Weebles Wobble But Your Wheels Shouldn't
First things first, if your car was fine yesterday, and is shaking today, get out and check the tightness of your lugs (the bolts that hold your wheels on). There's nothing like being passed on the highway by one of your own wheels, especially when fate lets another half a block pass before the wheel-less side of your car hits the pavement. It'll take years off your life.
But let's say you have a typical vibration that shows up around 55 or 60 mph. This is definitely not something you need to rush to the shop about. It's certainly not good for your car. All that shaking can cause premature wear on your tires and suspension components, but it's a slow death that you can wait a week to address, if you must.
Perform a few checks, including tire pressure and wheel balancing, to see if it's something that's an easy and cheap fix. If that doesn't help, it's time to visit the repair shop. Their diagnostic machines can tell you in five minutes what it would take you and me a month of replacing things that aren't even broken to get to.
Comments
I’ve had this problem on a number of imported cars. The problem was due to a mismatch of tire wear.
If you have this problem and balancing, rotating tire, etc, doesn’t work, replace ALL 4 TIRES at the same time.
I have had 3 vehicles, a Volvo 740, Volkswagen Passat, and Ford Crown Victoria all fall prey to wheel wobble at some point. The volvo was by far the worst because of the tight rack-and-pinnion steering.
As a guideline, replace all 4 tires when you need to replace 1 or 2.
Adam sounds like a tire dealer. It’s a big waste of money to replace tires that aren’t yet worn out. Yes, they should generally be replaced in pairs on same axle. But all four when only one is worn out? Wrong. If a tire is round, properly balanced, and has adequate tread remaining, I’m in favor of getting my value out of the tire!
Out 1994 Toyota Camry wobbles so much, we have had all four tires replaced- twice! They thought it was warped wheels, so we bought 4 new wheels-still bad.Then to Toyota dealer, they said engine mount needed replaced! relaced.Same issue! At 60 miles an hour it quits?Any suggestions?
Victor, have you checked your brake rotors? Not sure about Camry, but I know the Tundra suffers from easily warped rotors that make it shake and shimmy. Before I started looking at engine mounts I would make sure all of my suspension bushings were tight.
I’ve this same problem on a ‘93 Ford F-150 4WD, replaced tires, brake pads & shoes, drums, rotors, balanced the driveshaft, and called in an exorcist. The problem still remains. a rolling vbration @ 60-70 MPH, and severe shuddering on braking. Thanks to Autozone for lifetime warranties!
I have a ‘93 Villager that the front passenger tire wobbles, it starts right as I begin moving, any suggestions besides tires?
I have a 2001 Camery. We just replaced the front brake pads and new rotors. I took it back to where I got the tires 2 years ago and they rebalanced and rotated the tires. Car still shake at 65 but 62, no shakes. What is my next step? Thinking about it the car I’ve owned about 4 years and it always has had this shake, even with new tires 2 years ago.