I've been getting a highway vibration for years now and just been dealing with it and driving like an old lady. Now I have koni yellows and ITR springs with 14x6 et30 rims and would like to drive a bit more aggressively. Any time I get to highway speeds i get vibration. Suspension parts are ALL up to date and alignment is spot on. Rack end bushing done.

I've had 3 different sets of rims AND tires and they all do the same thing, some more pronounced than others due to sidewall differences and such (winter tires have soft sidewalls, some of the tires were lower profile making the vibration worse)

Today I threw the car up on jack stands, put it in 1st and let the tires spin freely so I could inspect them...

On the driver side, if I stare down the bottom of the tire while it rotates, it's not rotating perfectly round. I can see the tire going up and down while it rotates. Both sides are doing this but the driver side is much more pronounced, passenger side is slight. Is this a case of really crappy aftermarket axles? I replaced them years ago, and the shakes have been present for years... they have no torn boots and aren't clicking.

I guess my question is, should the wheels spin perfectly centered if in the air? mine certainly do not.

Thanks!

 

How old are youf brake rotors and pads?


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Are the wheels OEM hub centric?
I bet the problem is the wheels not centered on the hub.

I recently went through that with a set of aftermarket wheels. I had the tires mounted and I had to drive home at 25 MPH with the flashers on. The wheels were completely out of center. I made hub-centering rings and now it's back to normal.

If the axles were bent, you would see the wheels wobble as look at them from the front.
Also grab the axle shafts and shake them, see if you can get them to move, they should not move.
I had a friend with a vibration problem nobody could find the source and it turned out to be one axle shaft was loose inside the outer CV joint.

 

It's not wheels or tires.

i've tried:

13" steel wheels (honda spec), studded winter tires 175/70/13
13" OEM honda alloys, summer tires 185/70/13
14" Centra Type II, summer tires. 185/60/14

the 13"s are all hub centric and should be perfect.


pads are brand new hawk hp+'s and rotors are not old at all.

 

here's what I NEED TO KNOW...

if you jack the car up, put it in 1st, and watch the axles spin... should they be perfectly balanced and not have any up/down/side/side wobble? mine are visually moving around as though they are bent, i changed one and same thing. it must be a bent hub, BUT i want to know if it should be spinning perfectly in one spot...

THANK YOU!!!!!

 

the axles do not locate the wheels. the hub, the bearing and knuckle are what locates teh wheel.

 

^This.

Although a bent axle COULD cause some pretty severe vibration.

Jack the front tires of the ground and put the car on jackstands. Start the car and put it in gear. Any vibration?

Now take the rims/tires off and repeat. Any vibration?

 

I can feel vibration if i bring it up to speed on jackstands. with or without wheels.

 

That narrows it down.

So it's obviously something rotating.

Axle
Brake rotor
Wheel hub/bearing
Flywheel
Crankshaft pulley
Transmission shafts
Crankshaft

You can pretty much rule out the last two, because if either of those were vibrating that bad, they would cause severe internal damage very quickly.
You can do a quick visual inspection of the Crank pulley, but even a broken one doesnt cause much vibration (1st hand experience!).
The flywheel could be out of balance, but that's very unlikely, and would be fully dependent on engine RPM, not wheel speed.
The wheel hub could be bent, but I doubt it would be enough to cause vibration without the wheels on.
Brake rotors could also be out of balance, but highly unlikely.
So that leaves the axles really. At ~$50 each, it's not too bad, and if it's been a few years, you're gonna need new ones soon anyway!

 

The inner hubs have worn on me and caused the vibration that you are describing.