driving down the road and it is just fine. I just had the brakes and rotors were just changed.
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My '11 has almost 60,000 miles on it and I've turned the front rotors down once already for a vibration at 42,000 miles. Front pads looked good at that time, but I'm pretty sure the brakes are otherwise all original (2nd owner). Not feeling it in the pedal but starting to get a steering wheel vibration when I touch the brakes above 60mph and I figure they will be getting due sooner than later- though I still have not pulled the rears down to check them.
Whats the consensus on replacement brake parts? Is OEM the way to go? I figure any decent ceramic pad set should be fine but what about rotors, OEM, raybestos, wearever, etc? I know everybody wants USA made but realistically price is a major factor. I can get Raybestos advanced rotors and pro pads shipped from rockauto for slightly more than wearever pads and rotors from advanced- is it worth it? Or are the OEM rotors notably more durable?
Keep in mind this truck sees light to empty loading 99.5% of the time and the stock front rotors needed turned at 42,000 and are starting to show signs again at under 60,000.
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The owner's manual for my 2012 Toyota Camry does not give a very good description about what the MODE/HOLD button on the steering wheel is for. At first, from what I had read in the manual, I thought it was like a mute button for the radio, cd, etc. when I wanted to use my hands free cell phone. When I first tried to do this, it took me a while to realize it but I was actually muting my cell phone.
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I have a 1998 Passat turbo wagon. A couple of months ago, the engine began intermittently shuddering/stuttering. The car/steering wheel vibrate when accelerated. Acceleration is very slow. It may start when started, or just driving down the road. This can last a few minutes/block or several minutes/blocks. It disappears just as quickly as it begins. My garage ran engine analysis and nothing shows. Can't do anything till they can duplicate, and I can't cause it to happen. During the occurrence, tach is at 9000 and steady. I use high octane gas. Today, while stuttering the engine just quit twice while stopped. Car has 115,000 miles and otherwise is in excellent shape mechanically (regular oil changes, etc.). What's happening?
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I have driven 53K miles in the Bay-area, CA on my car. On a recent trip to UT and AZ, my steering wheel started wobbling when I braked downhill. And I started hearing the occasional screeching noise when I braked, when I listen closely. I took to the local auto-care chain back in bay area and they said, I needed my front rotor and brake pads replaced. I however had no such wobbling on plains. Hence I wasn't sure if I was being over sold on parts. I got the car back without replacing the pads or rotors. I took a picture of the brake inspection readings. Wanted to get an advice if I need to replace my rotors or not. I understand the brake pads need replacement from the screeching noise. But how about the front-rotors?
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I bought 2012 Prius ii around 6 weeks ago. From day one I started noticing vibrations in the steering wheel most noticeable at highway speeds. I can describe this as high frequency vibrations that become very very annoying especially if you drive to work for an hour every day. This car has OEM Bridgestone Ecopia EP 20 tires. I took the car to the dealership twice already, they balanced the tires twice and road force tested it twice. They replaced front tires for me because based on the test results one tire was at 16 lb the other one at 19 lbs.
The new tires are at 8 and 10. They keep on telling me that this is by design and is a characteristic of the vehicle. However the Prius I test drove when I was buying it did not have this problem, otherwise I would never buy it. This vibration happens in any mode and I can even feel it at lower speed now though it is not as noticeable. I had a few people including Prius owners drive my car and everyone feels the vibration. With so many Prius models sold I highly doubt that everyone just accepts it as a feature.
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I just bought a 2013 Totyota Camry LE. Everything is great so far besides the bluetooth. I do not have problem connecting but when I connect my phone via bluetooth while streaming radio like pandora or iheartradio or even local files, I cannot skip tracks using the controls on the steering wheel. Also there is no next/previous track button on the touch panel. Am I doing something wrong or was it how this system was designed.
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I bought new tires for my 2005 Tacoma 4x4 and went up from 265's to 275's with some really nice Pirelli Scorpion ATR's, problem was, I started noticing some serious wobbling in both the steering wheel and the front end in general, it seemed to be at certain speeds. I had done some research online to find that some people had trouble with the balancing on those Scorpions so I naturally thought they needed to be rebalanced. But balance after balance, nothing seemed to improve. In total I went in for balancing 6 times! Even went to different places to make sure I didn't get a machine that was somehow calibrated wrong. I also took it in to the dealer and had them look at everything to make sure all was well with the truck, they said everything looked fine.
So my frustration finally came to a head last month when after another balancing the wobble was still there, and I decided to change out the tires thinking I just got a bad set. I test drove the truck right after changing the tires and could feel a little wobble so I took it back and they re-did the balance. Sadly that was rush hour and I couldn't get up to the speeds that I normally felt the wobble. (usually between 55-65mph) The day after switching the tires, (new tires are back to 265's Falken Ziex all season). At first I thought the wobbling was speed dependent; BUT after setting the cruise control on the open road at 72mph I started to notice that the wobble would come and go seemingly at random. I started thinking that it may be the road surface but put that theory to rest when I felt the wobble on brand new paving (yes, believe it! The wobble just seems to come and go even at the same speed and on seemingly similar surfaces. It's driving me crazy! I have to believe it's not the tires that are causing this, but since the dealer can't seem to reproduce the problem when they test drive.
So to summarize; the problem seemed to start when I got new tires a year ago, rebalancing 6 times did not solve the problem, put new tires on and still getting the wobble. It doesn't seem to be as dependent on speed or surface, although the worst of it happens in the 55-65mph range. (If I go faster it seems to smooth out, but we're talking 75+) The wobbling is felt and seen in the steering wheel and the front end of the truck. (my gut tells me it's coming from the front right of the vehicle). I even had them do an alignment so it's not that either.
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I bought a new 2010 (Gen III) Prius IV one week ago. I have driven it less than 200 miles. Last night, I experienced a few seconds of steering wheel shaking while driving at highways speeds. I assumed I had hit uneven pavement. At no point was it difficult to turn the wheel. But after the shaking, the car seemed to sometimes drift to one or the other edge of the lane. I chalked that up to unfamiliarity with the car and to rain and darkness. Today, I read Forum posts that described the lighter touch that usually works and the importance of wheel alignment.
After the shaking, another 45 minutes of driving, and a half hour parked, I headed home on a slower road. That is when my wife noticed that the Electric Power Steering warning light was on. We are both pretty sure it was off before that. This morning, I pulled out of the garage and back in, and turned the wheel both ways as it moved. The light did not come on.
I called the dealer to discuss what had occurred. I made a service appointment for Monday so they can check it out. Someone in a Gen II forum (where I mistakenly posted this at first) advised me to pull over and take an evidence photo of the light if it comes on again.
The PS warning light wouldn't be too surprising to see in a Prius driven tens of thousands of miles. If yours ever came on when your Prius had low mileage, I'd be curious to know the outcome. I misidentified a benign icon as the EPS warning light.
The mechanic became suspicious when he couldn't find any code or any trouble. We sketched the icon we remembered seeing for the service supervisor. He explained that it was the cruise control light. I either forgot I had turned cc on or I had pushed it accidentally when I operated the wipers.
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2004 Toyota Tacoma... I drive 40 miles each way to work daily and sometime, usually 20 minutes into the drive, I get a vibration in the front end and felt through the floorboards and steering wheel, that get progressively worse until the entire cab is shaking. It lasts approximately 10 minutes and then it stops only to happen again on the next drive. Wheels have been checked.
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I'm still getting use to the center dash design. When I look at my steering wheel at night the buttons are barely lit. I'm assuming there is no way to make them brighter? Brightness control does not seem to affect the steering wheel.
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Often when I am turning the steering wheel, even a little it now seems, I hear a whooshing/rubbing sound and feel just a little bit of that rubbing. It feels/sounds like it's coming from the housing right behind the wheel itself, maybe where the shaft bearing is. Is this normal?
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