Are these symptoms of a lost wheel weight?

[BigNick]

01 Sebring... Drives great EXCEPT for lately!

City driving.. No issues... Once I start going over about 80km/hr, the steering wheel starts shaking bad. The faster I go above 80, the worse it gets! I'm pretty sure it's coming from the left front wheel, but you can feel it from the passenger seat also.

Otherwise, no clanks, thumps squeeks or rattles. Wheel weights are on the inside, and can't really see them. Recent physical restrictions have prevented me from taking off the rim to check..

Most likely an unbalanced tire?

 

[Steve S]

Bring it to a tire shop the $$$ will be well spent.

 

[brandini]

Yup, needs a balance on a good machine.

And it doesn't matter if a weight was lost, tires wear out of balance sometimes.

 

[pennzoil_guru]

An unbalanced wheel can damage the tire, wheel studs, ABS speed sensors, TPMS and rim and destroy hub and bearing assemblies and dive axles. Get it into a tire store or any garage you trust and ask them to rebalance the tires and inspect the front end to rule out any other components

 

[mrsilv04]

Move the front tires to the back... and the backs to the front.

See what that does with your problem.

If the vibration vanishes from the steering wheel and reappears in the bottom of the seat, then something is up with one of the tires that is now on the rear of the car.

Cheap and easy way to start eliminating possibilities.

 

[BigNick]

Thanks everyone.. I figured it MIGHT be a balance issue.. just weird how it just popped up one day.

Will drive below 60km/hr to a tire shop asap. And hopefully it's just a balancing issue. Will report back..

 

[BigNick]

Just wanted to follow up...

I checked out my tires and noticed the left rear was low on air... There was less than 5 PSI in it! (even though it didn't look THAT bad... and still very drivable)

After more checking, I discovered the right rear was down to 20 PSI. Pumped them up to the proper 32 PSI... In my defense, I just had knee surgery, and my car has been sitting for almost a month.

Back to the story, I wanted to see if this was the reason for the shaking.... sooo... Jumped on the expressway... SMOOOOTH ride again! NO shaking... no pulling.. no nothing...

The low/no tire pressure of the rear wheels caused all the shaking problems... No other way to explain it... Who would've thought!

 

[HTSS_TR]

It is impossible to have a tire goes down to 5 PSI in 1 month without a leak somewhere, it is nearly impossible to go from 32 PSI to 20 PSI in a month too. You must not checking all tire pressures for a long time to have these two rear tires lost that much pressure. You should check the two rear tires more often, and fix the leak as soon as possible.

 

[BigNick]

I did bring them in to have them checked as they are 4 years old (but still in good shape). The left rear did in fact have a leak... They could not find anything wrong with the other tire. The front tires are a little over a year old and were fine.

Last time Tire Pressures were checked was mid February before a 200 mile roadtrip. Fronts were fine, left rear was around 28 PSI, right rear was 31 PSI.

Also, just by looking at the tires, the right rear which was low 12PSI, looked normal, and the left rear, low by about 25PSI, looked like it needed air... but nothing bad enough not to drive it.. (Just proves you should actually check with a gauge!)

Nonetheless, just wanted to share because I can not believe it myself. All that shaking from the rears being low on air!?

I do mostly all city driving, but have another roadtrip coming up. Even though the shaking is gone, I'm bringing the car to have it checked by a mechanic friend before the trip (Tire place was JUST a tire place, no actual mechanics). Still kind of weird to me!

PS I'm not high on pain meds... My brother witnessed all this! haha