QuestionQUESTION: Recently I experience vibration at a low speed 40-60 km/hr.The whole car vibrate,include steering wheal. My tires have about 2 mm above indicator left and I know I will have to replace them.They are BFGOODRICH TOURING T/A. They have about 60000 km. At one point they were cupping. What would cause this vibration, Tires were balanced not too long ago and I checked suspension and drive axles and everything is tight.Any Idea What would cause this low speed vibration. Appreciate your help.
Back to the tires, Friend recomended Yokohama Avid TRZ. Would you agree?
Roman
ANSWER: Hi Roman,
The 'vibration' you are experiencing MAY be radial-wobble. Radial tires have three pinch-points inside the tire that hold the bead inline with the steel belts on the tread surface. As tires age, they dry out and actually shrink slightly but the steel structure of the tire does not. This makes the three steel bands connecting the bead and tread surface seem more prominent than they did when the tire was new and 'soft'. This vibration is typically only felt at low-speeds and is usually accompanied with a slow-speed 'wobble' of the entire car slightly from side-to-side. When your tires develop a noticeable radial-wobble, it is a good indication that the tires are in need of replacement.
Cupping. Cupping of the tires is typically caused by bad shock absorbers or bad springs. A bad or broken sway-bar end link can also cause cupping of tires as well as very low air pressure but these are things that are very noticeable when they go bad. Low air pressure as well as a bad end-link will cause the car to lose control at low speeds or make you feel like you're driving on ice whereas bad shocks or springs are things that wear or go bad slowly and are therefore less noticeable. You simply get used to the decaying characteristics of these parts until they start to cause other problems.
Thanks for the question, I hope this information is helpful to you.
Kb
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank you very much for the answer, I feel little bit better now,I thought that there is something wrong with transmission or differential.
What tire would you recommend? I am thinking to go with Yokohama avid trz or Michelin hydroedge.
Thank you again
Roman
ANSWER: Hi Roman,
Personally, I'm a Good~Year tire buyer. I don't really have a reason other than Good~Year tires usually give you the most bang for your buck. Check your options on Tirerack.com and discounttires.com or any other ones you want before making your own decision. What works good on one persons car may not perform equally on another. You need to buy what is best for YOUR application. I don't know what type of vehicle it is, but if you are looking for touring tires as you have now, Good~Year and Michelin will probably be your best source. If you are leaning toward performance tires, Yokohama tires are good but for my money, there are no better performance tires than what Pirelli makes. Yes they are a bit more expensive than your standard performance tire, but you get what you pay.
YOU need to figure out what YOU need though. These are some of the things you'll need to consider when purchasing replacement tires.
-Weight of the vehicle (sub-compact, SUV, work truck, etc.)
-Uses of the vehicle (travel, towing, off-road, etc.)
-drive configuration (4x2, 4x4, AWD, etc.)
-Do you typically take corners like a mad-man?
-Do you take long highway trips?
-Do you live in an area that has multiple forms of precipitation? Some that freeze?
- More important to you: fuel mileage or performance?
These are just some of the things you need to determine before you shop for tires. It's sort of like shopping for a pair of sneakers for your car. You probably buy sneakers based on comfort and tires should be no different. You want to be comfortable in your shoes and your car needs to be comfortable in it's shoes. A basketball player is going to buy different sneakers than a runner or a climber so if your vehicle does specific or special tasks on a regular basis, consider that in your purchase decision.
Thanks for the question, I hope this information is helpful to you.
Kb
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hi Kb,
I put new tires on the car and vibration is still there. It vibrates at certain speeds but only low between 35 and 60 km/hr.Someone told me it could be main drive shaft. It feels like front is fighting back, car feels tight.Have you heard about this problem on Honda cr-v? Mine is 2000 AWD.What would you recommend next.Should I take drive shaft off and try to drive without it? Is there anything else to check? How can I check if rear drive clutch work properly. Would I get cod message if there is problem with transmission or converter.Car is shifting very smoothly and I didn't notice any change in that matter. Appreciate your answer
Roman
AnswerHi Roman,
Sorry that the information I gave you didn't eliminate your problem. Drive shaft? possible. You have 4WD, jack and support the vehicle SAFELY using the lower control arms so the wheels don't 'hang'. Support the vehicle well because you will be running it on the stands. Start in 2WD and take the vehicle up to the speed that causes the vibration. If no vibration, lock the front wheels in and try again. If you get a vibration then, it is narrowed down to the front, if it vibrates with only the rear wheels in motion, then it is isolated to the back of the vehicle.
Once you isolate the section of driveline, remove the tires/wheels on that axle. So if you have a vibration in 2WD, remove the back two wheels and tires and put the lug-nuts back on, or at least two of them to hold the drum/rotor in place, and bring the vehicle back up to the speed the vibration usually occurs at. If the vibration is gone, there is a problem with one or both of the wheels (bent?) which would be unlikely. If the vibration STILL persists, then you want to check the U-Joints and rear drive shaft for looseness. I have seen U-Joints cause a pretty decent vibration when only one of the caps goes bad, but it is rare because usually two or more caps go out and this just causes a clank-ing noise. I have also seen the counter-weights fall off of the drive shaft and cause a vibration but this is an even more rare occurance.
I hope you were in the market for tires before I advised you to replace them.
Thanks for the question, I hope this information helps you more than the previous stuff did.
Fred
Kb
