I’m a college student 4 hours away from home with a 2007 Pontiac G5. I just packed my car and I leave soon. I went for a slow drive and I felt very resonant and noticeable vibrations in the car. That was when all of my stuff was in the trunk. Since then I moved about half of it out of the trunk and tried to evenly distribute the weight. The vibrations were slightly better at low speeds and at higher speeds they were noticeably frequent but minor. First, is there anything wrong with my car? Second, will my car survive the whole drive home?
Check And Set Your Tire Pressure In All Four Tires And Try It.
Next I’d take a mechanic for a test drive before I hit the road. You could have a wheel bearing or tire going bad. You don’t want either to fail part way through your trip.
CSA
Your description of the problem is too vague to make any recommendation or diagnosis…
Have someone with some auto-savy take a short ride with you…
Have any of the tires been changed recently? Check the lug nuts for tightness on all the tires.
16K miles and no new tires (Yes, not much use). Lugs are tight.
sounds like a bad tire. Belts sometimes shift inside the tire and cause just noise, but if you put that tire under heavy load, that noise will accompany poor ride and vibration.
Followup:
A friend of mine had the same symptoms of a sick car and he had a pocket of air in between the tubing and the tread: aka a bad tire. Time flew by and I had to start the ride anyway. Turns out that the pocket of air heated up in the first 100 miles of the ride and blew about third of the way through the trip. After putting on the convenience tire I noticed a significant improvement in the ride. When I got home, I put a new set of tires on to completely oust the problem. The only problem I see is that the tires shouldn’t do something like that at their age, but I guess if it happened my situation is completely possible.
If your tires are all good, including seperation, sidewall bubbles etc. then it could be you have bad shocks/struts on the back.
Some Things You Just Don’t Learn In College.
On May 9th you asked, “First, is there anything wrong with my car? Second, will my car survive the whole drive home?”
On May 9th I responded, “Check And Set Your Tire Pressure In All Four Tires And Try It.
Next I’d take a mechanic for a test drive before I hit the road. You could have a wheel bearing or tire going bad. You don’t want either to fail part way through your trip.”
Do you remember that ?
Why ask for advice if you do not intend to heed it ? You are fortunate you weren’t hurt or involved in a collision.
Experience is the best teacher. (“The only problem I see is that the tires shouldn’t do something like that at their age, but I guess if it happened my situation is completely possible.”)
Keep going to college. You need a degree, but start really learning by paying attention better.
CSA