[Jcol]

My wife just called to say that on her drive to work the car started to vibrate at speeds above 40 mph. Thinking it was a flate tire and or snow accumulation in the wheel wells she pulled over and checked. Tires are good and no snow. She said that the vibration is coming through the seat and she cannot isolate it. She did say that there is little or no vibration in the steering wheel. Makes me think it is something with a rear wheel or a serious drive train issue. Called the dealer, she is afraid to drive it so it looks like they are going to tow it in. The dealer says they are busy and may not even get to it till next week. Hopefully its just a bad tire,, I want to have a car over the holidays.

 

[beach]

Hmm. Did she ever notice any kind of a shudder or vibration, to any degree, ever before? Is it something noticed under power, coasting, or?

If the power delivery and shifting still seem fine, but the car itself is wobbling, it could be a wheel/tire all of a sudden if she hit something...maybe. It's hard to tell.

Some of us are dealing with vibration issues from the drivetrain right now, particularly in 6-speed cars, but in our cases it didn't just show up all of a sudden and badly, it was there for a while or the beginning--doesn't seem like your sudden issue.

 

[mpoczobut]

Unless the rear tires were knocked out of balance, it sounds like your wife's malibu is suffering from the same problem I and others are.

http://www.chevymalibuforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=906

 

[Jcol]

Hi beach, yes this came on suddenly. I drove the car on Sunday and it was fine. I read the thread about the 6 - speed vibration and I have noticed the momentary sumbling as the transmission does seem to hang onto 6'th gear too long however from what my wife is describing this is very different. I'm thinking bad tire, I talked to her again about it and it almost sounds like a flat spot on a rear tire. It's been going down to 0 F around here so I am thinking a cold tire has hit something and broke a belt. It has Firestone's on it and I haven't had a set of Firestones in years, but when I used to buy them I always had problems with them. Probably not a fair comment but that's been my experience. Should know more in a couple of hours.

 

[beach]

Yeah, a little bit of something before was probably normal--especially if it was not to the point of "hold on...what's wrong?".

I forgot to put that in there, too, but really cold temps may be exacerbating a weird tire issue. It's very possible and quite likely, especially if it was something where the temps sunk further and there appeared the issue.

 

[Wisconsin Proud]

More than likely ice or snow build up inside the rim throwing the wheel out of balance. Balance problems surface at certain speeds. At low speeds you may not feel it at all.

 

[Jcol]

Just back from the dealer and the problem is solved! Wisconsin Proud nailed it. As soon as we drove into the service bay and discribed the problem the tech smiled and took me to the back of the car. The 17" wheel rims are good and open on the inside, snow gets in there and melts and forms a puddle on the bottom of the rim. Puddle freezes good so you are left with a nice piece of ice stuck to the inside of the rim. Both rear tires had a significant piece of ice stuck there. This of course throws the wheel balance off and having both rear tires out of balance really made the car feel strange. The dealer had a power washer setup and sprayed out all 4 wheels. We took it for a test drove and it was smooth again. Relieved to know it was a simple problem.

 

[alivingMalibu]

I experienced the same problem the other day with the snow and all.

However, I'm also one of the people that is experiencing vibration/shake/wobble in 5th and 6th gear -sometimes 4th now a little.

My front tires and wheels had some morning ice in the treads and wheels. As soon as the car hit 40 MPH, the whole front end of the car (including the steering wheel) shook like crazy as I drove to work - I felt like the car was going to shake into pieces.

In the afternoon, some melting occurred and I went back to my normal mild to moderate vibration.

I've experienced this before in other cars, but never with such an extreme shake in the drivetrain.

I'm kind of wondering if this is not related to the vibration promblems we are experiencing????

Please post any follow up thoughts on this in the post about problems with vibration around 40 MPH.

 

[Jcol]

Please post any follow up thoughts on this in the post about problems with vibration around 40 MPH.

alivingMalibu - This thread was created to describe a problem and solution to a specific vibration event that I experienced. It is not related to the vibration that is covered in the thread you mentioned. While this thread has pretty much run it's course, I see no reason to direct any followup posts to the other thread. Thanks.