The other day while putting on some highway miles on a smooth road I experienced some new vibrations. Not good vibrations, unfortunately.
She is an 02 Leg Wagon with 115,000 miles. The vibration was low amplitude and relatively high frequency and was most noticeable at 65 mph or above. Although pronounced at the steering column, the vibration seemed to be throughout the car. Struts? Motor mounts? Imagination? I cant handle the truth?
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
The cheapest and most likely is you lost a wheel weight. Get the wheel’s rebalanced.
Raj could be 100% correct, does the vibration go away at slower speeds??
Yes, the vibration does seem to go away at slower speeds.
So is a weight missing? You could rotate the front tires to the back, one at a time, and see if it goes away.
One other thing you should do is run your hand gently over the surface of the tire treads and see if you can feel any irregular wear. With 115,000 miles on the vehicle it’s entirely possible that you could be seeing the first signs of suspension system wear, perhaps a bushing, tie rod end, ball joint, or strut. Now’s a really good time to get it checked out thoroughly by a good shop.
One more thing. If you live in a snowy area and it is below freezing, check the wheels for snow packed inside. I live in the snow belt and, more than once, have driven a tire into a snow bank while parking. Sure enough, next time I was on the highway I would get low frequency vibrations. A quick trip to the car wash would fix it every time.