Intermittent Vibration, Belt Shifting?

[javacontour]

I also posted this in Wheels and Tires, so if you've already read it, no need to continue.

I took our 2002 Sienna to my trusty mechanic for a check-out before oilBabe takes it to Dallas, TX next week to visit her brother, SIL and their new baby with our kids and her mom.

The van has a very intermittent vibration that may or may not happen during a trip. It might happen 1/2 hour into the trip, or may not happen for an hour or so, or may never happen. When it does, the wheel can shake severely, but not so much that one loses control of the vehicle.

Then, it goes away.

So I asked them to look at the van to see if anything is obvious, alignment, balance, broken or bent suspension parts, struts, etc.

They did the inspection and found nothing horribly wrong, re-balanced the wheel/tire assy and gave it back.

He mentioned it may be a slipping belt in a tire.

I really can't find much on a slipping belt on line, so I thought I'd ask about it.

oilBabe is taking the van to work today to see if the problem recurs. If it does, I'll swap two of the wheel/tire assy from her Camry to the van and drive it again to see if the problem stays or goes.

But other than this method, are there any tips or hints on how to track down such a fault.

Second, what is going on if there is such a fault.

Finally, we bought the van used, so if it turns out to be a bad tire, will Goodyear still warranty the tire, or are we on our own?

 

[MrCritical]

I've never heard of a slipping belt. Either it slipped or it didn't. I don't think it can go back and forth.

But someone with more tire knowlede than me may know better.

OEM tire warranty probably expired with the base factory warranty on the van. It shouldn't matter how many owners the van has had.

Have you thought of rotating the tires and see if the problem moves? How many miles on the tires?

 

[javacontour]

These are not the OEM tires, it's a 2002 van after all. They look practically brand new and are Goodyear Comfortread, IIRC.

 

[punisher]

Originally Posted By: MrCritical
I've never heard of a slipping belt. Either it slipped or it didn't. I don't think it can go back and forth.


You are spot on. A slipped/broken belt will permanently deform a tire.

Something I learned (the hard way), intermittent vibrations are sometimes caused by worn inner CV joints. Since you seem to have weeded out the more common causes of front end vibrations, checking the inner CVs might be worth a look. A bad tire will usually cause steering wheel feedback, a bad CV will cause a general front end shake, not so much a specific steering wheel shake. If the shaking stops immediately when you let off the gas, that is a classic inner CV symptom.

Good luck.

 

[MrCritical]

I think punisher is on the right track.

 

[javacontour]

I took it for a long drive last night, and after about 15-30 minutes of driving, the vibration began. It took a while, but it was there, and didn't go away until after dropping to a lower speed, like from 70 to 40-50 MPH.

The other thing I noticed was that there was some really bad shudder under braking at speed.

Swapped the front tires to eliminate that, such as a tire growing as it heats up or shrinking, or whatever. Same behavior this morning.

So I went off for new pads and rotors, brake cleaner, hardware kit. (I already had blue caliper grease.)

oilBabe has had it out for the past 30 minutes and says it's much better.

I would have sent her in her car, but I found a torn CV boot when I was swapping tires around, so I parked her car in the garage. It's going back to the shop on Monday as they installed this axle back in August or September.

I guess it was good I looked at that. That's the only issue we've had with the Camry, but it's been a recurrent theme. First a torn boot that was repaired, and then 75K miles later we had the axle replaced, and in 10K miles it tore a boot.

Not bad for a car that has traveled the distance light travels in one second, 186K miles.