The day before yesterday, my car drove perfectly -- balanced just like normal. But after washing it that evening it's developed a shaking. At 80 it's extremely noticeable and past 120 it feels like I'm going to explode. I thought that I had missed a few spots of dirt that may have been throwing balance off, so I washed the wheels and undercarriage for about half an hour to make sure that everything was off. But that didn't help. So this morning I took it to Mitsu and had them pull it in one of their bays to let the warm temps melt anything off. There was some melting but it didn't change anything.

So now I need to figure out what to do. I wouldn't think it would be an alignment issue because there really wasn't anything that could have happened between where it was parked at work and the car wash across the street. Wheel balance may the issue, but after letting it set inside a warm bay for two hours I would like to think that everything has melted off. It will be above freezing today and tomorrow as well.

Any suggestions? I'm sort of at a loss.

 

i hope you were doing 120 on a race track.

i'd take it to a tire/suspension shop

 

If you're 100% sure there's nothing sticking on the wheels like snow or ice to throw the balance off, you might want to check your wheel weights too if they're still on.

I remember losing a 65gram wheel weight on a wheel. It was shaking like mad at higher speeds (~110-120 mph) but it was progressive. The higher the speed, the more it shook. So I'd take it to a wheel shop and check wheel balances first. Alignment usually doesn't cause shaking unless it's severely off.


And no ikt, it wasn't done on a race track. Why is there always someone who starts dragging in useless stuff. Next person is going to post he did 120 off the track, next one will explain to him that it's a felony and the grand finale, the topic will be about idiots doing 120 mph on the highway. Yes, I'm one of those idiots, I don't do it in the USA but I do it. Daily. It's far from dangerous.

 

Check you lug nuts. When I purchased mine new about a week later it starting shaking very bad. The front left wheel was about to fall off, one lug nut was holding it on.

 

Weights and lugnuts check out. I think I may run down to a tire/alignment shop and get them to take a look real quick.

And also, if you have any suggestions on where to safely conduct high-speed tests around areas with no track available, I'm more than open. The reality is that it's unrealistic to take a car to a track to "test" something like this.

 

Maybe one of the belts in your tire broke? This happend to my minivan last week, lots of shaking.

 

At the shop. Apparently one of the front tires has a flat spot. >: (

 

I remember my civic had that...the rear wheel had locked up somehow and caused the tire to become sort flat on one side..had to get a new tire.

 

shave all 4 of them to the same tread depth and use whatever's left of them.

 

Rotated and re-balanced. Took it to a "track" to test and it's perfect again. And I'm happy again. I'll have to watch that one tire, though.

 

So it developed a flat spot after washing it?

Some tires develop a bit of a flat spot after sitting for a while and it takes some time for it to even itself back out. Never heard of one having a permanent flat spot from sitting around though.

 

That's when I first started having problems, yeah. Which makes zero sense. I had been driving around all morning and my car sat for maybe 5 hours (significantly less than the usual overnight parking) before I washed it and noticed the violent shaking. Definitely wasn't dirt or ice build-up on the wheel as I thoroughly cleaned it and then checked it out while it was hoisted earlier. All I know is there was a pretty obvious flat spot that somehow occurred pretty much at random. It makes no sense!

 

I know some idiots power washed the stick on wheel weights off both my front tires a few weeks ago, didn't even notice for a week and a half till i went on a long trip and hit like 80.

Did a spouse take the thing for a joy ride and lock up the wheels maybe?