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SHAKES AND WOBBLES

Introduction:
There are many vehicle conditions that can cause your vehicle to shake. In short, anything that
rotates can cause vibrations: Transmission, drive line, brakes, motor mounts (ok, the motor
mounts don't rotate, but if they're worn, they can allow vibrations to be transmitted from the
engine), and of course tires. Also, worn suspension parts can allow for vibrations. Granted,
tires are the most common cause of vibrations and they're usually the easiest to diagnose and
cheapest to fix, but they are by no means the only cause of vibrations. In this article, we will
give some simple guidelines to "pre-diagnose" any shakes you have so you'll know where to
turn for help.
In this article we'll cover:
Shakes Not Caused By The Tires
Shakes Caused By The Tires
Balancing and Balancer Types
Shakes That Are Not Caused By The Tires:
It shakes when you hit the brakes, particularly under hard braking:
This is very common, and is almost always caused by warped brake rotors (or drums, but
usually rotors). The rotors are the part of the disc brake that rotates, and when you apply the
brakes, the calipers squeeze the rotor to make the vehicle slow down. Over time, heat causes
the rotors to warp and you get a pulsation in the pedal and often in the steering wheel,
especially under hard braking. If this is the type of shake you have, you should have the rotors
checked for warping. If they are warped, they can be machined (turned) to be straight again,
but you can only turn them a couple of times before they get too thin, at which time they must
be replaced.
The front end wobbles at a certain speed, but not every time you drive that speed:
Some vehicles can pick up even violent wobbles (oscillation) at a certain speed, but not every
time you drive at that speed. This is usually caused by loose suspension parts or bearings.
What happens here is that a loose suspension component can allow the front end to start
wobbling, like when you hit a bump, and once the wobbling starts, you have to slow down, or
Low Pr i c es Wi t h out Sa c r i f i c i n g Qua l i t y !
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even stop to correct it. Tires are very consistent, they will always do the same thing at the
same speed. So if the vehicle only wobbles some of the time, it is usually a loose or worn out
suspension component that is to blame. In this case, you should see your mechanic, or we can
look for the cause if you want, but we don't do this type of repair.
The vehicle wobbles while accelerating hard, or climbing steep hills
This type of vibration is usually caused by motor mounts. If they become worn, vibrations can
show up when accelerating hard, or pulling hills. Experienced mechanics can diagnose this
easily, and again, this is the realm of the mechanic.
There are actually many more types of "non-tire" related shakes, but these are simply some of
the most common. Transmissions and drive lines can cause shakes too, but they are not quite
as simple to diagnose.
Shakes Caused By The Tires:
As stated earlier, tires are very consistent, they will wobble at the same speed every time,
whether, you're driving at a constant speed, braking, or accelerating. So if you car shakes at
the same speed (or speeds) every time, tires are the first thing to check.
First Things First: Check for Cupping and Flat Spots
Cupping:
The simple test is to run your hand along the face of the tire, and you can feel it. (You may
want to make sure you don't have steel cords showing on the tire first, so you don't get cut!) If
the tire is flat, then good, if it has small waves like on the sea, you have cupping. Even though
the tire in the picture is worn out, it clearly shows what we mean by cupping. If you look along
the edges of the tire, you can see that one tread block is raised up, and the next one in the row
is almost completely smoothed out, then the next raised again. If you can imagine what this
would feel like if you ran your hand along it, then you should be able to imagine what this would
feel like if it was mounted on your car!
Cupping can be caused by alignment problems, or inherent vehicle design issues. Rear tire
misalignment on front wheel drive cars is a textbook cause of cupping. In the middle picture
you can clearly see the dished out spots on the left side of the tire, but if you look carefully you
can also see a diagonal "valley" in the tire. It goes from the outer flat spot towards the middle of
the tire and downward in the picture. Rear wheel misalignment will always show this diagonal
type pattern. If this type of wear shows up on rear of your front wheel drive car, the only way to
correct it is to have a four wheel alignment done. You can put new tires on it, but unless you
have the rear of the vehicle aligned, it will just be a matter of time before the new tires are
cupped also.
On the other hand, all kinds of vehicles, particularly four wheel drives, but even high end
European cars, can have inherent design issues that can cause cupping. On many of these
vehicles, the only thing you can do is keep the tires rotated, and if possible, choose tires with
straight groove type treads. A straight (circumferential) tread tire will cup less than more
aggressive tread tires. The tire pictured above is a good example of an aggressive tread tire
used on a four wheel drive. The tire directly to the right is actually off a trailer, but is a good
example of what we're talking about. Usually, having the car realigned and the tires balanced
will not solve this type of problem but should be done anyway as a precautionary measure.
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Flat Spots:
Flat spots are caused by locking up the brakes. This is not usually a problem if you have anti-
lock brakes, but if you've had to stand on the brakes for any reason and had them lock up, you
can have flat spots on your tires. If you've locked the brakes, and slid a long way, you will
definitely have flat spots. Simply run you hand along the tire again, or visibly inspect it, making
sure to turn the tire, (so that you don't miss it if it's on the bottom). A flat spot is simply what it
sounds like, instead of the tire having a round profile, there will be one spot on the tire that has
been shaved off, (or flattened). You can feel it with your hand, or if you spin the tire, there will
be an obvious dip when it gets to that spot. If it's not too bad, you can sometimes rotate the
tires, since the front tires will usually be worse than the back. If not, the flat spotted tires will
have to be replaced.
Agai n, tires shakes are very consistent, they will always shake at the same speed(s). So
if your tires have passed the fi rst test, you can often tell what kind of a problem you
have by the speed that the vehicle shakes (or wobbles) at.
Vehicle Wobbles At 15 to 20 Miles Per Hour (mph)
If your vehicle wobbles at 15 to 20, go directly to a tire shop, do not pass go, do not collect
$200.00, definitely do not hit the freeway with your family in the car, go directly to a tire shop.
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Though this can be caused by a severely bent wheel, or severe cupping, the most likely cause
is a separated tire. Separated tires are a very serious safety issue, and must be dealt with
immediately, since it's just a matter of time before the tire blows. A tire failure of this type
almost always causes damage to the vehicle, but that's nothing compared to the many fatalities
that are cause by this. Do not put this off!
To test for this, simply drive the vehicle for a short distance at 15 to 20 mph. If the bad tire is in
the front, the steering will rock back and forth, if it's in the rear, the rear of the car will wobble in
a similar manner. If you can find out which tire is separating, it may be best to put the spare on
right then and there, so that you can actually make to the tire shop. The tire with the problem
will have a bump along the tread face which is visible, or you can feel it with you hand. If you
use the hand test, the tire should have a uniform profile except for the place where the
separation is, which will be distorted, usually with part of the tread pushing away from the tire,
ie.; a bump on the tread face. The pictures below illustrate this: The picture on the left is the
"normal" side of the tire and is pretty uniform, while in the picture on the right, you can see the
"bump" where the tire is separating. This separation is pretty large, but they will always start
out smaller, so you should look for even small distortions in the tread face.

Vehicle wobbles at 30 to 50 mph:
The most common cause of vehicle wobbles in this speed range is a bent wheel or mildly out of
round tire. Transmission and drive line issues can also show up in this range, but tires are the
first thing to check. Unlike the low speed wobble, this is usually not a safety issue. You can
usually see the wobble in the tire/wheel assembly if you put it on the balancer. In many cases,
the tire can be better matched to wheel (high spot to low sport, or vice versa) and the wobble
can be eliminated. (This is where the "Road Force Balancer" comes in, and we'll explain that at
the end of this article.) If that doesn't work, the problem tire or wheel should be replaced. If the
tires and wheels spin true and you still have a problem, then you should have a mechanic look
at the vehicle.
Vehicle Shakes at 50 mph or higher
The most common cause of vehicle shakes at 50 mph or higher is tire balance. Again,
transmission or drive lines can cause this, but the tires should be the first thing to have
checked. A tire or wheel that is slightly bent or out of round can also be a factor here, and this
can be checked while the tire is on the balancer. Obviously, the first thing to check is the tire
balance, and only after the tires have a clean bill of health should you take it to a mechanic.
Balancers: Static, Dynamic and Road Force
Over the years there have been various methods of balancing tires. Without going into the
history, we will simply explain the types in common use today, and when you would use one
method or another.
Static Balancing
If you think of how your tires are mounted on the car, static balancing refers to balancing the
tires only from up to down, or across the tire. In most cases, this works pretty well. Though not
used very much these days, bubble balancers and "on the car" balancers can only do this type
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of balance. Also, if you don't want weights on the outside of your wheels, you will often get this
type of balance. This is also called "single plane" balancing.
Dynamic Balancing
Dynamic balancing will not only balance the tire from up to down, but also from side to side,
and is often called "dual plane" balancing. It is normal for tire/wheel assemblies to be out of
balance in both of these ways, and this makes a dynamic balancing a much better choice than
a static balancing. This can only be done by modern "computer" balancers, and requires
weights to be put on both sides of the wheel. However, if you want a good balance, and either
your wheels won't take weights on the outside, or you just don't want the see them, you can
often still have a two plane balance. Many modern vehicles are designed with "positive offset"
wheels, which means that the bolt face is pushed towards the outside, so most of the wheel is
inboard, towards the vehicle. In this type of wheel, it is easy to put the outer weights just behind
the face of the wheel and the inner weights on the inside edge. This allows for a proper dual
plane balance and is the preferred method (apart from weights on the outside edge). However,
if you have a standard offset (bolt face in center of the wheel) or a reverse offset wheel (bolt
face toward the inside edge of the wheel), then you really can't get a good dual plane balance
without putting weights on both sides of the wheel.
Road Force Balancing
Road force balancing is a relatively new technology. The idea is that a "force wheel" is
mounted on the balancer, (this is the black roller wheel on the right side of the balancer in front
of the hood) and as the tire turns, the wheel pushes against the tire and measures variations in
pressure around it's circumference. Since this simulates how the tire will interact with the road,
it is called "road force balancing". These balancers have prescribed "tolerances" that allow
different levels of "road force variation" for different types of vehicles.
Finding out the "road force variation" of a tire is all well and good, but if a tire/wheel assembly
has too much variation, then what would you do? This is where these balancers shine: Having
recorded the road force variation around the tire, the balancer then directs the technician to
take a reading of the wheel. The software in the balancer then calculates whether the tire or the
wheel is the problem, and whether or not the two can be "force matched" to meet the
tolerances. If they can be matched, the balancer specifies a spot on the wheel, and a spot on
the tire, where if the two spots are matched together, (by turning the tire on the wheel) the
tire/wheel assembly will then have the lowest possible road force variation. Granted, the
machine doesn't always get it right the first time, and there are some tricks an experienced tire
technician can use to expedite the process, but much of the time, problem tire/wheel can be
made to balance without having to be replaced. This is important because no tire manufacturer
will replace a tire for being "out of round" unless it is virtually brand new. (This is fair because
tires can go out of round over time for various reasons other than poor workmanship.) So if
your tires are even a little worn, this is often the only thing you can even do (short or
replacement, which you would have to pay for). Without a road force balancer, a tire can be
matched for roundness (not force variation) by trial and error, but that can mean turning each
tire on it's wheel up to eight times(!) and visually checking it on the balancer every time. Not
only does this type of balancer greatly expedite the process, but the specific tolerances create
an objective standard.
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Obviously, we at Souza's use this type of balancer. However, since this process is time
consuming, and in the majority of cases not necessary, we don't road force every tire. We'd
then have to raise our prices to pay for all the extra labor. However, if you have a problem that
standard balancing won't fix, we will go to this next level and do everything we can to fix your
problem.
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