Guys I need some help. I have been experiencing a vibration in the steering wheel for about a year and half now. The dealership told me the tires (Dunlop Sport MAXX) tend to flat spot and that the vibration is a characteristic of the tires. 6 months ago they told me the tires are cupping and that is what now is causing the vibration.

I had all 4 tires replaced today (Continental DWS) and Road Force Balanced by the Dealership. I then had the alignment done which came back in spec.

Guess What...the vibration is still there. Now the steering wheel doesn't "shake" like it used to but you can still feel the vibration when gripping on the steering wheel. Worse when driving into/out of corners.

I am starting to now think I may have an issue with some front end suspension. Can anyone suggest things I should look at or have looked at it by the dealership? Shocks/Busings/Steering column etc? Has anyone else had this issue.

I currently have the 20 inch Draco OEM wheels. The dealership verified no bent wheels.

 

Have the wheels and tires road force balanced before you conclude your wheels are perfectly round.

Modern tires do tend to flat spot but that goes away after a few minutes.

Road force balancing involves matching the high spot on the tire to the low spot on the rim and then dynamically balancing the resulting package with simulated road force applied. If this is done it should show up the slightest issue with the tires or wheels, before you investigate the next possibility which is a wheel bearing (very common) or decayed rubber bushing (also common).

 

Did he not state in his post that he had them road force balanced?

FWIW, I think the cast alloy wheels used on the XFR are pretty soft. I bent a couple slightly on my '10 XFR (I had the Nevis, not the Dracos) - subtle enough that a cursory inspection would have missed them.

Also, here is a link to an algorithm for vibration issues which you may have already seen in one form or another; just in case it helps: http://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/vibechart.pdf

 

Thanks guys.

 

Woops, so he did. Next question is did the tire tech know how to match the high and low spots?

One way to track down a tire issue is to move wheels front to back since the back is less sensitive to imbalances. Move both and if the vibration changes (or disappears) move one back and then the other to identify the tire/wheel causing the issue. If fitting new tires improved the situation then I'm betting on a wheel being out of round.

 

I am going to have them look at the following:


- Bent/Out of Round Wheels
- Suspension Parts
- Are the tires out of round?
- Issues with the Steering Column


What concerns mean is the previous tires were cupped and the dealership stated it was because the car was out of alignment. Well that turned out to be a false statement when I got the alignment checked and everything was in spec!

 

There are good ***********s and there are bad ones. Unfortunately, IME, the good ones are in the minority, and this runs across all brands. The bad ones will tell you anything under the sun. I'm not saying they are all a bunch of liars, rather to view what they say with a healthy dose of skepticism.

^^ Edit: How quaint. Pejorative term used above for dealerships censored by the forum *****. Now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

I was at the dealership this morning and they told me that they did not road force balance the tires. They said I need to put about 1k miles on the tires for the road force balance to be beneficial. Sounds like BS to me but I will roll with it!


As part of the road force balance they will check for any out of round wheels or tires. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

My car developed an annoying vibration between 80 -100 kph! Tyres we're changed as the dealer said they were flat spotted! That didn't help! Rims were then identified as being out of centre, 2 were repaired, and placed at the back. Still no fix! Finally the dealer replaced front upper and lower control arms under warranty and that for the most part has cured the malady. there's still a slight vibration but I put that down to other worn rubber at the front of the car as it's about to turn 5 years old.

Hope that helps with your diagnosis

 

Definitely BS. New tire install and road force balance is beneficial.

 

God they are good at the BS. Just when I think I've heard them all....

 

My 2010 XFR shook badly when I braked (only when I braked). I thought it was balancing or alignment but Jag dealer told me that everything checked out OK but it's because the car was "driven hard". WTF does that mean??? Either there's something wrong, or there isn't!


They said everything checks OK so my wheel vibrates and shakes a little when I brake hard...


CPO 2010 XFR.

 

I believe that feeling under heavy breaking is generally warped rotors.

Also might need to show your roll a little on the signature pic. Might want to shrink that a lot so it's not taking up half our page

 

Another cause of vibration during braking, especially from higher speeds, is one or more caliper pistons sticking. Sometimes you can look at inner & outer faces of disks to see that one or more is different, commonly less shiny, to see which is the culprit.

 

Or with floating calipers the guide pins can stick.

Bottom line: vibration through the brake pedal or steering under braking means your brakes need servicing.

I first try the reverse Italian tune up (for engines you accelerate to red line and repeat in each gear until the plugs fire cleanly or you get arrested) which involves a series of hard braking events (do not stop the car as the pads will imprint on the discs and make the vibration worse) to clean up the pads, rotors and any crud that might be sticking your calipers, guide pins, slides or pistons depending on the design of your brakes.

If this doesn't work for you then you need to deglaze or occasionally actually true up the rotors, emery cloth, grind or replace the pads or dismantle and clean or lubricate ONLY with brake caliper grease the calipers.

A car driven hard should keep the brakes in good shape. It is easy driving that degrades brake performance. Only if you drive hard, brake hard heating up the brakes and then stop the car with hot pads in one place will hard driving affect brakes (other than wear rate of course).

 

I have been trying to figure out how to shrink that pic for a few days and couldn't. I am taking new ones soon so I figured I would spend the time on new VS old - but if there's and easy fix plz advise!!

 

No worries, the easy button would be to open the pic up in MS paint, shrink it down, save it and host it again on whatever site you use (or upload it if this forum allows uploads to sigs)

 

wow thanks! I never realized how easy it was to shrink an image in MS Paint! I have been playing with this stupid image for hours in Picasa and did it in 30 seconds

 

Any update?

Not sure what they are trying to get at with this comment. In theory, tires can slip a bit on the wheels if driven hard, but who says they need 1000 miles before the risk of this happening goes away?

 

I had an independent shop Road Force Balance the tires/wheels. They came back with the final numbers as:


FL: 0, 0, 9
RL: 0, 25, 19
FR: 0, 15, 15
RR: 0, 0, 19


Anyone know what these numbers mean? The vibration is still there so I am taking it back to the dealer next week. I would describe the "vibration" as something like driving over a rumble strip.