ginahoy

My wife's '06 CR/V has Kumho Ecsta Platinum EX LX with less than 10k miles. We took her car on a trip last month and I noticed tires are out of balance. Before having them balanced, I wanted to see if anyone has experienced this...

Moderate vibration sets in above about 60 MPH, but here's the thing... it comes and goes even at constant speed.

After about an hour driving on a flat, straight stretch of state highway with smooth asphalt, I realized there's a regular periodic cycle between vibration and no vibration. I can't recall the exact timing, but perhaps 20 seconds of vibration followed by 30 seconds with no vibration. And then the vibration returns and cycle repeats. The vibration isn't severe, but enough to see my hands and steering wheel shake and feel it in the seat. However, during the no-vibration period, the wheels feel like they're dead-nuts perfect in-balance. Weird.

Anyone have any idea what might cause this?

95accordCE6

This really doesn't seem like a balance issue, the timing is rather weird. I would look into whether it could be a drivetrain vibration, although getting the tires rebalanced isn't a bad idea anyway

ginahoy

Hmm... vibration most noticeable in steering wheel. Doesn't seem like drivetrain vibration would transfer directly to steering wheel.

95accordCE6

The fact that it's intermittent is what I find odd, usually a balance issue you would feel constant from 55+ are there any noticeable noises that occur with the vibration?

ginahoy

Exactly.

No.

I don't drive the CR/V often, but behavior was identical on a previous road trip in January. I will have wheels balanced at first opportunity but I tend to agree with your earlier comment. If tires were that badly out of kilter, I can't imagine what would cause the vibration to just fade away like that at high speed.

JNocon

This is definitely a wheel balance issue. I had the same problem last week when my cousin and I traded wheels. I've noticed that 2 of the wheels had some wheel weights in all different places on the back of it, like a little kid just placed it on there like legos. So, the next day, I drove it to my local tire shop, and I've noticed the vibration on my car and the steering wheel shaking while driving on the freeway. Well, eventually I got it balanced and the problem was solved!!

ginahoy

I had tires balanced today and tested, best I could, on a local road with 60 limit. Balancing seems to have solved the problem but I won't know for sure until I take on interstate, which may be a while as I don't normally drive this vehicle and the interstate is 40 minutes from here.

I can't understand how out-of-balance tires can smooth out like that while holding constant speed. Must be some sort of resonance issue with other parts of of the vehicle.

slowcivic2k

Harmonics play into the feeling of vibration within the car. Exhaust is the same way. If you hit the right frequency, the amplitude will be summed (or worse, multiplied). Anyone that has driven a car with an exhaust leak knows the "quiet spot" and the "loud spot" lol.

The type of vibration you originally describe sounds like a tire repositioning (one tire turning faster than the other during turns) and causing/eliminating the vibration. It could also be due to shock fade/failure on one side (generally passenger side) where the wheel oscillation feeds back into the frame, causing you to feel it. IF the problem continues, rotate tires from front to rear on the same sides. Generally this will make the vibration less apparent, and identify a troubled tire.