Steering wheel shake for a few miles on cold mornings

[mcarman430]

I have a strange issue with my wife's 2007 M35X. On cold mornings the steering wheel shakes for a few miles and then stops and is smooth after that. It seems to be coming from the passenger side front mostly but that could be more due to sound than actual evidence. I lifted it and checked for hub wear and the wheels don't budge top to bottom on either side. We have new tires but I have never heard of a tire doing that and it was aligned after the tires were installed. Again, it is the fact that it stops and will be fine after the first few miles that is throwing me. I do not see or smell any evidence of calipers sticking. Not saying that couldn't be the problem. Also, stopping and pulling over for a few minutes will usually clear it up as well. Car has roughly 80K miles on it so maybe time for new struts. Has anyone seen anything like this before? One last thing, when pulling out on a slope uphill and turning right, there is usually a rubbing sound for just a second. This only happens pulling out uphill while turning right. Mechanic did not find anything last time I took the car to him. There are no signs of the tires rubbing on anything in the wheel well. Wheels are stock. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

[Ilya]

Hmm, this is a tricky one. What happens if you let the car fully warm up before moving it an inch in the mornings...like, leave it idling for 20 minutes before leaving. Does it still shake for the first few miles?

[macgiver]

Some tires with a lot of tread plies , like 5 or 6 ply can have "flat-spotting" when stopped "HOT" (not allowed time to cool-down), parked overnight , and then run on cool mornings nowadays ,November you'll get just that . Tires always have two
steel belts ,generally 1 or2 Nylon or Rayon , and 1 or 2 Kevlar/Aramid plies . Now I believe it's the Nylon and more prevalent
in higher "speed rated" ( V,W,Z,Y) tires - see tirerack com tech section on flat-spotting whilst stored .Glen 11/1/2017

[EdBwoy]

How are your tires - age, tread depth? What brand?
And since it's an AWD, do you know if the front axles or bearings have ever been replaced?

Curious where you are, what the ambient temps there are. My tires are usually noisy until they warm up on a drive. Not sure if this should matter, since yours aren't really warming up when you pull over and wait it out.

steering wheel shakes for a few miles and then stops and is smooth after that. It seems to be coming from the passenger side front mostly but that could be more due to sound than actual evidence

Please clarify for me. What seems to be coming from the pass side? Vibration/shimmy/ cyclic rubbing sound?

[mcarman430]

Tires are new Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06. I do not know if any front axles or bearings have ever been replaced. We got the car with 55k miles and now it has about 80K miles. I live in Tennessee so fairly mild climate most of the time.

[steve_c]

Most probably your wheels may be over-torqued.

Bring the car back to installer, tell him shimmy started after tire install & insist he re-torque all 4 wheels using torque wrench, not a impact gun set at house air pressure!

Very, very common after new tire installation. I would not be surprised if your lugs are torqued over 100 ft. lbs.!

A sad all too common problem is that tire installers run up your lugs with an impact gun delivering over 125 psi of house air, then put a torque wrench on the lugs afterwards set to 80 ft. lbs. Of course the wrench will click every time without movement!

Not only will over-torque warp rotors, but it guarantees a snapped lug should you need to remove a tire afterwards!

If you are handy, invest in a good 1/2" torque wrench, (Craftsman has nice ones) and re-torque the wheels to FSM specs.

NOTE:
I realized after posting you did not clarify if it happens on braking only. After reading, it may not be the case.
If the shimmy occurs while moving, no braking, I would move the suspected shimmy tire (or both fronts) to the rear to rule out tire high spot.

[mcarman430]

braking does not seem to be the issue. I will rotate the tires and see if that helps. Thanks,

[macgiver]

macgiver here , I love steve_c 's assessment of these tire shops w/ same M.O. air-gun does well over 130-165
ft / lbs - THEN they think a click, set @ like , 80 ? means that' the torque !!!!! When the lugnut hasn't budged after the airgun had it . The grunts just aren't taught that the hardware must be "turning as it clicks " to be valid . Here those tire shops will send your stripped studs , lugs , hubs to their flunky full auto repair affiliate for several hundred $$$$ in the hole ....And on TOPIC = mcarman430 , I have those exact Conti Extreme Contact DSW ( 225/55/16 W ) on my olds and here in AZ , and I've had it shipped & driven in New england Sept - Dec ..... I never experienced the " flat topping w/them , whereas my Kumho Ecsta PT on the J30 NOTORIOUSLY does ! But they are a decent compromise & well suited to a "J" .

[bluedevil30]

Did the mechanic spin the front tires with the car on a lift?

This is a good way to check for a partially seized caliper.

[mcarman430]

I rotated the tires and test drove it. This time it was worse but more obviously in the rear passenger side. When I stopped to check it, I could smell the rear brake. Replaced the Rear caliper yesterday and ordering three more today to complete the set. Doing rotors and all so, hopefully won't have any more problems for a while.

[mattd860]

I recently experienced the same thing on brand New Pirelli tires. I had them balanced three times, an alignment, new brake rotors, new axles, and a new front driveshaft. After doing all this without any change I decided to take it to the dealer who did a 'Road Force' balancing on the wheels and now the problem is gone. I read your recent post about the airbags and how terrible your local dealer is but you can get this done at other places as well. I don't know much about it but the Road Force balancing is more realistic than regular balancing and it cost me about $150 bucks.

I went to 3 different tire stores and all of them supposedly balanced my wheel to perfection (according to their machines) but were perplexed when my steering wheel shook at high speeds. When I got the Road Force done, they found one wheel had a very minor flat spot and then found that one tire was slightly off. However, due to the technicality of the machine, they were able to balance out both problems so the wheels spin nice and smooth.

This may or may not be your issue and unfortunately, they will charge you the full price just to find out so you could purchase the expensive balancing even if you don't need it but it was definitely worth it for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQxVAssnbp8

[guntop116]

Interested to hear if the brake job fixes the issue. I have the same problem. I torque all the wheels my self with a torque wrench so its not over torquing. I did have a seized caliper in the rear driver side that i replaced and thats where it seems to be coming from. I would think a warped rotor would continue to cause a vibration but like OP said, it goes away after driving the inital mile. Happens on my stock wheel/tire combo and the aftermarket ones.

[Sstupid]

I’m betting tires.

[gavnator]

I just put my set of Contis DWS 06's on my 06' M35X. Same thing. I believe it has to do with them being new. If I recall, the last set of DWS' I had on the car did the same thing when new. No big deal. Its hardly noticeable. Conti DWS is a great performance tire for the M35X