R-Spec: Should Steering Wheel Vibrate/Shake at All?

[frozentax]

Have had my 2013 R-Spec for a month now, after upgrading from a 2011 4.6. I've noticed a subtle but somewhat fast, high-pitched shaking or vibrating back and forth in the steering wheel when driving at higher speeds (>50mph approximately). Seems to depend on the road, too. I never noticed this in my 2011, but the car drives straight without pulling, regardless.

Dealer found one tire that was out of balance, so rebalanced. The problem is better, but definitely still there. I don't know how familiar the service advisor was with the R-Spec, as he said "maybe that's just how these drive."

I purchased this car with 2500 miles on it. The owner of the dealership drove it for a while, but my hunch is that it also sat around for a while, too.

I noticed another thread a while back regarding flat spotting on tires that have sat in the lot for a prolonged period. Could this be the case for my vehicle, or something else? Just want to have my ducks in a row for when I go back to the dealer again to have them recheck.

Thanks!

 

[landtuna]

Shaking or vibrating can be cause by out-of-balance or out-of-round tires or by flat spots on the tire. All three possibilities should be checked. If there are enough miles on the tires look at tire wear for a clue.

Why did they only rebalance one wheel? If the condition did indeed get better it probably points to the other wheel needing rebalancing as well. Have them move the back wheels to the front and vice versa and see what changes, if anything.

Also consider the cause is something else in the wheel and/or suspension.

I would not let them off the hook until the cause is found and corrected.

 

[Taxman]

I had a shake/vibration from day one after the car sat for more than a day in my garage. Dealer said everything was fine. Of course it did it again so I took it to local tire shop I've delt w/ for 20+ years. They rebalanced all four tires. ALL were out of balance!! Mind you I bought the car w/ 29 miles on it and 16 were my test drive!! No problems since the rebalance. Local shop also tightened the valve stems/tpms which were also out of spec.

 

[dareckibmw]

I had a shake/vibration from day one after the car sat for more than a day in my garage. Dealer said everything was fine. Of course it did it again so I took it to local tire shop I've delt w/ for 20+ years. They rebalanced all four tires. ALL were out of balance!! Mind you I bought the car w/ 29 miles on it and 16 were my test drive!! No problems since the rebalance. Local shop also tightened the valve stems/tpms which were also out of spec.

+1
I test drove 4 Rspec's before I bought one (the fastest one ) and every one of them had that shake/vibration more or less, between 60-70 mph.
So, I took it to a local Discount Tire shop- they rebalanced, rotate them - problem solved.

 

[frozentax]

Good to know! I will push for complete rebalance and rotation and go from there. Thanks, everyone.

 

[JasTheAce]

I have had constant issues with flat spotting on the oem all season tires. Apparently its normal as i had the tires rebalanced and it goes away after 10 miles.

 

[427435]

Mine doesn't vibrate.

 

[kf4zra]

when i bought my 09 camry several years ago, it had a bad vibration that happened between 40-60mph.
had 3 different shops rebalance 3 times.
when it was finally Road force balanced, the problem was gone.

it costs a few bucks more, but seems to work much better

 

[DRS]

Couple of suggestions. Get a "Road Force" balance. Have the tech do the detailed settings. This machine puts the tires on a "road" with weight of the vehicle as they turn to get balanced.

Also, the 19" wheel are strong, but can get bent slightly with bad roads. Check for this carefully. This will cause a classic back and forth like that.

 

[Gunkk]

A bad tire can do this also, and road-force balancing can't fix a bad tire.

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[DRS]

^^+1 if a bad tire. No one should be arguing what is wrong.. Cover what suggestions on areas to check.

 

[frozentax]

I just met with the tech who worked on my car previously. They actually rebalanced all tires, rotated, and aligned last time I was there (I didn't know this). We went for a drive today on varying terrain - the "shimmying" is more noticeable on uneven or bumpy road, and almost nonexistent on smooth road. He said that the Continental ContiProContact tires are the cause, as they are a harder tire, and likely need a few thousand miles to loosen up. He said they checked for any bad spots or uneven wear on the tires and couldn't find any.

I suppose, since my old 4.6 had Michelins (softer, according to tech) and a different suspension, it's not a fair comparison. And the roads around here are generally not smooth. So the car is fine and tires are fine, apparently..

To those of you who have no vibration/shaking/shimmying - are you also running the ContiProContacts?