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Wheel vibration - can not balance the tires
Car: Toyota, Avalon, 2001 - Back to Fix-It - Toyota Repair Manuals
Q.2001 Toyota Avalon. Had vibration with original wheels and tires. Balanced not help Bought 17 Enkei Wheels and tires. Had balances six times and four different places. Even load road force balanced. Took to dealer They said aftermarket wheels. Put original wheels and new goodyear assurance tires on Still have same vibration at 68 MPH. Took to dealer again. They said they fixed it by having air pressure at 24 pounds. Still vibrates at 68 Worse going downhill and does not always shake at 68. Front seats shake some too in car. I asked dealer if all tie rods, shock mounts, etc were good They said I have bad tires. Would seem that same shake has been there in several tires and two different wheels sets. Any help.
More Info required Clarify a few things:
-How many miles are on the car?
Has the vehicle ever been hit or damaged from an accident?
- The vibration that you speak of, does this happen immediately once you hit speed for the first time after started cold and continue no matter what or does the vibration seem to come and go at times or possibly not start until you drive a few miles?
-Does the vibration seem most noticible at 68 or can it be felt at other speeds as well?
- Do you have the road force measurements from the tires that are on the car right now?
Addition 25000 miles on car Was my fathers. No accidents ever. No vibration at speeds below 60mph. Road force has not been done with new tires. Vibration starts and does get worse going downhill. It is never fully gone. Sometimes it is worse with seats shaking slightly. New tires have been balanced two times. I have over 15 hours and about $300 worth of balancing and dealer checks done on car. I can live with it but it should not be that way. I used to race SCCA Datsun 240 Z and had tires balanced at track by goodyear and was up to 135 MPH with no vibration and it was old bubble balance. Thanks for help.
More Info required I understand and sympathisize with your situation here but lets put the tire idea aside for now...I need you to elaborate on my question about the vibration, walk me throug a drive cycle and how the vibration occurs. For example start cold, drive 3 miles and vibration slowly onsets, etc...
Addition Cold start drive on Interstate Vibrations first does not happen Then after about five miles it starts and does not go away. It would seem since it did this to my Dad too. He is 94 and did not often drive over 60 MPH so he did not notice it much. It was exact same vibaration with new wheels and tires. Old wheels and old tires and old wheels and new tires. THe shake is never really bad but just annoying I have tried putting in neutral downhill too with no change. No brake shake on high speed braking No nosise at all coming from wheel area.
Answer Again let's put the tire comments aside, I get the feeling you are convinced this is tire related, if you want to put your mind at ease on the tire issue then find a friend or relative that has a toyota or lexus with known good vibration free tires and switch to drive the car, the vibration will probably still be there. Dealers have the best road force balancers available, if there was a problem with tires the dealers machine would have found that already.
A few things are being overlooked here. I want to give you an example here... my work car is a 2000 Lexus Es, it is the same engine/transmission/suspension/brake system as your car, it's actually the same car except for the body and interior, I had the same problem after I bought it from a little old man with 20,000 miles on it about 3 years ago.
I found that the car would vibrate after I reached 65 mph for several miles.
Your car has 1 thing going on here that stands out in my mind: not being driven enough. It's great to get a low mileage older car that has not been broken in yet but lack of mileage with age can cause some issues.
2 things to check here and they may come and go so it can be hard to pinpoint.
1- BRAKES!!!!! I found this with my car as well. The Brake calipers slide back and forth on the caliper slide pins, over time the grease hardens and stiffens the movement of the calipers, at higher speeds this can cause 1 or more brake pads to slightly drag, you have very low mileage on the car so inspecting brake pad thickness will not reveal this, if you put another 10-15,000 miles on the car you will probably find that the inner pads wear out while the outer pads still remain thick. Disassemble the front brakes, clean the slides for the pads and clean/lube the slide pins on all 4 corners. When the brakes slightly stick it causes the brakes to vibrate at certain speeds, I have found that the calipers and rotors both heat up and the pad "chatters" causing the vibration with no noise. Usually unless the caliper has a hard and obvious stick this will NOT warp a rotor and give an obvious indication of the root cause.
Item 2- not sure I would go here quite yet but the front driveshaft boots are filled with grease, I have had instances in the past where low mileage cars such as this that are older tend to develop vibrations from the axles. Over time the grease can harden in the axles and if not driven frequently over time the grease can settle to 1 spot inside the boot and harden, this creates the same effect as if you were to stick a very large wheel weight on each wheel, usually if this happens the vibration is constant and will get worse as you go faster and faster.
Give you a good idea of what to look for?
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