Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Wheel shaking @ 65-75MPH

I don't know, my Accord doesn't like Yokohoma's in sets of four or two. The last two on it were "directional" and bad, causing steering column shake at 60 mph and a pull to the right. All alignment specs were in the green, all wheels were rebalanced but still bad, so off with those and on with new Michelins and no shake. Can't really judge a company on two tires, but I'm not jumping out of my seat to buy Yoko's again.

gromero: were both your cars cold when you did this test? I find my vibration naturally dissipates after about 10 minutes of operation then return about 30 minutes later. (caused me to blame tire pressure for awhile, not the case.)

This "on tire" balancing is sort of cheating (cause is not eliminated, just balanced out) but my local dealer has "road force" balancing which I'm told eliminates vibration other balancers won't, so I'll probably give that a try before I spend money on diagnosing my entire suspension/steering systems.

I'm glad we've got a support group going for this. No local dealer has ever heard of it but they promise they can fix it. Maybe I'll get one of them to sign it in writing and hand it over.

To all with the vibration problem:

I find this a little mind boggling but I'll post anyhow. I criss-crossed BOTH pairs of my tires (Yokohama Avid Touring
S-rated tires). I took the car out for a ride and there is
only a slight vibration present now (very slight). It's incredibly less then before the swap.

Used to be back in the '80's that radial tires could NOT be criss-crossed due to a possiblity of a blow out. I researched a little because of that and it appears to be
OK now
http://www.roadandtrack.com/technical/articledisplay.asp?articleid=269

I don't think I'll be buying Yoko's next time but for now the car is tolerable to drive at higher speeds.

If this does or doesn't fix your problem, I, as well as others I'm sure, would be interested in hearing the results. I don't know if this will "fix" all your vibration but if you try it, it'll only cost you some time. I also suggest you try it one pair at a time.
GOOD LUCK!

Hmmm...if you criss-crossed them and the vibration is less it sounds like one or two bad tires. This is based on my assumption that a bad tire will cause more vibration up front than in the rear. Crazy stuff...good luck, glad you isolated it.

I am running H rated Yokohama AVS db's. My last tires were yoko AVSes and I ran them 40k miles on one balance so I don't think it is Yokos in general but it may very well be this set, Maybe I need to find a shop with a more sophisticated balancer?

I don't think we found the root cause here, but by changing around the tires you can use the "slight imbalance" (most balancers have only .25 gram accuracy) to counter our other "mystery imbalance". However this is much cheaper than getting an entire front end inspection.

This is my theory until we find something that completely eliminates the vibration.

I have had wheel shake from the start off and on, OEM wheels and tires, aftermarket wheels and tires. Got the car new so nothing part wise should have been worn. The vibration between 65 and 75 comes and goes and always has. Once I get to 80+ it goes away. To eliminate the engine and transmission(I have an ATX) I put it in neutral and the vibration is still there. I have had tires balanced and rebalanced, rotation done when it should be, and alignment done on a regular basis. It still comes and goes, sometimes worse than other times. I think there may be something to that harmonic vibration thing. Until any solution comes up, I just put up with the shakes.

I have also notice wheel shake from 60 on up and i have came to the thought that it is tierod ends and that is what i have been told by others

Add me to the club. Had a vibration from the RF at 65MPH. Rotated tires front to back and the vibration moved to the RR. Had tire rebalanced - they moved the weight, so I guess it was imbalanced on the machine. Vibration still there, though. Wheel looks fine. I'm wondering if the tire is screwed up internally or something.