Light Shake in the sterring wheel

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Airforcels

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Hello everyone! This is only the second time posting on the site, but i am very pleased with the friendly people:) I just have one problem with my LS and was hoping someone could give me some advice!?

When i am driving down the road around 35mph I get a shake in the steering wheel. It is a light shake but it bothers the crap out of me! And when I stop, the car shakes lightly. I am sure this is not normal with a smooth car like this! Thanks again
 
The light shake in you steering wheel could be that your wheels need balancing
 
I have a similar problem with mine but it happens when im doing about 75. I was told it was a bump in my tire.
it sounds like in your case that you might need a balancing like brendan said. Does it shake when your slowing down to stop or is it shaking when you are at a complete stop? Cuz if its shaking when your not moving then thats a whole other problem.
 
Wheel balance will typically get bad at a particular speed, but then go away at higher speed. Tire problems will typically get worse the faster you go.

If you are getting a vibration when braking, it is something you want looked at fairly quickly. If not you will start to get some uneven tire wear, once that happens the only fix is to replace the tires.
 
Yeah, It shakes lightly in the steering wheel when braking so i was thinking i might want to get my rotors looked at. I will look into getting the tires balanced as well. Thanks for all the advice!
 
I get that at higher speeds, usually around 75. Sometimes it's pretty bad, sometimes it's not there at all. I had this on my old tires, then on my new wheels and tires that were balanced before i put them on, and again after getting my tires rotated and balanced. anybody have a thought on that?
 
After getting new tires mine still does it around 75 too but its not as bad at least. i drove about 12 hrs on them last week and it was doing it but was only very slightly noticable
 
All of the above I agree with AND if you have aftermarket alloys it could be the hub rings if they don't fit nice and snug. I had to search for different hub rings to get mine to settle down.
 
Does your car shake at a COMPLETE stop, or slowing down? It's either wheel balancing or brake aligning if it's slowing down.
 
Rise from the dead. Got my 20's put on 2 days ago and noticed a bad vibration from 55mph - 75mph. Above and below was pretty good. The very next day I took it for an alignment. It was pretty much on point already but some things were moved a little. Problem persists. I take it back today for a reblance. They rebalance the tires, she me 0.0 on the machine and we take it for a test. Problem persists. This time we had hub rings and take it for a drive. Problem goes away for the 3 miles trip. Next drive out, problem is back, maybe not as bad though.

What the hell do I do next?
 
Kevin, are the hub rings exact size as needed? Do they fit really tights on the car and inside the wheel? If not the balance then those should be the problem.
 
I'm having a light shake in the steering wheel when driving and a little when braking. I'm convinced it's my rotors. The jackass who put my wheels on (me:rolleyes: ) didn't put the lug nuts on evenly, so the rotors warped pretty quickly. I have new rotors sitting in my trunk, but just haven't had the time to slap them on yet. If you're just noticing a shake after new wheels, have your rotors looked at. If you didn't tighten the lug nuts evenly or didn't use a torque wrench (not absolutely necessary, but nice), you're asking for warped rotors.
 
Ok gonna bring this up again...
For the past month I have had a bad vibration ( through steering wheel and pedals) at highway speeds 60 to 80 (havent went above 80). I took it to the dealership and they balanced the tires. They said it still shakes we dont know what is wrong, our front end guy is not in. So I brought it back to their front end specialist and he told me it was the tires causing the vibration. I went to the tire place and they said it was the hub bearing, back to dealer, they replaced hub bearing (still have a warranty). So the tire place did replace my tires because of the vibration it caused my tires to cup along the edges. So yesterday I had new tires installed and an alignment done ( toe on front was way off). Drivng home vibration is still there!!! What else could it be?
 
Hunter Roadforce

The LS is a very balanced and smooth car and even the smallest amount of imbalance can usually be felt. Consider upgrading the way you balance your wheels and tires, especially if you’re not stock any more. This method can find things that the normal balance machine can not physically measure. The tire and wheel really need to be under load while balanced. The site has a place to find the nearest shop to you that can do it. Of couse it's more expensive!

http://tinyurl.com/3axh6l
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clubairth said:
The LS is a very balanced and smooth car and even the smallest amount of imbalance can usually be felt. Consider upgrading the way you balance your wheels and tires, especially if you’re not stock any more. This method can find things that the normal balance machine can not physically measure. The tire and wheel really need to be under load while balanced. The site has a place to find the nearest shop to you that can do it. Of couse it's more expensive!

http://tinyurl.com/3axh6l
.
.
Click to expand...

I'm going to try this machine (cost is about $20 per tire BTW). I recently got 4 new Bridgestone Potenza Pole Positions and there is a slight vibration in the steering wheel at about 65-70 MPH. Strange thing is that the severity of the shake seems to vary by road condition. Does this make sense? There is no vibration at speeds less than 50, and no vibration in the pedals at any speed.
 
Road Force

The local places that do Road Force have a lifetime satisfaction guarantee. Can you have them try again? For what they charge they should.
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Well, I DO have a couple of banged up wheels from these craters they call potholes in NYC, all which seemed to balance out ok. One was in the tire itself as well. Seeing as how I have friends that hook me up, I don't have to pay anything for it. Not a big deal. I don't do all that much highway driving anyway.
 
Tires, tires and more tires.

Hey guys, I gotta say something here. Tires are not perfect creatures. Some tires just naturally resonate at certain speeds. Some tires are manufactured poorly and end up on the consumer shelf at the local tire dealer. My job is an expert in tire failures. You have to know that most tires are still hand made with the assistance of machines. Usually tire builders are pretty well trained,,,,but they are human and the blend of polymers that go into a tire vary to a large degree during any single day. You generally get what you pay for with tires. The better the quality control at the plant, the better product you get. I stick with Mich's and Goodyear. The best tires are sold to the big three for new vehicles. They demand that their cars operate smoothly when new. The dealers get the rest and any over capacity is sold as off brands. So what does this mean? If you buy some tires that vibrate take them back and switch to another model.:)
 
tireman said:
Hey guys, I gotta say something here. Tires are not perfect creatures. Some tires just naturally resonate at certain speeds. Some tires are manufactured poorly and end up on the consumer shelf at the local tire dealer. My job is an expert in tire failures. You have to know that most tires are still hand made with the assistance of machines. Usually tire builders are pretty well trained,,,,but they are human and the blend of polymers that go into a tire vary to a large degree during any single day. You generally get what you pay for with tires. The better the quality control at the plant, the better product you get. I stick with Mich's and Goodyear. The best tires are sold to the big three for new vehicles. They demand that their cars operate smoothly when new. The dealers get the rest and any over capacity is sold as off brands. So what does this mean? If you buy some tires that vibrate take them back and switch to another model.:)
Click to expand...

I agree seeing that I see vibration issues all the time with customers, and I worked for ford which there SUV's seemed very tempermental with vibration. The only tire I was able to count on to cure the issues was using the Michelin tires. Also on another note, you probably know better than me, but a freind on mine had new tires put on his truck, terrible vibration, they all passed road force and balanced and still vibration. Did not go away until he replaced to a diff. tire on all 4. Same thing with my brothers 20's on his Acura, I balanced them, all passed road force and balanced, still terrible vibration. So how do they pass all aspects of the balancing and still have a terrible vibration, even pass the rim check???
 
Here's the answer to your question

Go to google and lookup tire uniformity or tire harmonics for an indepth discussion of the subject. You may need a PHD to sort some of the stuff out but it is mostly straight forward.

Harmonics is the answer. Some tire tread designs or tire construction designs simply have a high resonance at certain speeds. With the right equipment you can balance some of it out. Now if you put one of these tires on your vehicle it may work perfectly (on the right vehicle). But vehicles produce their own harmonics at certain speeds also, so match up two oddities and you get these problems that are impossible to track down or correct. The only real solution is to find tires that will work with your vehicle. At higher speeds a tire actually expands in size and you get high speed wooble (very scary to see a video of this happening). Makes you want to slow down!

Manufacturers are constantly working to improve these problems. As the vehicles become more highly tuned they demand even more performance from the tires themselves. A catch 22, I suppose. No two tires have the exact same resonance frequency. The bad ones are rejected at the plant of production. If acceptable within a certain tolerance they are passed on the consumer.

Get a good touring tire with quiet smooth riding characteristics. And enjoy the silky smooth ride of the LS.:)
 
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