Steering wheel vibrations at 60+ mph speeds?

Probably just a bad tire and a lazy dealership.

 

I meant road force balance.
Let as know what they decided to do.

 

I would take the front wheel caps off, then take the wheels off the car and see if anything is stuck to the inside of the wheels. Wash them thoroughly, and reinstall them. That way you know there is no foreign material stuck to any part of the wheel. Make sure the inside portion of the wheel covers or wheel caps are also completely clean. It doesn't take much to throw a wheel out of balance.

Have them balance those clean wheels, and then road test. If they balance well, and still vibrate, it could be that the tire belt has a separation or the tire is defective. I bought 4 tires that were horribly misshapen a long while back that caused a lot of strange vibration at all kinds of speeds.

Defective bearings would make noise, especially when loaded in a turn and then would get quiet when unloaded in an opposite turn.

If the vibration still develops, have the mechanic go with you in another similar Prius (as suggested above) on the same road and see if it vibrates.

Very frustrating. They should find and fix the problem. Stay cool. Be nice and stick to it, until they find the solution and make it right for you.

 

As said before, 'Road Force Balancing' is a new technology. Not all tire stores have the equipment, let alone car dealerships.
I bought some dealer 'take off' wheels and tires with supposedly 10 miles on them. I had to have the tires mounted and balanced ( they took the TPMS sensors off the rims).
I wanted the best and shopped around and locally only a few Firestone shops offered this new type of balancing.
It was not any more expensive , even though there is an extra step involved. A drum presses against the rotating tire and measures the out-of roundness and displays it in Lbs. of force. I had three tires at 6 lbs. and one at 21 lbs.
I was told to keep that one on the rear and "maybe I won't feel it".....
All this doesn't help you if your dealer can't do it.
Would they, could they pay to have a road Road Force Balancing done at another tire shop?
Or swap your wheel set for one off the lot?

Good luck, stand up for your rights, once you find the bad tire(s), every ting will be all right!!

 

Thirty years ago we bought a diesel Mercury Lynx. We had the very same vibration problem at about the very same speed range. We tried various wheel balancing and aligning schemes, finally the dealer removed one of the front tires, examined it, and announced it had "small rubber balls attached to the inner wall of the tread", i.e., defective tires. Further examination showed all four tires had this problem. We took the tires to our local Goodyear dealer (they were Goodyears) and asked for replacements, as they were still under warranty. He told us because the tires were a dealer supplied item, the dealer was responsible for replacing them. We went back to the dealer and asked for new tires, and he basically said HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! After several weeks of letter writing to various consumer organizations and the presidents of Ford and Goodyear, we threw in the towel and bought a new set of non-Goodyear tires (the local Goodyear dealer went out of business during this time). The Lynx rode fine for the next 10 years, and got around 50 mpg to boot!

 

See my post regarding vibrations!

 

I just bought a 2012 Prius last week. This is my second one, so I know what they should drive like and the various noises the engine makes. I am having a very similar vibration problem. It is not excessive, but it is something that shouldn't be there. It happens at various speeds, but especially driving 55-70mph. I brought it to the dealer 2 days ago and they balanced the tires. The was no improvement. I am bringing it back tomorrow to them and leaving it for the day. Hopefully they will find something.

 

The fact that things actually seem better on slightly rough roads could indicate static friction in the McPherson struts. Statement below is excerpted from a University of Eindhoven paper on this phenomenon:

However, some vehicles have unexpected high vibration levels when they are driven on a smooth road. This may be caused by the non-linear frictional behavior of the shock absorbers. On a smooth road with a low excitation level the shock absorber may reside in the stick-phase, instead of the desired sliding phase. This is is due to the presence of Coulomb friction in the shock absorber.

That said, I don't know how one could ever suggest Coulomb friction as being the culprit in a discussion with a dealer. You could ask if they've ever had to replace struts to solve this problem.

It also seems that reports of this problem do recur in this forum, and for rather new vehicles.

 

And just to repeat, there ARE bad-out-of-stock tires.
A 'Road Force Balancing' machine can detect this but this is New Tech and dealers may not have the machine.
In my area Firestone shops have them and they don't charge any more for this type of balancing.
It doesn't cure a bad tire but will detect it and then that tire needs to be replaced.
A 'lumpy' tire can be balanced the traditional way just fine but will still feel bad in service.

My experience with this: I bought a set of wheels and tires with 'Only 10 miles' on them, dealer take-off, 17", low profile, the TPMS were removed.
So I took them to my local Firestone to have the tires remounted and balanced using the Road Force Balance machine.
3 of them balanced and measured fine, "6lbs of road force". The other one measured "21lbs of road force", not good but I was told, "Keep that one in the rear and maybe you won't feel it".
The cure would be to replace that 10 mile old tire with a new one.
Alas, I have not installed my FUN wheel set yet, so this long story does not have an ending yet ...............

In regards to the post above: Stiction is the common term. Stiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Well, I hope you have better experience at the dealership then I did. I am still having vibrations, I took it to dealership 3 times already, they did road force balancing for me, replaced the front tires that slightly improved it but did not fix the problem. I called the corporate office and opened a case about it. They sent a field engineer who did a test drive and kept on saying that he does not feel anything abnormal but was afraid to pronounce a word about vibrations. I am not trying to discourage you but it is impossible to prove anything to them. I think I am just going to give up now until it gets worse at least. Though I believe this is systematic problem and if enough people complain they will have to do something about it. It is not safety related and most likely they will not do any recalls but hopefully they will fix this in the future models.

 

Let us know the outcome

 

I am experiencing a similar issue on my 2 week old Prius. I have a 2012 Prius Three Performance Package, and I am getting a lot of vibration once I get up to highway speeds. I have an appointment this week to look at the tire balance. Sure hope it is a quick fix!

 

if its been shaking at 60+ for more than several hundred miles or so, it is not normal. tell those idiots that. who in their right minds would consider this normal? yes, initially maybe, but after a length of driving? NOT NORMAL

 

I drove today on the interstate at 75 mph & no vibration

 

Have you been able to resolve your issue? My car is 1 day old and has the same problem .

Rob

 

I have the same vibration problem after the first tire rotation on a 2012 Prius. I have had all 4 tires balanced several times and had the front tires replaced. Still the same vibration between 60 & 70. I feel it most on smooth road. I have had it to 2 different Toyota dealers and one tire shop. The 2nd dealer said the a front tire was out of round. Bridgestone replaced both front tires. Alignment and balance is supposed to be ok and no other problems were found. I just got a call today from the local Prius dealer and was informed the Toyota says this is normal. The dealer had transferred tires from a new Prius and that did not cure the problem. That can't be normal. No car with balanced new tires should vibrate. I will take up the matter with Toyota in a couple of weeks after a trip I have planned. I love the car otherwise. Am getting 55 + mpg.

 

Well my tires were replaced and the vibration is not nearly as bad. However I will still get a vibration over 65MPH every now and then (even on a nice smooth road).

 

OP: no