[gerbjones]

Here's the deal. I have a 2001 Odyssey with 84k. It has never been wrecked but the steering wheel shakes for the first 35-40 MPH and then it is fine on freeway speeds. I have new tires, new rims (thinking the wheels were bent). I've had them balanced over 5 times. The guys at Les Schwab can't figure it out, and I asked them if my tie rod is bent or bushings or bearings are shot and they say no.

I just know the steering wheel shouln't shake driving down the driveway.

Or is this a common issue.

 

[CB900F2]

What I have found with my 06 is if the wheel lug nuts are not torqued to the spec, I get a bit of wheel shake around 110km to 120km.. In my case, the spec for the wheel nuts is 92lbs..

Re torque and see if it helps.

Here's the deal. I have a 2001 Odyssey with 84k. It has never been wrecked but the steering wheel shakes for the first 35-40 MPH and then it is fine on freeway speeds. I have new tires, new rims (thinking the wheels were bent). I've had them balanced over 5 times. The guys at Les Schwab can't figure it out, and I asked them if my tie rod is bent or bushings or bearings are shot and they say no.

I just know the steering wheel shouln't shake driving down the driveway.

Or is this a common issue.

 

[dvpatel]

Try a different shop perhaps?

 

[chiody]

Wheels can be balanced but if the tires are out of round, you will have shaking problems. Jack each corner up and spin the tires looking for irregularties.

 

[brians]

Here's the deal. I have a 2001 Odyssey with 84k. It has never been wrecked but the steering wheel shakes for the first 35-40 MPH and then it is fine on freeway speeds. I have new tires, new rims (thinking the wheels were bent). I've had them balanced over 5 times. The guys at Les Schwab can't figure it out, and I asked them if my tie rod is bent or bushings or bearings are shot and they say no.

I just know the steering wheel shouln't shake driving down the driveway.

Or is this a common issue.

How's the alignment? If you are on a long gentle curve at those speeds, does the vibration come and go? Our '04 had some weird grabbing with a set of cooper tires that caused side to side vibration at similar speeds to you. The fact that it is at that speed tells me it isn't likely a balance problem. The original Michelins also developed a small case of it when they wore. Two other set of tires (some bridgestone blizzaks and avid TRZ's were perfect.

 

[Odymomma]

I have the same problem but mine is @65-70 mph. I'm going to take it in for the balancing & road force matching.

 

[brians]

I have the same problem but mine is @65-70 mph. I'm going to take it in for the balancing & road force matching.

That's definitely the right approach for that speed.

 

[papa's ody]

Also try exchanging the fronts with the rear tires, maybe one set at a time. If there is a problem with a rim or tire, it might diminish or change when moved around.

 

[jluetjen]

Also you should consider checking the run-out on the wheels. My van (100K miles) had a fairly noisy "wobbly" sound which could occasionally be felt through the steering wheel. The tires were new, the wheels had been balanced, the alignment had been done and the sound wouldn't go away. Finally I started replacing the wheels (and having the existing tires remounted on them). As each wheel (Factory 5 spoke, polished alloys) was replaced the sound diminished. I've got one wheel left to do, but now I can't find a good source for replacement wheels at a reasonable rate.

In the case of one wheel, I can attribute the cause of the bent rim to road damage (a pot hole at highway speeds), but it appears that the others developed the same situation from more normal use.

 

[dmc3106]

I have the same problem but mine is @65-70 mph. I'm going to take it in for the balancing & road force matching.

I recently had this symptom with a set of Goodyear Edge Response wheels with over 10k on them. After the tire shop could not fix the vibration, they replaced with a brand new set of Goodyear Edge Response wheels (these are very expensive tires). after continuing to have shake and taking it back to the tire shop no less than 6 times to have it fixed, they switched out to Cooper C4 tires. Unbelkievably, It's still shaking at about 65-72mph. No damage to rims, etc. They say the balancer is calibrated correctly. I am planning to take it to another shop for a 2nd look and re-balancing. Seems like a balancing issue but not sure. Any other ideas are appreciated. This is driving me nuts... As well, I will follow up to this thread to give notice of how things respond after going to another shop.

 

[Smitty310]

Here's the deal. I have a 2001 Odyssey with 84k. It has never been wrecked but the steering wheel shakes for the first 35-40 MPH and then it is fine on freeway speeds. I have new tires, new rims (thinking the wheels were bent). I've had them balanced over 5 times. The guys at Les Schwab can't figure it out, and I asked them if my tie rod is bent or bushings or bearings are shot and they say no.

I just know the steering wheel shouln't shake driving down the driveway.

Or is this a common issue.

Question?? Have you thought about a bad engine mount?

At low speeds a bad engine mount on front wheel drive can cause a vibation feeling.
I would take it to a different shop ask them to check your front tires and engine mounts..

 

[Grape]

My 99 wheel shakes too. It's been in a couple accidents, had the steering rack replaced - I just assumed it was that. I buy cheap used tires (in sets though..!) that doesn't help, and if they are unbalanced it can sometimes shake like crazy. Balancing helps, but when cold, at a certain speed, I can feel the wheel just pulsing in my hand.

The Ody steering always felt heavy and unresponsive, I just thought it was because it's a 2 ton van - but it is very unforgiving to unbalance, it seems.

 

[windwagen]

Mine had this problem too - 75mph intermittently. The dealer installed some new Michelin (Advantage?) tires and it improved, but not 100%. Later, I scored some 17" Acura wheels and installed Hankook snow tires from my ex BMW. I was afraid to try it, but there was ZERO vibration. It was so awesome that I drove 2 1/2 years without taking them off. Now they're worn and I installed some Pirelli P4 on the Acura wheels, and the vibration is back, but at a differnet speed - 65mph

The Hankook snows were 235/45 17- about 1" smaller radius than stock 215/65 16

the vibrating Pirellis are 1" taller at 215/65 17 - about 1/2" taller than stock

Also, it seem to dissappear when travelling on a bend on the highway. If I grip the wheel real tight, it goes away.

I tried to dial in some more toe in, toe out. The speed at which is occurs changes, but it doesn't go away.

Next, I'm going to try and add 1kg of weight to each tie rod to see if I can dampen it out.

Any new ideas after reading my input?

 

[kmackenz]

Same issue

We also are seeing the same thing on an 06. Just had new tires put on and also found that we had a bad bearing that was replaced. Only 38K miles on it....

Been at a combination of the tire place and dealer 7 times.... at the tire place right now.... Very frustrating.

Definitely shakes in the 70 range. But a little inconsistent... sometime a little slower...

 

[Glen1959]

Also check your wheels

I have an 2000 LX with steel wheels and bought it with 36K on the van, brand new tires all seemed fine then it started shaking at highway speeds maybe 45k or so rebalenced and rotated tires a few times, it would be ok for a while each time. By about 55k tires needed to be replaced (only 20,000 miles on a set of tires?)

This happened again with the next set of tires as well by 82k needed tires again!! With the next set I wondered into the service area at the tire place and noted with the tire tech that 1 wheel was not centered, while on the balance machine you could see that it would vary about 3/8 of an inch up and down as it spun. Even though it showed to be ballanced it would hop up and down as if it were not balanced. It was so slight it never showed up as cupping on the tire and they seamed to be wearing fairly evenly. I'm sure you have seen a car along side of you on the highway that looked as if it was dribbling a tire out of round. Mine was only very slight. I replaced that wheel and now have 118K on that set of tires and still have almost half the treed left! 36K and they look as if I'll get another 20k+ before replacing.

Now I have never bought cheep tires and replace them long before they get to the wear bars and always rotate at about 5k or so. I was realy wondering for a long time why the Odyssey seamed so hard on tires. Some times it's just the littlest thing causing a big problem.

 

[windwagen]

Interesting. I'm going to jack it up and give each wheel a spin.

I added the weight. I'd say it's a slight improvement, but not completely gone. Somehow it seems less frequent and it occurs at a different speed. I was going to try more weight before reporting back, but I was thinking of these. I've seen them on Jeeps, but I didn't think they help high frequency shimmy. Apparently they do...

Steering Stabilizer Purpose

 

[z3pilot99]

We just did the entire front suspension and wheel bearings on our ODY. 150k on it now. We have had a shake and a wub-wub-wub noise from the car for about two years. The suspension repairs helped but did not take care of it. We took it in to have the balance of the tire checked. We were running Goodyear Triple tread assurance tires. Found them cupped and worn in 35k miles. These are supposed to be 80k mile tires. Very disappointing. Had to replace them. Went with Michelins this time. Fixed the vibration and noise issues.

 

[sejarzo]

Today I was told that intermittent steering wheel wobble on our 2002 that was not remedied by balancing/rotating tires yesterday is due to a rack problem that has been frequently noted on some independent service database to which a local shop subscribes.

Normally, the wheel would wobble for the first 2-3 miles at speeds up to about 45 mph, then go away. Strangely, if we parked it a few miles later, then come back within 15 minutes or more, it started up right again.

We had the 105k maintenance done at a shop that had done great work for us over the years, and that shop (not the one where it will be fixed tomorrow) kept it an extra day to inspect everything, all he could say was that he thought it could be an out of round tire. He thought the problem varied a bit as they rotated the tires to different positions.

I drove it away, the wobbling went away in 2-3 miles as it always did, made a left/right/left turn combination, and it came back worse than I ever felt it. Called Tire Rack, as I had found some recent complaints in user reviews about out of round Kumhos, and they asked me to take it back to the shop where I'd had those tires drop shipped and installed.

Took it back there this morning, and their top tech said he's never felt anything like it, the way it would come and go, and be so strong when it did occur. They put it on the lift, said there was absolutely nothing wrong, no wobble. The owner went to his computer while two techs kept looking for what it might be, then came to me and said that from what he read on the subscription database, he was certain it was a bad rack. The descriptions he had read all concurred that the problem would come and go, but did not happen when the wheels were unloaded with the van on a lift.

Anybody else had this problem?

 

[gerbjones]

Same here

They told me tires were the problem. Had a new set installed and forced road balancing. I now think it is the front motor mount. Everything else checks out. No bent rims, new tires, good bearings, tire arms, etc. Or it's a totally design flaw that noone will admit. I like tight steering and I'm going to have my motor mount replaced in the front since it needs it. It has 87k and has been having these symptoms for as long as i can remember.

 

[Rover903]

Bad tires

I am surprised to hear they were Kumho's. I had a set on my Ford Ranger and got 86K trouble free miles out of them. They were however made in Korea. The recent replacement set (although the same Venture AT tire) is now made in China.

I got Dunlop's (at the suggestion of the tire shop) for the Ody and they are crapola! They've been shaking since I got them. The tire shop (Town Fair Tire) naturally has gladly taken my $$ for three alignments over the last 2 years.

My mechanic has gone through the whole car and has determined it's the tires. I have about 5K of uneven wear left in them. I'll run them until they are slicks, but will never buy Dunlop's again.