Really bad shaking at highway speeds

[SynthRocker]

As the title mentions, the car shakes HORRIBLY at highway speeds, namly 65+ the whole car shakes... Its not to bad in the city, shakes here and there but not bad..

It shakes so much where the passanger can feel it, and you can see my two hands shaking on the wheel, but thats at stupid fast speeds =x I'm guessing it could be the wheel bearings ? Any thoughts? Thanks

 

[JiggahMan]

Been playing in the mud lately? My friend and I were out drifting once and he hit a ditch.. The car vibrated to 60 then started violently shaking.

 

[DSM Jeff]

how are your brakes? next time that happens get on the brakes and see if you can feel that in ur brake pedal. this happened to a friend and their brakes had been dragging and warped the rotors. the brakes would never fully release so they would drag, heat up the rotor, warp then and cause a violent shake like you are talking about.

 

[gsx rated98]

Brakes is very likely, but also take it to an alignment shop. You may have a bent wheel, or something bent in the suspention, and you wont feel it untill you get some speed behind you.

 

[SynthRocker]

Thanks! I'm taking it into the shop for a wheel balance and alignment in the next week or so.

Dident event THINK about the brakes, good call, deftiantly have to check it out.

But if it was the brakes, would I feel it in the steering wheel as much as I do?

 

[Jordan1083]

i read the replys and noticed no one mentioned TIRES i had a set of yokos on when they wore out it sounded like a wheel bearing! it was horrible i was freaking out hit 60 miles an hour and it felt like my car was about to fall apart...but anyway how good are your tires.

 

[SynthRocker]

i read the replys and noticed no one mentioned TIRES i had a set of yokos on when they wore out it sounded like a wheel bearing! it was horrible i was freaking out hit 60 miles an hour and it felt like my car was about to fall apart...but anyway how good are your tires.

Somewhat bald hehe..

 

[Spyke169]

I had a bent rim and I had bad vibrating and a howling noise too

 

[SynthRocker]

I had a bent rim and I had bad vibrating and a howling noise too

I have the factory alloys. I get a howling sound, kind of sounds like a turbo spool with small/no BOV (From the inside of the car) sounds weird on the outside of the car.

 

[Staytuned]

Wheels unbalanced, worn tires or worn ball joints will all cause this vibration.

 

[Jordan1083]

bald tires eh id get those changed...its always the simple things that are overlooked

 

[daveyfx]

Could bad tierods also cause that?

 

[ahaidet]

I work for Hankook Tire's Akron technical center, where I work in the Tire Engineering Technologies department as an intern.
Tire related there are a few things that can cause the vibration you talk about in level of decreasing severity:

1) broken belt/cord- Have you hit any potholes hard/ curbs/ anything else?? Are there any abnormal protrusions sticking out from the sidewall (ever seen a really worn basketball? where there are like bumps on it in places where its most worn.. will look just like that) I have done this myself, was driving through a section of road where they were repairing the road, sign said bump, I didn't listen, broke a body cord in the two drivers side tires. Also you said the tires are pretty much bald are there any belts showing? If a tire is driven with exposed belts this can destroy the belt. The belt is basically what holds the whole tire together so if this is the case STOP DRIVING THE CAR NOW!! A broken belt is a serious problem! And can lead to blowouts and tread separations... If you live near a local tire shop I'd reccomend getting the car there as soon as possible. They can take a look at the tire and throw it on the balancing machine and it will tell them if there is a problem with the tire.

2)A balancing weight can fall off the wheel. You have the stock wheels so most likely you have crimp on weights which stay put pretty good, but they can still fall off if they are scraped on a curb or hit a bump hard, sometimes they have defects of if the tire shop reused the old ones they can be weak. This isn't a serious problem but can be annoying and the tire needs rebalanced.

3) As a tire wears, it doesn't wear evenly around the circumference. So as time goes on the tire goes out of balance. When the tire was originally balance till when the tire is well worn the balance of the wheel assembly can change pretty drastically. However this would most likely slowly happen and from what I understand this was a rather sudden occurrence?

4) When tires are molded there is a certain level of runout around the tire (basically the tire is out of round a little bit from the factory, all tires are a tiny bit some more than others.) Same goes for wheels. If the two are not properly matched like if the high point in the wheel and high point in the tire match up than you can get very serious vibrations. Most modern balancing machines take this into account and when the tires are balanced it measures the runout, the machine then has the ability to tell the mounter where to mount the tire so as they don't match up, also called "match mounting." Not likely since the tire didn't do this from when you first got it I am assuming?

Any rate if your driving the car at high speeds with a broken belt you are putting your life in danger.. so try and get to a tire shop soon, and at the very least no high speed stuff until you get it checked out. But I would start with the tires as this is the simplest of things to check and while the tire shop is looking at the tires they will also inspect your wheels for damage. Then get into brakes/ suspension components. Good luck.

 

[tsunari]

My shaking turned out to be bad tierod ends. Make sure you check both the inner and outter ones . . .