Hey guys, so I have been dealing with this problem for what seems like forever. Probably has only been about 3 or 4 months though. My car is vibrating from 40 mph all the way up to 80 mph and possibly beyond. It gets worse around 50-65 mph. I can feel the vibration through the steering wheel and the seats, seems to be more through the steering wheel though. I can not seem to find the source of this issue and it is driving me insane.

I have: replaced the front rotors, replaced the axles, replaced the motor mounts, road force balanced the wheels(twice).

I inspected the intermediate shaft when changing the axles and nothing looked off, the bearing had no leakage or damage at all.

Just today I got another road force balance and they say nothing is wrong with the wheels or tires. Has anyone else dealt with somethings like this and if so what could it possibly be.
Any info or thoughts will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Sounds like a possible bent wheel(s)

 

Did the OP ever swap from front to rear?

 

I have not done that. Would a road force balance not be able to detect that? I can try to put my spare on each corner and see if i can find the culprit.

 

balancing something isnt the same thing as making it round.

 

OK, so I just went outside and put my spare on both of the passenger side corners and took the car for a spin and wow, i think we are onto something here. It felt much better, more so when i had it one the front passenger side.

I just don't know how one or more of my wheels would have been bent. I figured I would have felt that for sure, but maybe it is just time to upgrade.

Anyone have any recommendations on affordable replacement wheels. Trying to keep OEM dimensions because I have fairly new tires. Thanks for the help!

 

you can get a set of used OEM wheel for cheap. I paid $200 for a whole set back in 2011.

 

It doesn't take much to just slightly bend the OE rims. My original set, I bent/destroyed one by a massive pothole the first week I had the car....and then a few later I just barely bent the front two rims hitting a cut-out in the road at 30mph...it was dark and not marked well and rain water had washed out the temp gravel just enough to make it a nice 4" lip. That was 6+ years ago now and I just lived with it. They balance out fine, but the tire people always notify me when they see it when they mount new tires. My only vibration is above 70MPH.

Even my "new" used winter rims are bent enough for the tire people to notify me, but not enough to even notice on the highway. I paid under $200 for my used rims as well.

 

Look in your area for people that straighten wheels. It's usually pretty affordable. I had one done in CT for about $95. It's not that hard to bend a wheel. Especially with low profile tires and if you let you pressures get low. It's also pretty easy to check. Put the car on a jack stand and get anything at all that can be made into a pointer (like heavy wire/coat hanger) and put it just against the rim lip. Then slowly rotate the wheel by hand. Do this for the inner and outer lips and you will see it.

IMO would think the person that did the road force balance would have noticed this as a bent wheel bad enough to feel like you say should be tough to balance.

 

Man I just can't see any sign of a dent or anything. I am scared that if i get replacement wheels and swap the tires over that the problem will just persist. And the vibrations are nothing I could live with for much longer. Its not incredibly bad but enough to drive me crazy. The car should drive smoothly.

Since both road force balances, 2 different shops, showed no issue I am guessing that the tires are alright and that a wheel or 2 will be the culprit.

Like I said earlier, the vibration was almost all gone with the spare wheel on the car. So the problem can definitely be pinpointed to either a wheel or tire.

 

Aftermarket wheels can potentially cause more shake. i gave up on nice aftermarket rims. try to get good OEM off classifieds. is the shaking all day or random? i had a weird shake on and off and it was the rear rotors. very notorious to warp on the TL once the shitty rear calipers seize. do the initial brake bedding procedure to see if it gets worse once heated up

 

Find this stamp on your tires and tell me what the four digits are?

 

Road force is only as good as the operator, but yes it should indicate high (heavy) spots and/or
wheels out of round/bent. Put the front on the rear and when they are balanced again, have the
operator turn the wheel 180 degrees and rebalance, they should be perfect and no weight necessary.

Many years ago, probably back in '07 when I replaced the factory tires on our '04 the center hole of
the factory wheel(s) was compromised so when balanced on the road force, still a vibration, but in
the upper end of mph, >55, so the only way to get it perfect was to use a wheel hole adapter
on the balancer. I have a SnapOn and using the adapter, perfect over all these years, no vibrations.

 

JUST because you cant see it, DOESNT mean the wheel IS round.
if you or previous owner slightly bent the wheel, YOU WILL NEVER SEE IT!
so, IT IS very possible that the wheel IS NOT ROUND, causing your vibrations.

you only trouble shooted by puttin on the spare...which isnt a full troubleshoot.
you have four wheels, with 4 different combinations(possibly more) you could move.
front to rear
rear to front
THEN if problem persist from side to side.

 

Ok so I just wanted to update whats happening with this problem. The vibration is still there and shows no signs of getting better no matter what I have done. To date I have completed the following:

-new front and side motor mounts
-new front rotors and pads
-new front axles
-new lower control arms
-new end links
-road force balanced tires (x2)
-alignment
-new, to me, wheels and tires

I am almost at the point where I am just going to deal with it and look to change cars eventually. After the alignment I got yesterday the vibration in the steering wheel seems to get worse the faster I go. Starts around 40, fades in and out to 65, and then gets worse at 70-80mph.

Could it be the transmission or the steering rack? If thats the case I don't know how much money I want to keep throwing at it. The car used to drive perfectly.

 

Your 'new to me' tires and wheels have me suspect. So they're used right? Could be a bad belt in the tire

 

They were previously balanced, not by me. and appear to be in great condition. I just wouldn't think the same exact problem would persist after changing wheels and tires. My oem wheels were balanced 3 times with 2 road force balances. The vibration never got better. I could have terrible luck and the new wheels/tires could be out of balance, but it feels exactly like it did with the other set.

 

axles?

 

changed em both.

 

OEM right?
sorry it's been about a month since we last spoke

 

Yeah I used oem.

 

Again???

 

^what that is, is a date of manufacture.
if tires are more than 4 years old, replace...
month/year

 

Thread merge is in order

 

Tires start to deteriorate at 6/7 years old. As in delamination internally. Not visit from the outside. You cannot balance that out if the tire.

 

The 4 digit number on the side of the tires is 4512. So I am guessing they are about 5 years old. They are in still in good condition from what I can tell. I just don't think it is the wheels or tires based on what I have done and the feeling I get when I drive the car. Nothing has affected the vibration.

Could it be the rear rotors? Or a bad steering rack? Bad spark plugs? Unbled brakes or clutch? The shocks and springs seem to be in good order.

 

The first time I noticed the vibration was after I got new tires put on my stock wheels. There was initially just a slight wobble at highway speeds ~70mph and ever since it slowly has gotten worse and worse. In the past couple months it hasn't been worse or better even after everything I have done. Its not terrible but I am getting discouraged that I will never figure out the cause.

 

lower compliance bushings? if they're torn i think they could cause vibration at high speeds as well.

 

I already replaced the driver side lower control arm that had a partially torn bushing and felt no difference. I have the passenger side but haven't had the time to put it on the car. It doesn't look like it is in bad condition though. Maybe a 1/4 inch tear but it has always been like that.

 

wheel bearing check?

 

Maybe thats possible, but there is no noise or anything. I would think it would get wayyy worse if it has been going on this long.

 

If you already have the bushing and you're pretty handy, wouldn't hurt to change it out anyway to rule things out. What you see as 1/4" may actually be a lot worse once it's taken out.

 

And just to make sure we're talking about the same bushings, take a look through here:

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-p...d-look-707888/

Many people have reported that this caused the steering wheel to vibrate once past 45MPH

 

You should of rebalanced the use tires and wheels first before putting them on your car. Especially, after install if it's still shaking because now they are an big unknown?

Your tires are basically 6 years old so they may be contributing to your vibrations. Especially, if the tires show signs of abnormal wear like feathering, cupping, uneven tread wear-half a tire, high center, etc.

You should look for any kind of free play in the front-end by turning your steering wheel from 11-1 o'clock briskly and have someone look at the suspension for free play. Anything over 1/8" of movement is defective.

 

Correction

11-1 o'clock - Turning the steering wheel back and forth briskly to check for excessive free play in the steering system. Any moving part with over 1/8" of free play is defective and should be replace.

 

So I got the "new" wheels and tires balanced yesterday and it may have slightly improved the vibration. I will install the new lower control arm this weekend and hopefully that will do something. When I do that I will also have someone turn the wheel as I lay under the car to look for any movement that is out of place. Thanks for the input!

 

Quick update. I was able to install the new lower control arm on saturday. It was a huge pain in the ass but it is now installed. The main issue was that no matter what I did the ball joint would always spin while trying to tighten the castle nut. I actually was unable to tighten the nut completely but was able to get the cotter pin installed. Hopefully it isn't terrible to drive around with it like that but I don't have much of a choice. I will call a shop and see if they can hammer on it with an impact wrench for me.

As for the vibration, it feels a lot better and is almost completely gone at higher speeds ~70mph. However there is still a vibration present around 55-63mph. Sometimes it is worse than usual and sometimes I can't even notice it.

 

Hey guys, so I have a question that may relate to the vibration I am experiencing. Not sure at all if it does but I figure its worth a shot. My power steering pump is leaking and it hasn't been a big deal because it works just fine and I keep an eye on the fluid level but it has me wondering if it could possibly be related to the vibration in my steering wheel around 50-60mph. I am guessing it is caused by the 2 o-rings on the supply and return lines but I can't be sure.

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

 

its the two o-rings.

 

You can bend these POS aluminum wheels just by blowing on them. I've had to replace at least 1 wheel every year since I've had this car!

What's worse is I can't use the aftermarket replacement replica wheels. They don't space with the Brembo calipers correctly.

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