Comfy

I’ve noticed my car developed a vibration while traveling at speeds approaching 80mph. There aren’t any problems with city or suburban driving. It is still otherwise smooth and comfortable. Usually my wife drives it daily on suburban roads and remembers navigating a bad pothole - recently. She hasn’t noticed any vibrations since she usually doesn’t cross 60 while driving.
I thought the wheel balance was off (had the two front tires replaced about 6 months ago - for a nail in one of them). I took it to Acura and they rotated the newish front tires to rear -after balancing them (as far as I know they do Hunter road force balancing). They didn’t do any test drive or anything and sent me on my way. But I haven’t noticed much difference. It is noticeable between 75-80 mph. I thought about VCM issues but that has to be present at all speeds of the car (engine rpm related rather than vehicle speed...correct?
I’m open for ideas and suggestions. Thanks.

Tech

My Honda CR-V experienced that. I thought I had thrown a wheel weight.

Sliding under my car, I grabbed the driveshaft to pull myself under it and wouldn't you know it, an easy 1/4 inch of play at the differential in the U-joint. That was easy...and expensive.

Clickit02

I looks like typical shimmy - tire is not balance and vibration occurs mostly above 65 mph and up to 80 mph. It goes away at speed above 80.
At times tire shop does not balance tires too well, especially new tires. My experience with buying new tires is that every time I have to come back for re-balancing. I suggest to check tire balance again.
Also, check for bent rim. When you will have tire balanced, ask shop to check rim face and diameter run-out. The shop can easily see it. Diameter run-out is prominent and affect tire balance greatly. Face run-put is not typically watch for but comes to play at high speeds.

jcross1231

Yep, I've had the same thing in my 2016 since new. Right around 80 mph it starts and sort of goes in and out of the vibration period over time. Just a slight shudder in the steering wheel that's a bit annoying but tolerable. I had always thought it was tires, but balancing at every rotation has made no difference. I'm about to put new tires on and am going to have the rims looked at. I suspect it's going to be something I have to put up with.

Clickit02

Not really. There are services that fix rims, making them like new. I used Wheels of America in the past.

Comfy

You are suggesting that tires are not fully balanced yet. As I mentioned before the tires were supposedly balanced (at tire shop) when I replaced the front tires about 6 months ago, and then recently all four tires balanced from Acura (road force balance). Having said that, the vibration is intermittent and not particularly severe, so not sure if any tech can reliably duplicate the issue.
I’ll be glad if one more simple balancing fixes the issue. Can you explain what is meant by “Rim face” and “diameter run out”. I’ll ask if my local tire shop (Firestone) does those kind of checking.
I drove the car again in town yesterday and it was super smooth on city roads, but didn’t go on highways though.

Clickit02

Face and diameter runouts:
https://schoolworkhelper.net/wheels-...ions-patterns/

Also called radial and lateral runouts.

Tech

How many miles on your car. If high, why not check for a wear item?

This isn't rocket science.

Comfy

Closer to 70k miles. Which wear items are you specifically mentioning?

Tech

Thats on the low side. My final drive U-joint went closer to 120K miles and at that point flopped around for a month or so. Like I said, I thought I had thrown a wheel weight at anything above 50 mph.

But it doesn't hurt to check. You really do not need to lift the car since it is high enough. Slide under and check it and the others on the drive line...5 minutes of work, if that.