Hi, I recently got a 2018 Yaris iA sedan from Hertz, automatic transmission, 13,000 miles on it and passed a 100-point inspection. Everything great except from the start I’ve noticed a lot of vibration, occurring in two different situations, though perhaps they’re related.
First, the steering wheel vibrates uncomfortably at higher speeds, most particularly at 70-75mph.
Second, both the gas and brake pedals vibrate at higher RPM, which makes longer drives uncomfortable because I can feel it in my foot and ankle. And this doesn’t have anything to do with actually depressing the pedal, since even if I just hover my foot over the brake or gas pedal I feel it vibrating. Particularly on the highway since the higher the RPM, the more the vibration.
I’m hoping the steering wheel issue can be fixed by getting my wheels balanced (or getting them aligned sometimes fixes such an issue as well right?). But as for the pedals, I’m wondering if that’s just how the car is. Similar but less dramatic vibration can sometimes be felt when first starting the engine in the morning. Or on occasion when idling.
Anyone have a similar experience with a similar car? What should I get looked at first? Thanks
Sounds like a wheel vibration. Take it someplace that uses a “road force balancer”. This type of balancer will look at wheel roundness, as well as balance. If the wheel is bent or the tire has a high spot the road force balancer will tell the technician. Rental cars take a beating and people don’t always tell the car rental company the truth. Hitting a curb can damage a tire and also a wheel, causing vibrations. Renters rarely disclose such incidents.
I don’t trust those “100 point inspections” done by the seller of the car since they are the ones trying to sell it. If you want an honest assessment of a used car, pay a mechanic $100 or $200 to check out any used car you want to buy. If the seller won’t allow it (or the inspection reveals more problems than the seller disclosed), walk away. There are plenty of used cars out there.
Agree with the above comments. One other thing. Some cars are sensitive to how the lug nuts are tightened. The road force balancer May show this. Have the lug nuts tightened by hand then torqued to specifications.
Tire balancing is only cover for 12 months/12,000 miles by the factory warranty (adjustments), if you go to a Toyota dealer you can expect to have to pay for balancing.
Yeah, like Nevada_545 said, my assumption was that the warranty wouldn’t apply to this sort of issue - but correct me if I’m wrong.
I was thinking to get the road force balancing done at a run-of-the-mill tire place, but would there be a compelling reason to get this done at the dealership instead? Usually I hear they’re simply more expensive, but if you think they might be more effective in this situation…
Any tire shop should be able to balance your tires, measure the road force and replace tires if they exceed the road force limits. You may want to ask the seller if they will handle this for you.
Yes, very likely. I see them all the time laying on the side of the road. Other possibilities
tire problem, out of round, etc. look carefully at the tire treads for bumps, bulges, unusual wear patterns.
A tire has rotated slightly relative to where it was originally mounted on the wheel (due to hard braking or accelerations). Good idea to put a little mark on tires corresponding to the valve stem , then that can be easily checked.
For the vibration when not moving, assuming the check engine light isn’t on and diagnostic codes have already been checked, the first step is to visit a dealership to make sure all the engine software has been updated to the current version. Sometimes you can do this yourself at the toyota website, using your car’s vin. If you go to the dealership, see if you can take a test drive in another YIA, maybe they all do it. Lookup what Consumer Reports said about it as a new car. Maybe engine vibrations were mentioned, in which case this is just part of the car’s “features”. I seem to recall CR didn’t like some aspects of the gasoline versions of the Yaris, but I think it was more about the driver position, and road noise, but maybe they mentioned vibrations too. A shop can check for play in the engine and transmission mounts too.