Hello-
2010 Acura TSX 4cyl 5 spd Auto 90k mi.
About a year ago, I was driving on a highway at about 60 mph and felt a strange pulsating or wobbling sensation coming from the front, with a slight shaking coming through the steering. It felt and sounded the same way a coin sounds when you spin it on a table, and the coin makes that wobbling/warping sound as it finishes spinning and gradually comes to rest on the table's surface. But there is also a pronounced vibration. Applying the brakes makes the sound more pronounced, with a stronger pulsation coming through the steering wheel.
I've had the following done at my regular mechanic (who is usually very good) and at an Acura service center (not the best place IMO), and the problem keeps coming back:
- Wheels rebalanced (regular mechanic)
- Replaced passenger wheel bearing and hub (Acura Svc. center)
- Front driver-side caliper and both brake hoses replaced (regular mechanic)
Any idea what could be causing this? It's otherwise a great car and it's sad to have this happen (it actually feels scary when it's happening), with no one able to figure out why.
No disrespect to your mechanics but this sounds like you have a broken belt in one of your tires.
You described it as a wobbling/warping sound.
If the belt broke it wouldn't add any weight to the spot where it happened. It would put a small section of the tire slightly farther away from the wheel's axis of rotation but maybe your wheel balancer guy tried to remedy that with wheel weights.
It won't cost you anything to slowly run your hand over each tire. Slowly because when this happens a piece of wire from the broken belt can poke through the tire treads and give you a nasty cut.
You'll be feeling for an area that looks similar to this, which even looks "wobbly/warpy"
Thanks very much for your reply. I’ll check out the tires and see if I can detect anything. I had a tire blow out on me while going 70mph on an interstate many years ago (different car), and the sensation I’m experiencing now reminds me of what I felt minutes before that blowout. I don’t know if it’s related but it does occur that the front right tire gains psi more than the others as I drive.
I wanted to keep my original post as short as possible, so I left out some additional details about this issue, summarized below:
- The wobbling/warping/pulsating is at its worst after accelerating from street to highway speed (30 - 60+mph), esp. onto highways/ramps that have continuous gradual curves (like the Belt Pkwy in NYC, if you’re familiar). In those cases, in order to stop the wobbling, I need to slow down considerably or stop (not the safest thing to do in some driving situations).
- Otherwise, in general, there always seems to be a very slight pulsing/vibrating coming from the front, usually not enough to be bothersome, except when it occasionally gets especially bad as I've described above.
With this additional info, do you still think it could be a broken tire belt?
My tires are Continental PureContact 225/50R17 that I got from PepBoys 6 years and 42.5k miles ago. The tires are supposed to have a 7 year/70k prorated warranty. One was replaced under warranty 3 years ago after being punctured by a bad pothole next to a street drain.
Thanks again for the help!