Steering wheel vibrations at high speeds

[Chele]

Hello there! I'm new to the forum. I'm not new to Toyota, I've had a Corolla before, a Rav 4, and two Prius models. When my last Prius lease ended, I decided to go for the '15 Corolla S Premium. I love it, for the most part. I'm right at 1,000 miles. The Corolla has the same size tires as my last Prius (17" tires). I've noticed when driving at highway speeds (60mph +), there are a lot of vibrations in the steering wheel. I do realize that some is normal, no way to get around that but this seems excessive. I took it took my dealer, and a mechanic drove the car. He said that while he could feel them, he didn't think it was any cause for alarm. I'm wondering if I'm worried over nothing?

My biggest issue is that I live off of a busy divided highway that is at the bottom of a hill. Every morning, I cross the divided highway, normally having to stop for oncoming traffic (both ways) and then have to quickly get up to highway speeds while going up a large hill. I realize that this is not ideal conditions but the wheel seems to vibrate a lot while driving this, so much that you can see the wheel move on its own. I'm planning on taking the car back to my dealer again next week and taking the mechanic to this spot so it's easy to duplicate. I just thought I would ask owners to see if others have this issue?

Thank you!

 

[trdriky91]

Yes u should take it back to the dealer because that's not narmal especially if u can see your steering wheel moving.

 

[DTG]

I have ZERO steering wheel vibrations in my 2014 LE, even at 65 mph. You should have none at 1,000 miles. This new it's probably just unbalanced tires or it needs an alignment adjustment.

Does it do it only when accelerating, as in the situation you describe? Or does it shake when you're doing steady driving on the highway?

 

[Chele]

Thanks for the replies!

The vibrations felt through the steering wheel occur a lot while driving at highway speeds. Sometimes it's worse, depending at the road quality. It's definitely the worst while accelerating at the moment I described (that I've noticed so far). That's the only place that I've noticed it that bad. When I bought my last car, the Prius, the tires were out of balance but the vibrations were much much worse. I guess that this one could still be out of balance though.

I have an appointment next week to go to the dealer. I hope that they'll do something. I love the car but really hate this problem. Kind of makes me regret buying it. But it's nice to hear that you two don't have this problem, which means I should be able to make it go away.

I also wonder if its the tires? They are Firestone. I never seem to have good luck with OEM tires. But I refuse to replace them with 1,000 miles on my car.

 

[Rob]

Hi Chele, I also just purchased a 2015 Corolla S Premium with the 17" tires this past weekend (my car also came with the firestone tires). Driving in the city was great, but when I took my car on the highway I also noticed a lot of vibrations in the steering wheel when the speed was 60 mph or higher. I will be taking my car back to the the dealership to look at this...just wondering if your problem was resolved?

 

[Rob]

Thanks for the replies!

The vibrations felt through the steering wheel occur a lot while driving at highway speeds. Sometimes it's worse, depending at the road quality. It's definitely the worst while accelerating at the moment I described (that I've noticed so far). That's the only place that I've noticed it that bad. When I bought my last car, the Prius, the tires were out of balance but the vibrations were much much worse. I guess that this one could still be out of balance though.

I have an appointment next week to go to the dealer. I hope that they'll do something. I love the car but really hate this problem. Kind of makes me regret buying it. But it's nice to hear that you two don't have this problem, which means I should be able to make it go away.

I also wonder if its the tires? They are Firestone. I never seem to have good luck with OEM tires. But I refuse to replace them with 1,000 miles on my car.

Hi Chele, I also just purchased a 2015 Corolla S Premium with the 17" tires this past weekend (my car also came with the firestone tires). Driving in the city was great, but when I took my car on the highway I also noticed a lot of vibrations in the steering wheel when the speed was 60 mph or higher. I will be taking my car back to the the dealership to look at this...just wondering if your problem was resolved?

 

[dlayman]

Really three possibilities - tires not balanced properly, one or more tires out of round, warped or bent wheel(s).

 

[ToyBoy]

I would rotate the front tires to the back. That would narrow it down to see if one of those current front tires is bad or just out of balance. If it still did it then I would then do a alignment check .

 

[Rob]

Hi Chele, I also just purchased a 2015 Corolla S Premium with the 17" tires this past weekend (my car also came with the firestone tires). Driving in the city was great, but when I took my car on the highway I also noticed a lot of vibrations in the steering wheel when the speed was 60 mph or higher. I will be taking my car back to the the dealership to look at this...just wondering if your problem was resolved?

UPDATE: Thanks very much for the comments. Took my Corolla to the Toyota dealership/service centre this morning. The alignment was checked and determined to be fine. However, 3 of my wheels (both rear wheels and front driver side) were found to be out of balance. All 3 wheels were balanced and she is now running smoothly...Hallelujah!

Given that my brand new 2015 Corolla had less than 2 miles on it when I drove it off the lot 3 days ago, its strange that the wheels would be out of balance. The Service technician said that either it was not caught during quality control, or something occurred during shipment of the car to cause the wheels to go out of balance. Anyway, all fixed now so I'm happy.

 

[Rob]

UPDATE: Thanks very much for the comments. Took my Corolla to the Toyota dealership/service centre this morning. The alignment was checked and determined to be fine. However, 3 of my wheels (both rear wheels and front driver side) were found to be out of balance. All 3 wheels were balanced and she is now running smoothly...Hallelujah!

Spoke to soon. Took my car on the highway again and there I could feel the vehicle shaking/vibrating again. At lower speeds (city driving), the drive is now feeling rough too. Taking it back to the dealership for servicing tomorrow. Hoping that they can figure it out and fix the problem.

 

[rtankersley]

I just returned from two trips: 1) 1100 miles 2) 600 miles. All driving Interstate at 70 (+/- 3-5). No vibration. No issues.

 

[Chele]

UPDATE: Thanks very much for the comments. Took my Corolla to the Toyota dealership/service centre this morning. The alignment was checked and determined to be fine. However, 3 of my wheels (both rear wheels and front driver side) were found to be out of balance. All 3 wheels were balanced and she is now running smoothly...Hallelujah!

Given that my brand new 2015 Corolla had less than 2 miles on it when I drove it off the lot 3 days ago, its strange that the wheels would be out of balance. The Service technician said that either it was not caught during quality control, or something occurred during shipment of the car to cause the wheels to go out of balance. Anyway, all fixed now so I'm happy.

Hi Rob - So sorry for the late reply! I'm glad to see that Toyota fixed your issue and that everything is smooth now. As far as my problem, I'm guessing that mine wasn't as extreme as yours. I've had two Toyota mechanics drive my car and various family members that are more familiar with cars than I am. Most of them could feel that issue but said that it wasn't an issue, just normal for highway speed driving. I've either gotten "used" to the issue or it's gone away because I don't notice the problem any more when driving at high speeds.

 

[Rob]

Hi Rob - So sorry for the late reply! I'm glad to see that Toyota fixed your issue and that everything is smooth now. As far as my problem, I'm guessing that mine wasn't as extreme as yours. I've had two Toyota mechanics drive my car and various family members that are more familiar with cars than I am. Most of them could feel that issue but said that it wasn't an issue, just normal for highway speed driving. I've either gotten "used" to the issue or it's gone away because I don't notice the problem any more when driving at high speeds.

Thanks for your reply Chele. Following my previous post, and what I thought was the fix for my new 2015 Corolla S (balancing the wheels), I could still feel the vibration, and it seemed to be getting worse (I was also feeling it at lower speeds when driving in the city). I thought that maybe it was just me being picky because the vibration was present but slight, so I asked a few friends from my office to ride in my vehicle with me to see what they thought. They all said that they could definitely feel the vibration and that I wasn't loosing my mind.

I took my vehicle back to the dealership today and asked to drive one of their new 2016 Corolla S models on the lot so that I could compare if there was a difference. The 2016 model ran amazingly smooth (no vibration whatsoever at highway speed or otherwise). The Toyota service technician did a test drive with me in both the new 2016 model and my new 2015 model and suggested swapping my wheels with the 2016 model (rims with the tires).

Swapping the wheels completely eliminated the annoying vibration problem - my corolla is finally driving super smooth as silk like it should have from the start. The service technician believes that my previous wheels either have a defect in one of the tires or that one of the rims has a slight warp (exactly what certain members of this forum have been saying).

 

[Chele]

Thanks for your reply Chele. Following my previous post, and what I thought was the fix for my new 2015 Corolla S (balancing the wheels), I could still feel the vibration, and it seemed to be getting worse (I was also feeling it at lower speeds when driving in the city). I thought that maybe it was just me being picky because the vibration was present but slight, so I asked a few friends from my office to ride in my vehicle with me to see what they thought. They all said that they could definitely feel the vibration and that I wasn't loosing my mind.

I took my vehicle back to the dealership today and asked to drive one of their new 2016 Corolla S models on the lot so that I could compare if there was a difference. The 2016 model ran amazingly smooth (no vibration whatsoever at highway speed or otherwise). The Toyota service technician did a test drive with me in both the new 2016 model and my new 2015 model and suggested swapping my wheels with the 2016 model (rims with the tires).

Swapping the wheels completely eliminated the annoying vibration problem - my corolla is finally driving super smooth as silk like it should have from the start. The service technician believes that my previous wheels either have a defect in one of the tires or that one of the rims has a slight warp (exactly what certain members of this forum have been saying).

I know that it's been a month but I just wanted to update my story. First off, I'm glad to hear that your problem was solved, Rob! That's crazy about the previous wheels being damaged. It does make sense though, since swapping the wheels fixed the problem. I'm glad that the dealership let you swap them. I'm sure that they were just get credit or whatever from Toyota but so many dealerships wouldn't even dream of letting you to that. Enjoy the ride!

My problem came back a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't noticed any problems after I last posted. A few days after the problem started again, my tire light came on. The temperature was very cool and it was first thing in the morning. I noticed it a few minutes from home and quickly turned back around. I was going to work and didn't have to time to go to the dealership so I just used a different car. That night, I checked the tire pressure on all of them and the front driver side was very low. I took it to the dealership the next day and there was a leak on that tire by the valve stem. They were able to fix it and I haven't had the problem since. The technician remembered me from the trips before and said that if the leak was there the whole time, that was probably the initial problem. I haven't noticed the problem since the leak was fixed.

 

[Lion_9998]

Well, you can go to a service centre if there're problem. Maybe your warranty will cover it. It's always better to call the professionals, isn't it???
There's an article about the location of Toyota service centers, mb it'll be helpful for you))
the-cars net/toyota-dealers-and-service-centers-in-usa

 

[Skwisgaar]

the s rims in my opinion seem to have balance issues i had the same problem when i bought mine but since i have experience in shops that was my first thought, also alot of dealers dont have very good balancers ive worked in quite a few where you almost have to balance them by your self

 

[pacca]

just curious when they balance tires- wheels do they put weights on inside of the wheel?