Shaking at 55-60 mph - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Stealth · 03-23-2008, 08:16 AM

Well, I let my friend borrow my car and when he was driving back he called me to tell me there was a weird shaking between 55 and 60 mph. I drove the car after he did to confirm and I'm not really sure what the cause of this is. The check engine light is not on and operation of the car doesn't feel any different except at that speed. I know it's not the tires/wheels needing to be balanced. It feels like something is up with the engine or transmission. I checked the oil and tranny fluid and both are fine. Also just changed the oil yesterday (problem started to occur 2 nights ago).

I'll mess with the car some more today, see if it does it on 3rd or 4th gear only and see if I can get any closer to finding the cause of this problem. If any of you have any guesses, I figure anything is worth a try.

Black95Cam · 03-23-2008, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stealth

I know it's not the tires/wheels needing to be balanced.

i say, try rotating the tires. take like maybe 15 min or so to do.

CamryWilly · 03-23-2008, 11:51 AM

Maybe there's some snow stuck inside the rim...It happened to me the other day after a snowstorm.

Mike Gerber · 03-23-2008, 01:08 PM

"I know it's not the tires/wheels needing to be balanced."

How do you know it's not the wheel balancing? That would be the most common cause of a vibration at speed. The next thing to check would be a possibly bent wheel. Then check for a possibly bent axle. Jack up the front of the car so the wheels are off the ground and support it safely (and I do mean safely) on jackstands. Have a friend put the car in drive and give it gas to accelerate it to the speed where the vibration is felt. You look under the front of the car and observe the wheels, the tires and also the axles for any evidence of the vibration.

The snow posibility is also a good thought.

Mike

a94autoCamry · 03-23-2008, 01:21 PM

when you checked your tranny fluid, what color was it??

does the shaking happen when you accelerate around those speeds??
what happens if you let off the gas pedal at 55-60mph???

im having a similar problem like yours, and a friend tells me that it might be my torque converter
not working properly (since my tranny fluid needs to be flushed and changed) and that might cure my
vibration problems .....

here is a good site about the problem
http://www.aa1car.com/library/vibrations.htm

Stealth · 03-23-2008, 04:57 PM

Definitely no snow, hasn't snowed for weeks and it's almost all melted outside.

Tranny fluid is a dark red. I got the car from my dad at 95k miles, it has 153k on it now. I've never had the tranny fluid flushed and I'm afraid to have it done because it may ruin the seals if I put new fluid in.

Transmission has been making faint grinding noise for like 20k miles now but never seemed to get worse. I have all the plastics under the car removed including the inner fender wells/splash gaurds/whatever.

I'll try jacking it up and driving up to speed, seems like a good point especially to isolate it to the wheels or the drive train.

Forgot to mention the vibration is mostly felt at the gas pedal.

a94autoCamry · 03-24-2008, 02:28 PM

bump....any updates ??

Stealth · 03-24-2008, 02:41 PM

Shaking is still there when I jacked the car up and let the wheels spin freely. It's less noticeable but definitely still there.

Mike Gerber · 03-24-2008, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stealth

Shaking is still there when I jacked the car up and let the wheels spin freely. It's less noticeable but definitely still there.

Did you have someone hold the pedal to reach 55-60 MPH while you observed the tires, wheels and axles from underneath?

Mike

rdimpulser6 · 03-24-2008, 03:18 PM

If it was the wheel balancing, you would feel it a lot in the steering wheel. You said it was at the gas pedal. Could be one of your motor mounts is giving out.

Stealth · 03-24-2008, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Gerber

Did you have someone hold the pedal to reach 55-60 MPH while you observed the tires, wheels and axles from underneath?

Mike

No, but I will try that later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdimpulser6

If it was the wheel balancing, you would feel it a lot in the steering wheel.

Yeah, I tried to see if the steering wheel would shake at it, it didn't (when driving) so that why I was sure it wasn't just wheel balancing.

Spike23 · 03-24-2008, 07:51 PM

I think its the weights on your wheels man.
Ya try doing a tire rotation front to back.
Or if you do your weight or bring it to the shop.
They usually put the heavier weight tires on the back and lighter on front.

ToRn · 03-25-2008, 02:59 PM

Maybe the Right and Left CV joints; if so very dangerouse to drive espcially on the freeways.

Stealth · 03-25-2008, 07:46 PM

I had my CV joints (whole axle actually) replaced not too long ago. Like 20k miles and 2 years, should still be fine but I'll check them out when I get a chance.

a94autoCamry · 03-27-2008, 03:12 PM

bump, did you get a fix on this yet?