Prius (Gen 3) :: Vibration In Steering Wheel Most Noticeable At Highway Speeds
Mar 14, 2013
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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This summer I replaced the inner and outer tie rod ends on a 97 Nissan Altima, had a bent wheel replaced, and had an alignment done. Everything worked smoothly for the last 5,000 or so miles. I had my tires rotated and balanced recently which created a new problem, a shaky steering wheel most noticeable at slow speeds. I've had a similar problem before and had it fixed by balancing the tires. I took it back in to have them rebalanced, thinking they may have forgotten to do it the first time. They rebalanced them and the problem has not changed at all.
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I'm having an issue with my wife's 2008 Camry. We're feeling vibration at highway speeds. Feels like it's coming from the front passenger side. We've had all 4 tires replaced (two of them replaced twice because we got lucky and the shop gave us a set of 4 for free with all the trouble we were having with the goodyear tires they sold us), and added hub-centric rings to her wheels. There are no noises to tell me whether it's a cv axle or a bearing. I've been under the car and the only thing I can find that comes close to loose is that the passenger side axle has a just a little more side to side play (runout - inner cv) than the driver's side.
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I recently purchased the rims from another member here on Club Lexus.
Ever since installation, I have been experiencing a vibration at highway speeds and while braking. The wheels are correctly balanced.
My technician has told me that I need to buy a hub ring/spacer (not too sure what that is) but nonetheless, a grommet of such that fits between the backside of the rim and the frontside of the hub. I'm not too sure where to begin from there or what to even look for.
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I have just over 11K miles on my 2011 and now notice steering wheel vibration & slight shake at 70 mph. The passenger can also feel it.
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My accent just crossed 180K mark. From last year the steering wheel shakes quite a bit at highway speeds ,say 70MPH. It's especially bad when I accelerates . Took the car to a shop, they told me two things, the CV axle of passenger side needs replacement, and the wheel hub bearings are bad(both front wheels). They quoted me $200 for replacing the cv axle, and $400 for replacing both front wheel bearings. Since I don't even think the car worth $600 right now(given high mileage), I told them I'll just do the axle(I know how to do it myself but don't have the time, plus it won't be that much cheaper DIY anyway). They said fine, but if you don't replace the bearings you may have the wheel fly off one day and that's dangerous.
They replaced the axle, and the car drives a lot better now. There's still a little bit of shaking at high speed but 75% of that shake has gone away. My question is, does the worn out bearing causes car to tremble at high speed? I heard other people told me there should be a grinding or loud hawling sound if the bearings are bad, but I don't hear that. I searched the internet and some people say, to determine if the hub bearings are bad, just drive it for 10 minutes then feel the hub. If it's barely warm, the bearings are good. If it's warm to hot, then the bearings are bad. I felt it and it's warm, but not too hot to touch. I tried the rear wheels and those are barely warm indeed.
So from this method it seems the front wheel hub bearings are indeed bad. I wonder how long I can keep driving this without endanger myself. $400 is not cheap for this car and I don't have a machine to press in the bearings myself. I can disassemble the rotor and hub that's not a big deal, but I don't know how to get the old bearing out and the new bearing in. Is there a machine shop that just do the pressing? Or, is there any shop selling the hub assembly with bearing already in place? this way I just remove the old hub assembly and replace it with the new assembly, a lot easier. I searched the internet but can only find pre-assembled hub w/ bearing for the rear wheel of this car. I need the front ones.
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This has happened multiple times but this last time was the dangerous one. I was driving home from work on Friday on the tollway which is very straight but does have some slight turns in it (construction). So I am at highway speeds for some time and one of these slight turns comes up. I try to turn my wheel but nothing happens. I apply more and more force until it finally decides to turn and by that time I am applying so much force, it jerks really hard. If the car didn't finally decide to turn, I would have hit the highway barrier. I am lucky that no one was next to me or I might have hit them.
-This only happens at sustained highway speeds, city driving is perfect.
-It doesn't happen every time I am on the highway, it is intermittent.
-It does not have a bias with regard to direction (left turn or right).
-I have put some Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF in my reservoir to add fluid to my system with whatever was currently in there when I bought the car @ 75K miles. Car currently has 130K miles. Is there some sort of write up for PS maintenance/flush? I need to pull the return to drain, right?
-I do have a rubber on rubber squeak sound in the front right when I go over a bump.
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Noticed the steering wheel shakes just slightly at highway speeds. Happens to me when I'm at around 65-70mph and above. It's just very slight, so I really wasn't thinking its an alignment issue at all. I didn't know if this was a bit normal for these B7s or what. I've had alignment issues in cars before and this just doesn't feel that bad, but its enough to give me pause.
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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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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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I wanted to believe I had rid the car of the steering wheel vibration when I lowered the Psi in the tires from 46-50Psi to the 35Psi it should have. However, the car still has a vibration in the steering wheel when going highway speeds accelerating up gradual hills or when accelerating out of a sweeping turn at highway speeds. It is very noticeable, you can see the hands on the wheel shake. Passengers don't notice it. I had my brother in law drive it without mentioning to him and he noticed it as well.
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I have a 2003 Honda Accord. I've had an issue with steering wheel vibration for the past 10 months. In that time, I've installed new hubcentric rings for my after market wheels, gotten my tires balanced, bought a whole new set of tires all together, and changed my cv axles twice. I still experience vibration in the steering wheel when I get up to 60 mph and all the way up to 80 mph. At times I have had vibration at low speeds, around 20 mph, but that was solved first when I installed the hubcentric rings, and again most recently with this second set of cv axles. Am I missing something or will I have to chase a solution to this problem until I am bankrupt?
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I have a problem with vibration in steering wheel and at speeds of 50 to 60 mph. It also vibrates at idle. This problem did not start until we had new brakes and rotors turn. We also have had tires rotated and balance. They told us we needed new motor mounts. We had them replace and the shake got worse. They replaced the front axles and the transmission mount. I also bought two new tires.
This started out when we took our car to have the tires rotated and balance. The Mechanic told us we needed new brakes, so we took it to get this done. we are now having all kinds of problems as I stated above. Took it to the Honda place here and one person told us it was not worth fixing. I do not believe this. The car has a little over a 115,000 miles on it. I have been driving a Honda since 1992. This car we bought new and I know it has been service.. One person at the Honda place here said he could replace all the mounts and would not promise it would fix it. We have even had one of the new tires replace because they said it was bad.
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Have vibration in steering wheel starting at around 70 mph on the highway:-This started after changing out front braked pads, but the brakes are smooth when applied with no vibration also turned rotors by hand to check for any grabbing on pad everything is fine.-Jacked up car and checked for wheel movement, everything seems tight.-Swapped tires around to see if a tire was out of balance.These are some of the things I have tried.
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I hit a curb while making too sharp of a right hand turn a week ago and now I notice some vibration in the steering wheel as I drive down the highway. The tire I hit was the rear passenger side. If I get wheel balancing done, do I need to just balance that tire or all of them?
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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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My GX470 steering wheel shakes/vibrates when I hit speeds over 50mph. What is causing it?
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Ok so we all know it's usually warped rotors or possibly a caliber problem. But let's say u have new of both. And still I'm getting a wobble, not only when I brake at higher speeds, but when I'm on certain roads. Only certain roads. Say about 20% of other roads while driving I get a slight wobble. Not too bad, but a very annoying wobble. I bought this CTS at 35k and now has 45k on it. And again I bought this car for my long commute and a smooth drive. Which I'm not getting. I can't take it anymore! I've got to figure this out. Getting a wobble in the steering while on super smooth roads. And I know it's the car because I have a Chevy Cavalier and a Dodge truck in the family that don't wobble on the same roads.
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2002 Camry LE 4cyl. automatic. I bought this car with 7500 miles on it in 2010. It had been involved in a low speed parking lot collision and apparently the left front corner and front took the hit. It'd been repaired and looked like new when I bought it. It still had the factory tires on it, but they were 8 years old, so I put a set of new Kumho Solus' on it. This was a friend's mothers car, so I know the history of it.
The left front suspension has always felt odd to me. Nothing serious, but just "off." When backing up and turning it has a sort of wobbly feel on that corner at times. I've been assured by several mechanics that they can find no problems. It feels to me like maybe sometimes the strut piston sticks on that corner. Don't know if that ever happens or not, but that's the best description I can come up with!
It has always vibrated from 45 on up. It's not a hard shudder, but just a constant vibration at highway speed that you can feel in your feet and the steering wheel. I've had it balanced and re-balanced to no avail. Sometimes it gets a little better, sometimes worse, but it's never gone away. Recently it seems to be getting worse.
I put it up on jackstands and accelerated to 60, and it vibrates like the wheels are out of balance. Yesterday I replaced the Kumhos (they had bad road noise anyway) with Michelins. The Michelins cured the road noise problems and have a much better overall feel, but I've still got the balance problem.
Just put it up on jackstands again and spun it up, and I still have the same vibration!
What to look for? The car has just now turned over 35k miles. I'm wondering if the CV joint on that left side was damaged and is causing the vibration. I've got new wheels as well instead of the factory steel rims. Also, with the car up on stands, the wheels spin true. No bent hub, etc.
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Since I got my car back from the dealership after changing the rear shock this summer, I can feel a vibration in the car at highway speed. After the shock were replaced the car steering wheel was out of balance and pulling one side. After they attempt to align the car about 5 times it got a little bit better. Then I found out that they had an accident with my car and tried to hide it: [URL] ....
I suspect the tie rod may have been damaged so that could explain the steering issue. It also seems to have gotten worse over time. I'm trying to figure out the possible cause, if directly related to the tie rod damage or indirectly as if the tie rod damage could have caused uneven tire wear and then causing the vibration over time. I've attached some pictures, the 2 first are from the front passenger side, the 2 last from the front driver side. My tire are the Michelin pilot and this thread seems to suggest those tire might be hard to align properly: [URL] ....
I'm due for my winter tire change soon and see if thing gets better, I'll get them balanced too. I'll check at the same time for control arms/shock damage. But still, I would like some feedback and see if those tread wear are normal and hopefully get to the root of the problem (the outer edge on the tire in the back are much less damaged).
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It feels like its catching, or its off and then comes back on ?? No codes, none.
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