Steering Vibrates around ~ 20/25 MPH

[msangapu]

Hey guys... I own a 1999 Toyota Camry Solara and just recently put in new rotors and brakes with the help of a friend. I also rotated the tires... since then I've noticed that the car will start to vibrate on a smooth road around 20 - 25 MPH. When I say vibrate, the whole car does it, not just the steering. There is also increased road noise. It almost feels wobbly like the tires are about to come loose.

I looked online and I saw that sometimes tires need to be balanced after a rotation, so I took it to the local WalMart and had all the tires balanced. That did not fix the problem at all. I also checked the lug nuts and they were all tight as can be.

Before I changed the rotors and brakes, the car would vibrate this way but only at 60 MPH or higher... I do have one tire that is on the rear driver side that is more worn than the others (previously on the front right before rotation). Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

When I took it to Midas initially for a brake inspection, they also said that my inner tire rod might need to be replaced. I'm not sure if that is the problem or if that will help. The car drives terribly... If you've driven a camry/solara before then you know how smooth they can be. I feel like I'm driving a geo metro over a road that's completely full of pot holes. I used to own a geo before.

Again, it vibrates at noticably at 20 MPH. However, there are temporary periods when it will stop vibrating. I was at a stop and I punched it to about 50 MPH and for the next ~ 2 minutes, it did not vibrate at all. Then it came back again shortly.

If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to reply. Thank you for taking the time to read my problem.

[Dave's]

Have someone follow you and/or drive beside you. See if one of your tires is bouncing, particularly that rear driver's side. Feel the roundness of the tires to check for cupping. Your struts could be bad which allows the rear tires to bounce and cup. When you move them to the front- you'll know it.

[msangapu]

Okay... I will have someone check the bouncing today. I'm wondering if the rotors or the pads had anything to do with it? I trust my friends experience and I believe we put them in correctly, but I wonder if something is loose? I am going to go back and check the rotors and the pads later this week.

It was also suggested that one of my rims could be bent? I did hit a curb (slid into it sideways) a few weeks ago... but maybe the problem didn't arise until the rotation?? Just a wild guess here... It wasn't vibrating like this before... not until we did the rotors, pads and the rotation. We did all these at the same time.

I need to know if driving like this is bad for the car? When the car vibrates - if I keep driving the car like this, is it bad for anything?

Thank you.

[Vibroseis]

"... I do have one tire that is on the rear driver side that is more worn than the others (previously on the front right before rotation). Not sure if that has anything to do with it."


I heard that you should always rotate tires to the same side of the car -meaning - front right goes to rear right and vise versa. This is done to maintain the same direction of spin on the wheels to eliminate any buckling on the steel belts inside the tire which might cause some vibration.

So in your case, move left rear to right rear and vise versa. Hope that helps!

[bassthrive]

I had symptoms like that not too long ago. They were caused by a tire that went bad - it had a nasty hop to it. Could have been fixed with a road force balancer but it was worn enough to warrant total rubber replacement. Also check for bent rims at your next balancing. Also an alignment check couldnt hurt.

[msangapu]

Okay. I have some updates on the problem.

We rotated the tires back to their original places and the vibration disappeared (up until 60 mph). Then I switched the front right with the rear right and the vibration came back, but at 45mph instead of the 25mph.

So, when I had the original front-right tire on the rear-left, it vibrated like crazy at 25mph. When I moved it to the rear-right, it vibrated at 45mph. When I moved it back to the original spot, it vibrates at 60mph (which is what it did initially).

Currently I have the original front-right on the rear-right and vice versa (rear-right on front-right). It vibrates around 45mph. I'm okay with that because my worn tire is now on the rear-right. I'm afraid it will wear out faster if I put it back in the original spot (even though the vibration disappears). Also, I noticed that the car pulls to the right. I can literally change lanes by letting go of the wheel when I drive straight. I have to hold it a little left of center to drive straight. Interesting that it wasn't pulling this much to the right when the wheel was on the rear-left.

I would think Midas or WalMart would have noticed if I had a bent rim (WalMart balanced it once and checked it again the next day)...

So that leaves the tire and the alignment. The car is definitely pulling. It doesn't pull as much if this worn tire is on the rear-left, but it vibrates a whole lot more.

Can alignment cause this vibrating to occur?

Also, I don't know if this means anything, but sometimes only the steering vibrates and sometimes just the car, but most of the time they both vibrate significantly...

[bassthrive]

steering wheel vibration = front wheels out of balance
seat of the pants vibration = rear wheels out of balance

before you go get an alignment done (which would probably be wise regardless since you describe pulling to one side) be sure the lug nuts are tightened to spec in the proper star pattern (I am drawing a blank as to the actual torque, but i am semi-sure my aftermarket 17's are 10-11kgm).

also, any stoner walmart tech could throw a slightly out-of-round wheel on a machine and read it as balanced.

only other thing i could think of, and this may not pertain to stock rims, but aftermarket wheels have hubcentric rings that center the wheel on the hub. if this applies to you, maybe your rings are bad.

[msangapu]

the front right wheel had a "bubble" in it... and so did the rear right... i had two tires replaced and now the car runs smooth. shouldn't the balancing have found this??

[Hajoca]

Nope, the balancer does not load the tire to the condition of the tire on a car on the ground.
The bubble is not going to give the sidewall support when load is applied, and the tire goes out of round even more.

By spinning the tire to balance only means that the tire and wheel has balance rotation mass.

[BadChicken]

the balancer wouldn't find the bubble but the tech who balanced them should have