Car Shaking Problems

It's either the brake pads or rotors. If you are a hard braker stopping at the last minute, or have frequent stops from highway speeds, your rotors can heat up to very high temps. When you park your car with smokin hot rotors they can warp as they cool because the spot where the pads sit will cool at a different rate than the rest of the rotor. This can be even worse if you drive through a puddle before you park the car. Have your pads changed, and your rotors either replaced or fixed.

Look under the front end of the car. You will find round bars, or rods going horizontally from the steering gear to the wheel spindle / steering knuckle assemblies on both sides. Those are the tie rods. There are 2 parts that make up the connecting tie rod:

* The inner tie rod connects to the steering 'rack and pinion' assembly on the inside, and to the...

* Outer tie rod, aka tie rod 'end' - which then mounts into the backside of the steering knuckle

Just hitting the brakes will not stop the car if the brakes are faulty. Pressing the brake pedal starts a process by which brake fluid disperses the force of your foot by increasing the surface area of the fluid being pushed. This increase in force is then transferred to "soft" pads that press against the moving wheels of the car. This friction is what stops the car. However, if the brake pads do not make contact with the wheels, the brake lines carrying he brake fluid are severed, the brake fluid is low or empty, or the connection between the brake pedal and the whole system is faulty, then the brakes will fail.

There are multiple reasons for that. The simplest one is poorly balanced tires, then it can be ball joints, or tie rods (inner or/and outer). Also it can be front wheel bearings and it can be the steering column itself.

Bearings are easy to diagnose. If you put your car on jacks and try apply pressure toward the car on the top of the tire, and with another hand pull the wheel toward you, and doing it a periodic manner you notice there is a room. You need to change the bearing.

With ball joints usually it's harder. What you can do is to check if its boots are not damaged. If otherwise you have to change.

To diagnose everything else you can get a repair manual for your car.

Steering vibration is almost always caused by the tires/wheels. Either your wheels are out of balance or one or both of your tires is defective. There could be a broken belt in the tire that is causing the vibration. If you don't want to take your vehicle to a tire store right away, you can check by reversing tires front to back. If your problem is with the tires, the problem should go away after reversing the tires. However, I don't recommend you do nothing about the problem. Last summer one of the front tires of my pickup had a bad belt, which caused the tire vibrate and within a few miles, the tire tread separated and fell off. Had I been driving at a fast speed, I would have most certainly lost control of the vehicle. The prudent thing to do is take it to a reputable tire store. I recommend you take it to a Goodyear-owned service center. By reversing the tires first, you will know if it is a bad tire/wheel and nothing else. That will give you peace of mind when the mechanic tells you what your problem is.

A worn ball joint will usually cause the vehicle to steer hard to one side. Worn tie rods will cause vibrations. If the car has less than 30,000 miles, front suspension is not likely the cause unless a part has failed due to a manufacturing flaw. Wheel bearings should last 75,000 -- 100,000 miles. Replacing wheel bearings can cost several hundred dollars per wheel. If a mechanic tells you you need to replace wheel bearings, get a second opinion before having one or more replaced. A dishonest mechanic will balance your tire(s) to fix the problem, then replace your bearings to steal your money. The bottom line here is if you wait too long, you could cause further damage to your vehicle or cause the tires to wear out prematurely. Let a mechanic help you.

Yes, replace tie rod and have the car realigned.

Numerous reasons possibly dirty fuel injectors, if its a 4 wheel drive could be different sized tires.

It can also be a tire out of balance, bent wheel, or bent driveshaft.

Poor wheel alignment. Might want to take it in to get realigned.

try using zmax i had the same thing on a car i had and it worked for me

I have heard that the motor mounts often go bad. I have just purchased one but have not picked it up yet. It has a terrible vibration while in gear standing still. I never expect it to go away 100% but I'm sure I can improve it. I had a Vega years ago and I think it's typical of the older 4cylinder Chevy.

Alot of times its the boots of the engine mounts, but before u go out and purchase those go inside your engine compartment and try tightening down the mounts a bit, i have seen people have this problem go out and buy the new boots etc for it and all it was.. was a loose bolt somewhere down the line..

The symptoms of a fouled spark plug are normally self evident in that the engine will loose power, run rough and use more fuel. Prolonged use of an engine with a spark plug in that condition will most certainly damage the catalyst convertor. Should renew the plugs and have an emissions test done to enure you are still complying with current regulations.

I'd start with the disk brake rotors. If one or both is warped it could cause the problem you describe.

Reasons for the shaking could be:

If the temperature has been below freezing, there could be TIRE STOP LEAK , that has gone unnoticed, and now caused a major imbalance of a tire .

Bent rim, tie rod loose, sticking brake calipers. My first guess is always tire balance, but if not that -- those would be my next guesses.

Get your wheel struts checked and replaced if necessary...my car did that and both my front struts were warn out

The wheel bearings may also be going bad in the front end. Bad wheel bearings will cause vibration in the engine compartment, leading to a rougher ride, and usually a loud rubbing noise. Unrepaired, bad bearings will eventually cause your wheel to separate from the axle. If this should happen at high speed... the axle will dig down into the concrete and send the car airborne.

There are few issues related to such a problem. A very common problem is faulty tires or incorrect wheel balance of the front tires. Check for a bulge or a wear on the tires. If all is ok..get a mechanic to check your wheel bearings. Check for a broken strut assembly or shock absorber. Check for tire rod bushings and the balance rod. Check complete front suspension.

IF SHAKING IS SEMI-VIOLENT OR ENOUGH TO CAUSE YOU TO SLOW DOWN TO LOWER SPEEDS TO REGAIN STABILITY--> MAYBE DROP PIT ARM, STEERING STABILIZER OR TRACK BAR.

The rotors on larger vehicles that are composite become out of balance and need replacing or cutting.

rattle and shake at speed is 99% of the time attributed to needing all wheels balanced. other problems listed above will happen at all speeds

I was expereincing shakes and rattle at 80-100 km/h speed, however, problem brewed and it mild vibration starts even at around 40km/h. Problem traced was bad inner axel. After changing the axel it feels like car is new born.

If it snowed recently, and the problem did not exist before the snowstorm, there may be frozen snow/ice stuck to one or more wheels, causing imbalance. Take the care to a self-serve car wash and spray the wheels from underneath the car and in the wheel wells.

I am having the same problem and I came to the conclusion that the U Joints are going bad.

It is possible that something is simply loose and the speed combined with air downforce is making it rattle against the metal. For example, in my 1988 z24 the locks used to rattle against the metal of the door at presicely 57mph.

FOR THOSE WITH 2007-2009 PONTIAC G6 vehicles.

I came to Wiki because my car was shaking between 55-60MPH. I came here to look for potential problems...but my car is a 2007 and fairly new and I had no idea why in the world it would be doing that. Checked air pressure - good to go. Just had new high performance tires put on in June (so they were mounted, balanced, etc). However, with the high performance lower tires...if you live in a state where it snows (I live in MN), the rims and wheel wells for those cars and those tires--pack snow really hard. We spent $7.00 at a car wash doing a high pressure hot water car wash to clean out the wheel wells -guess what? NO ISSUES AT ALL-went to 75MPH no problem-not even a HINT of a shake. So, I had cancelled my appt at the dealership. IF you have this type of car, or ones with high performance tires---do what I did and it may alleviate the problem. Might work for other vehicles-but I can only speak for mine.

I have 01 Civic,. I am changing Shocks & Struts,. mechanic said that cause the problem.

I have a 97 Chrysler Sebring and the recommendation to take the car to the car wash worked out great for me. After a heavy snowfall in Chicago I shoveled out my car out of snow and it was vibrating horribly between 50-65mph. I followed the advise and to it to a car-wash with hot water and asked them to specifically ensure that my wheel wells are properly de-iced. The car was a blaze after that. So if you live in a cold place, try this before you try anything else.

Looks like you have a leaky spark tube camshaft flywheel that's gunna ruin your piston lugnut better buy a new head gasket driveshaft

Your tires could be bad.

Check for a correct carburettor dashpot setting. The dashpot is used to reduce engine speed to idle slowly to minimize hydrocarbon emmissions. If the dashpot is too slow then the idle will be high putting a load on the entire drivetrain.

Just highway speed vibes, not at lower speeds, 9 times out of 10 is tire balance. Have all tires inspected, if good....balanced....and the best of the four put on the front. The tires that go to the rear in this case must have descent tread depth or it can cause a very dangerous scenario when driving in water. It also is highly recommended too that you have your front end checked as well to be certain you don't have other issues or a combined problem. If your two front tires are worn more than the front, more than likely the tires weren't rotated often enough. Rotate your tires every 6,000mi. Every other oil change for most folks. This saves time and money. If the two front tires are worn and the back look pretty good, they might recommend an alignment and say that is what caused it. Partially true, but remember they are in it to make money. Have your alignment checked once a year, just after the snow is gone, and rotate every 6,000 and tires magically take care of themself!

6.

Vibration while moving

Yes

Brake rotor/rotors are out of round / warped. Check rotors and REPLACE as needed.

You bet it can. A bent or out of balance drive shaft will cause serious shaking. A defective U-Joint will also cause it to shake and is very dangerous.

No...not typically. A bad PS Pump can cause a vibration while turning the wheels at slow speeds, like in a parking lot etc. Most likely a vibration while driving would be caused by, Out of Balance or Out of Round Tires / Bent Wheels or Axles / Bad Wheel Bearings / Bad CV Axle / Bad U-Joint or Damaged Driveline (RWD & AWD) Vehicles. These are the areas you should be checking first for "Vibration While Driving" Posting the speed your vehicle vibrates can also be helpful. :)

Most likely it has unbalanced or bad tire(s). Bent wheel rims also can be the cause.

Yes a bad spark plug will make your car shake and when my truck had like 4 bad spark plugs it wouldnt wana go over 60. To test if you have bad plugs unplug the wire from the one you think is bad. Also the engine light might come up and when you take it somewhere like auto zone abd run the numbers it might say misfiring on cylinder xx.

Located behind the starter. Have to take starter off to get to it.

The most obvious is hard start, runs rough when wet outside.

i have same explorer and my shakes and jerks especially at a light.... what have you replaced on yours?