mskeen

What's up everyone?! New to the board, but I've been doing a lot of searching around, mostly about the steering wheel vibration that has been discussed before.

Here's my probem:
I had some OEM Michelins on factory rims and I was getting a steering wheel vibration going above 60 MPH. I was told by a local tire place, not dealership, that one of my front tires was not round and balancing wouldn't help. I had heard that the Michs had had problems with this. I wanted new tires anyway so I just got some new Kumho Supra 712s. Well now the vibration is still there (not constant though) from 60 - 70 MPH. I was thinking about having them rebalanced but you guys got any other suggestions? It seems like it has been a while since this topic has come up and I was looking for an update on what has worked for anyone else?

Thanks

Matt S.
------------
'99 TL - Black/Tan

AcuraTL

Either one of your front wheel/tire needs to be re-balanced or one of your front rims got bent. You can try swapping the front wheels/tires with the back and see if it is still there. If so, it could be something else.

VeiLsTyleZ

yup i got that problem...but it only does it when i brake. is that what your getting?

mskeen

No ... not when braking. I just bought it through the certified used program and it was doing the brake thing when I test drove it they turned the rotors and replaced the front pads and that was fixed. My vibration is when I'm driving on the highway. The steering wheel vibrates between 60 and 70 mph. I'll probably have the tires rotated tomorrow to see if that fixes it. If not, off to the dealership on Friday.

bioyuki

Consider warped rotors...

bigman

My last car had a vibrating problem above 60 mph. I thought it was balancing, wheel or tire, but it turned out to be something loose in my steering column. It was scary because the rep at the dealer told me that it could have come loose and i would have lost all steering. My father went nuts and made them replace the entire steering column.

mskeen

The speed it happens is the wierd part. It doesn't vibrate at all before 60 and from 70 - 100 (heven't gone higher). But then again it doesn't do it all the time either. When I get up to speed from a dead stop and stay straight it doesn't happen but as soon as I turn it starts. Then it will stop after a while. Maybe its an alignment problem too ...

Mstyle

I would say alignment or balancing.....

Severin

I had the same problem after I rotated my tires; turns out I must have hit a pothole and bent the rear rim ever so slightly. After the tire was moved to the front I felt vibrations in the steering wheel at > 60 mph. Acura sold me a "remanufactured"(used) rim for $150 and the problem was fixed.

AzNTL

If it only happens when your braking then you have the case of the WARP ROTORS

edgalang

Could this be due to having the lug nuts not torqued properly and in a star pattern?

mskeen

Just had my tires rotated and a 4 wheel alignment done but I couldn't really check it out yet to see if it fixed the problem. I'll test it on the way home from work and let you guys know. Thanks again for all the input.

Matt

mskeen

It was the alignment. Both right side wheels were way off causing the vibration but it would stay straight if you took your hands of the wheel. Go figure. Thanks again everyone.

Matt

AcuraTL

To tell you the truth, unless your alignment was way off the chart with some other suspension damage, it would not cause your steering wheel to vibrate at certain speeds. This can only be caused by the un-balanced wheel/tire. I bet you that if you put the rear wheels back to the front, you will probably experience the same problem again.

mskeen

You could be right. Next time I take the car to the dealership I'll have them check out the rear rims. If one is bent then I hope they won't charge me an arm and a leg for a replacement. Would that be covered under warranty? I'm guessing no.

Matt

AcuraTL

No, it won't be covered. Remember, it might be just a not balanced wheel/tire.

mskeen

New Update

I just got my car back from the dealership after they did a 45,000 mile scheduled maintinance on it. As part of the deal, they balanced and rotated the tires and the vibration is back. I asked the dealership about it and they said they had seen it happen with non-Michelin tires. What a bunch of BS (they didn't try and sell me any tires though).

I'm thining of taking my car to a place that has one of those Hunter 9700 road force machines and see what they say. I'm thinking it could be a bent rim. I hope to find out soon.

fla-tls

Usually, tires that are out of balance will be felt at much lower speeds (around 40). At higher speeds (like the speeds you're talking about) the shaking problem is almost always the rotors.

When the rotors warp, they wear unevenly and will go out of balance. Because of this you will experience that shaking in the steering at high speeds.

Have you ever had the rotors turned?

miwa

that sounds like a bent rim .. notice acuraTL mentioned that if you rotated again, the issue would come back... and true enough, on your second rotation after he mentioned that .. it happened again.

at least its not hubcaps. thats what happened on my last car. no one could figure it out .. and one day I decided to change the hubcaps cuz I was tired of the old one .. and whamo! smooth drive!!! which is why I'm thinking its your wheels. lots of us have aftermarket tires and they dont cause vibration.

ajram

I've been experiencing the same vibrations. Started when I had my factory Michelins. I had them rebalanced. No fix. I put new tires on (Yokohama YK420). No fix. I had those tires rebalanced twice on one of those Hunter road-force machines. No fix. I had the car aligned. No fix. I had all four rotors turned, and the front brake pads replaced. No fix. I had the front rotors replaced, and then turned. No fix. I put the spare on, at all four corners and drove the car 10 miles or so at each location. The vibration continued.

So, I'm fairly confident that it isn't a wheel/tire problem. It could be a rotor problem, but would most likely be a rear rotor, since the fronts are brand new (and would I have vibration in the wheel from rear rotors?). I think I've got a bent or loose suspension/steering component.

What do you guys think? It's driving me nuts.

yu888

Yours sounds like a steering problem. Usually, I would check
1) tire balance of front wheels
2) rims to see if any are bent, especiially fronts
3) alignment
4) steering components

Since you've already changed and balanced tires, checked your rim for bends, and aligned the car, its time for a tech to check all your steering componenets. If you are still under warranty, get the dealer to check it.

good luck.

mskeen

I appreciate all the suggestions and help fom eveyone.

As it turns out, one of my rims is slightly bent and my tires are wearing wierd due to a bad alignment (not perfomed by the dealership). I matched up the two fronts (one of which was the bent rim) and now it is a little better (I put the bent rim back on the left rear.)

Looks like I am just going to ride this one out until I need new tires and then I will probably buy a new stock rim or look into some aftermarkets.

I had the opportunity to see the Hunter machine in action today and I must say it was pretty cool. Whenever I do get new tires / ims I'm going to have them put on by a shop that has one.

ajram

[QUOTE


Yours sounds like a steering problem. Usually, I would check
1) tire balance of front wheels
2) rims to see if any are bent, especiially fronts
3) alignment
4) steering components

Since you've already changed and balanced tires, checked your rim for bends, and aligned the car, its time for a tech to check all your steering componenets. If you are still under warranty, get the dealer to check it.

good luck. [/QUOTE]

I think that's good advice. I'll try to get it in to the dealer AGAIN!

Thanks.

hpric

I know how frustrating this is, I'm going through the same thing on my 99TL. I've had the wheels balanced and rebalanced and it still continues. I've been told by the people at Pep-boys that I need two new Rotors and that should take care of the problem. My concern is what if its something else that they are overlooking. I don't have an issue replacing the Rotors but I would hate to get the car back and still have the same issue. A buddy of mine said it might be bushings or control arms.

Frogger

mskeen,
I noticed that you're in New Bern. Did you have to drive all the way to Raleigh or Wilmington to go to the dealer? I used to live in Cherry Point and it took me 2 hours to get to either one. By the way, don't ever go to one of the 2 Raleigh dealers. I forget which one now. They treated me like I was some punk and gave me some of the worst service in my life. Luckily I moved away from that armpit of an area that I like to call Cherry Point.

johnnyb_s

You wouldn't happen to be talking about LEITH, now would you???

Frogger

Hmm...it could be. What's the name of the other one?

mskeen

Frogger
I work at Cherry Point and go up to Raleigh almost every weekend so I took it to Leith (this was the first time though). Would Wilmington be better? The guys at Leith seemed pretty nice to me. They did try to feed me some BS about not having Michelins on my car, typical dealer crap.

HPRIC
As far as rotors are concerned. I know that isn't my problem. The vibration (felt either in the car body or steering wheel), follows the one rim that is slighty bent.

Frogger

Actually my bad experience was more with buying the car rather than getting servicing. No one helped me for a good 20 minutes even though I was walking around interested. Finally I had to approach someone and when I did, he looked at me up and down and seemed uninterested. After asking for a test drive (it was like pulling teeth with these people) I went around one block and he told me to go back. We got back, he got out and just started to walk away. At this point there was no way I was gonna buy a car from there, but I wanted to talk price, just to get a quote. He literally walked away and never came back...I thought he was just putting the keys back. I found him inside and asked him what deal was. He just shrugged me off and said he was busy. I thought these people would jump at the chance to sell a car? I went and found the manager and explained my troubles. He told me that he would talk to the salesman. I was about to leave, but finally got angry enough after replaying the situation in my head and was about to tell off the salesman. As I was going back I saw the manager talking to the salesman and moments later they were laughing together. I just said screw this and left. Sorry to vent, but they were just flat out pricks. Now that I think about it, I think it's the dealership in Cary.

Bitium

I'm in the same situation, is either the bearing or hub. If you were to put your car on jacks then take the wheels(tires) off, turn on the car and put it in drive. once your rotors start turning you will see it swaying from side to side. At first I thought it was the rotors, but I was wrong. I'm in the process of replacing both the bearing and the hub.