Current /previous owner of a host of German vehicles...Mercs. BMW. VW & Porsche. Sooner or later the vibration gremlins hit. Usually culprit is the tires and Michigan pothole roads. Tires still have wear but core or other issues result in varying degrees of vibration. Hard to id which tire is causing the problem. Last instance was on the 2016 BMW 3 series that seemed to have a severe front wheel vibration. car is rear wheel drive so with rear wheel tread low decided to replace them. After new rear tires installed the vibration vanished. Would have put my money on a front tire or other front end issues.
Are you also cursed with the same problem with every car you own?
- Thread starter M104
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My curse is that all three cars are hooptie's, and I can't afford a decent car
Mine's just tires... Thinking it's my wife that's the issue with the cars she drives as now the BMW even has a minor vibration. My other ones are just out of round tires. Sticking with Dueller's on all my good vehicles seems to fix most problems.
I guess invest in a serious magnetic mount for a go pro type camera and start looking at all the rotating assemblies while you drive?
Something/things are out of round, or out of balance. Rear drive shaft, or drive axles sounds like the only things left? Check for play in the joints and splines?
Maybe there's a nasty pot hole your wife hits? I think my one car had a slightly bent front stub axle, as it shook the wheel very slightly at 60kmh with any wheel on it, but it went away until well over 100kmh, so I just ran it as I rarely went faster than that.
I do feel your pain. Its nice to have a glass smooth car for the freeway, and I've had a couple where I've had to swap tires from front to back and side to side, or throw on a snow tire to find the offending wheel/tire assembly.
I guess you could also put the car on wood blocks under the suspension, so its loaded in the normal position, and then run it up, with and without the tires on?
Something/things are out of round, or out of balance. Rear drive shaft, or drive axles sounds like the only things left? Check for play in the joints and splines?
Maybe there's a nasty pot hole your wife hits? I think my one car had a slightly bent front stub axle, as it shook the wheel very slightly at 60kmh with any wheel on it, but it went away until well over 100kmh, so I just ran it as I rarely went faster than that.
I do feel your pain. Its nice to have a glass smooth car for the freeway, and I've had a couple where I've had to swap tires from front to back and side to side, or throw on a snow tire to find the offending wheel/tire assembly.
I guess you could also put the car on wood blocks under the suspension, so its loaded in the normal position, and then run it up, with and without the tires on?
My cars have little niggling things here and there. A slight clunkiness to my mustang manual trans that seems to iron out when I pump the clutch repeatedly, I suspect maybe an issue with hydraulic slave cylinder but I'm not trying to drop the trans right now, so I pump the clutch up when I notice it.. My previous golf had a hard to track down rattle from the front suspension when it would unload on road dips.
I honestly think a lot of people are willfully ignorant of their cars issues and just ignore it. I rode with a friend's and his wife a few years ago, very handy smart people otherwise. He got very defensive when I mentioned it sounded like a wheel bearing was failing. Me, I'd rather replace a wear part like that than listen to it howl, but some people would much rather turn the volume up until it won't proceed down the road.
Even the shops around me aren't really interested in diagnostics of fiddly issues, even though I wish I could find one that was. Whenever I bring a car to try to diagnose intermittent or "feel" issues like my trans, I wish I hadn't. In my experience, repair shops I've used like to deal in things that are clearly broken.
I honestly think a lot of people are willfully ignorant of their cars issues and just ignore it. I rode with a friend's and his wife a few years ago, very handy smart people otherwise. He got very defensive when I mentioned it sounded like a wheel bearing was failing. Me, I'd rather replace a wear part like that than listen to it howl, but some people would much rather turn the volume up until it won't proceed down the road.
Even the shops around me aren't really interested in diagnostics of fiddly issues, even though I wish I could find one that was. Whenever I bring a car to try to diagnose intermittent or "feel" issues like my trans, I wish I hadn't. In my experience, repair shops I've used like to deal in things that are clearly broken.
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Every car that is older than 5 years here has rust on every single bolt underneath. And if not cleaned after 15 years every panel will start to see rust. I hate rust and would gladly move to like Florida or Texas just to have clean older cars.
Yes. I'm cursed to knowing people who believe that if a car breaks while out of warranty it must be sold because it's now forever unreliable and can only be driven during the day, around town, short trips to the store
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