I was driving home on the highway last night, road was wet and a bit slushy from snow, and traffic was moving at around 70-90km/hr. Twice during the drive, the steering just started to vibrate, it was almost like a switch had been turned on when it started, not gradual like a wheel out of balance, and it didnt go away if i sped up or slowed down. As I slowed down to pull over it got progressively worse, and continued even after the car was stopped and in park. I shut the car off, waited 10 seconds or so, turned it back on and the vibration was gone.

Continued down the highway and it happened again about 10 minutes later. Did the same thing, it went away and i was able to get home without it doing it again.

It felt like an extremely eggagerated version of the lane assist vibration, but the car doesn't have lane assist (17 F Type S), and I was no where near the edge of the lane anyway.

Thoughts?

 

Dodgy connection on the electric power steering?

 

Would a loose connection behave that way? It wasnt on, off, on in a random way, it 'came on' and didnt go off until after i turned the car off and back on again. And would the vibration be a symptom of a loose connection?

Oh one other note - no dash messaging whatsoever.

 

It sounds like you have the lane assist safety alarm on. It activates when you touch the line on either side of your lane. It can be turned off, correct the car towards the center of the lane, or in your case vibrate the steering wheel. I think you change it in in the “set up” option.
jim

 

I'm pretty sure this model/year doesn't have lane assist - there are no settings for it in the dash/information panel. The vibration is way more pronounced than the lane assist vibration, and with lane assist you get a picture on the dash panel when it kicks in. (I had a 2018 XF with lane assist so I know what it feels like). And the vibration stayed on regardless of where I was on the road/lane, and only went off after I pulled the car over and turned the car off. It actually stayed vibrating while sitting in park on the side of the road.

 

Slush or snow in a wheel throwing it out of balance?

 

Not in park at the side of the road, though ....

 

Doh! Should have read post more carefully.

Maybe car was afraid of the road conditions and was shivering.

 

no lane assist in your car, vibration when driving and stopped, my guess is that a possible engine, transmission mount is bad. Just a guess. Good luck in finding the problem and please let the forum know the solution. Cheers Frank

 

I would bet it is this, especially with the tight wheel clearances between caliper and rim. I've had it happen with snow/slush many times here in New England with my other vehicles. I think the OP meant pulling over and stopping and putting the car in park didn't resolve the issue when starting again (as I don't know how you would feel a steering vibration in park). Once it melts the vibration goes away.

 

not likely as it went away when I turned the car off and then back on.

 

UPDATE - I was able to capture a couple videos of the problem while the car was idling in park in my driveway. one is of the steering wheel and the other is of on of the front tires - I noticed when I got out of the car that both front tires were vibrating as well. I'm actually going to upgrade the symptom to "shaking" not just a vibration.

I also noticed that the steering is very loose when this is happening - very easy to turn the steering wheel, still have full range of motion and turning radius.

I've uploaded the videos to youtube (hopefully I did this right), here are the links:

 

Videos are private so not watchable. Certainly sounds like an issue with the electric power assist.

 

I'm not that good with technology. Trying again, here are (I think) public youtube videos:

 

That works. I see a trip to the dealer for you.

 

I hoped the videos might help with a diagnoses. Anyone else out there have any ideas? It seems to be electrical not mechanical, could it be as simple as a bad fuse? Or as someone said earlier, a bad connection that resets when I shut the car off? Maybe there's a computer related component that's on the fritz?

Anything anyone can provide by wat of assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

Given how sensitive these cars are to battery condition, I'd make sure the battery is fully charged and start diagnosing from there. Just to eliminate one (however remote) possibility.

 

Definitely a strange issue. When I watched the "vibrating tire/wheel" video, my first thought was that it was just shivering from the cold weather!

 

Did a google search on this issue. It seems it has happened on cars with electric steering racks when a steering column torque sensor went bad. The sensor tells the steering rack how much force the driver is putting on the steering wheel.

 

That would make sense. It's definitely not a mechanical problem. Thanks!