Caster can be the culprit if the vibration gets larger with speed. Also was a road-force balance done? Any irregular tire wear? There are other causes, but check the easy (and more common) things first.
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Vibration in steering wheel?
- Thread starter modelx007
- Start date
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- Driving Dynamics Model X
wallstguy
Member
Having the same issue with my car now. Speeds of >120km/hr (70mph?) has the steering wheel vibrating almost violently...
April Delivery with only 4k km (2.5k miles?)
April Delivery with only 4k km (2.5k miles?)
Afdyce
Member
Seriously, check you "Lane Assist" is off. When the update arrived I thought I had a front suspension/wheel balance problem.
Destiny1701
22’ M3LR ‘DrkNite’/ 22’ MYP BliueRocket
If lane assist is off...check the rims/tires first. If you have 21's they are quite soft and a simple pot hole can damage them. Ask them to do a road force balance and they will be able to tell if one of your rims is warped as well. On all 4...not just the front. Here's why:
What I've learned through all the rim/tire testing is that the traditional notion of front wheel shaking usually means ' front tire problem' and whole car shaking usually means 'rear tires' ...does not hold true for Tesla. The battery pack and metal frame basically allows much more vibration through from the rear to the front than would be in a normal ice car set up. A rear tire/rim issue can cause what would normally be a symptom for front tire/rim in an ice car setup.
Ie. part of my front steering shaking was actually due to the rear passenger rim being warped and the tire was feathered oddly. But it was felt closer to the steering than the whole car. Changed the rim/tire at rear and voila. Defies common balancing logic.
Good luck. After tire/rims ask them to check the half shafts. They are a known issue for both model S and X.
What I've learned through all the rim/tire testing is that the traditional notion of front wheel shaking usually means ' front tire problem' and whole car shaking usually means 'rear tires' ...does not hold true for Tesla. The battery pack and metal frame basically allows much more vibration through from the rear to the front than would be in a normal ice car set up. A rear tire/rim issue can cause what would normally be a symptom for front tire/rim in an ice car setup.
Ie. part of my front steering shaking was actually due to the rear passenger rim being warped and the tire was feathered oddly. But it was felt closer to the steering than the whole car. Changed the rim/tire at rear and voila. Defies common balancing logic.
Good luck. After tire/rims ask them to check the half shafts. They are a known issue for both model S and X.
Alignment does not cause vibration. Caster is the angle of the ball joints this does not cause vibration. Caster can cause pulling or pour handling. I own a hunter elite alignment machine and can assure you alignment will not cause vibration. Sucks you have this vibration problem. As you have covered a lot of the issues that can cause the vibration. Going more to the extreme the axles front and rear can be taken and the balance checked on them. You have 4 axles on an AWD vehicle sounds like they keep working on the front when a rear axle could also be the cause. I only suggest this because you have done so many tire balances. The guy balancing the tire should notice a bent wheel unless he is blind. Make sure they are using a hunter Roadforce wheel balancer if they are not this could be the problem.
DrComputer
TeslaClubLA President
I think people are confusing acceleration shudder and wheel vibration, also mixing up the Model X and the Model S. My Model X also suffers from the hard acceleration shudder but does not have a wheel vibration while driving at highway speeds. Tesla is aware of the acceleration shudder and has replaced 1/2 shafts for many people (including myself). This seems to fix the problem for a while but it will come back. We'll have to wait and see if engineering can come up with a better and more permanent solution.
Too much caster can cause vibration. The reason is that the self-centering force can be so strong that it causes the wheels to continually correct. This isn't all that common, but it can happen on occasion.
wallstguy
Member
I don't have an acceleration shudder but the steering wheel continually vibrates to the point I hate holding it at highway speeds
Destiny1701
22’ M3LR ‘DrkNite’/ 22’ MYP BliueRocket
Thats exactly what happened to me. I started to despise driving the car over a certain speed and it turned me off of Tesla period during all the time it took mis-diagnosing, testing, balancing x 3 etc etc. In the end after all the work was done i ended up with a new rim (replaced warped rim) and a new tire (replaced a feathered tire) and it's all fine.
I'll never know if all the work they did changing half shafts, engine mounts etc was actually beneficial or not.
Move the tires front to back first and see what happens to the vibration. Get them all balanced and again ask the SC tech to pay particular attention to whether the rim is warped, out of round or if they detect any tire hopping while balancing. Also ask them if the balance is a road force balance. If you have a second set of rims/tires, try putting them on and drive/diagnose as well.
Now that I got my car back a few days back, I'm as happy as the day I first took delivery. She drives like on day 1!
wallstguy
Member
With the Model X, you can't move tires around as the rears are larger than the fronts.
I actually noted an issue where the car pulls towards the left, so I asked Tesla to do an alignment, and they noted the alignment was fine they did it anyways, and they noted the pull towards the left very slightly but said it has to do with a "Torque" issue which cannot be corrected and is "normal". I'm wondering if thats linked to this vibration.
I started noticing steering wheel vibrations at high speeds immediately after getting a tire rotation done at Tesla on my RWD Model S. I asked them to rebalance the front tires, but it didn't help much. I'll try disabling the lane assist and see if it helps, otherwise I'll just take it to a regular tire shop and pay for a balance on all four tires.
wallstguy
Member
This was the "condition" they said was in my car:
Torque Steer: Causes and Cures
They basically said "every car has it - as long as you keep your hand on the wheel it will be fine". Wasn't too happy with that response, but yeah will take it in to Oakville instead when I get some more free time.
Destiny1701
22’ M3LR ‘DrkNite’/ 22’ MYP BliueRocket
I'd check the front tires for uneven wear pattern or feathering. One of my tires balanced perfectly but when placed on the balancer, one could see the tire hopping slightly and worn unevenly. As soon as I changed to a new tire, it was night and day.
Balancing will ensure equal weight distribution but does not prevent a feathered or worn tire wear from causing vibrations. Also since your fronts were at one time the rears on a RWD, I would imagine they were subjected the full gambit of torque and power at all times...perhaps even some slipping etc.
Do you think that's the nature of the wear on the RWD in the rears, or would it likely be an alignment issue?
I don't know if this story is helpful, but I'll mention it anyway:
The previous generation Audi A4 platform (including related cars, A5 etc.) had a wheel vibration issue at a speed around 60 kph. It was much discussed and wheel alignment, road force measurement as well as tire pressure adjustment were mentioned as possible remedies. But in the end, the biggest issue was that something in the design of the car meant it was more susceptible to such issues than many other cars. The design was less forgiving. Eventually new camber settings, control arms, bushings, wheel bearing housings or some such change (and some retrofits) probably got rid of the underlying issue.
If you want to read more on that back story and links to tips that worked in this instance, a summary page is e.g. here: Tyre and vibration issues in Audi A4 B8/A5
The previous generation Audi A4 platform (including related cars, A5 etc.) had a wheel vibration issue at a speed around 60 kph. It was much discussed and wheel alignment, road force measurement as well as tire pressure adjustment were mentioned as possible remedies. But in the end, the biggest issue was that something in the design of the car meant it was more susceptible to such issues than many other cars. The design was less forgiving. Eventually new camber settings, control arms, bushings, wheel bearing housings or some such change (and some retrofits) probably got rid of the underlying issue.
If you want to read more on that back story and links to tips that worked in this instance, a summary page is e.g. here: Tyre and vibration issues in Audi A4 B8/A5
Destiny1701
22’ M3LR ‘DrkNite’/ 22’ MYP BliueRocket
Alignment can and most likely over time cause uneven wear/feathering if the camber is off and a wheel is somewhat angled inwards. (Think Bmw circa 2001-2009 when rear camber was purposefully adjusted this way for better handling but caused rear tires to wear out on the inner side within a year).
Tires are “feathered” when the tread is worn lower/smoother on one side and higher/sharper on the other. Ie. the tire's tread ribs have rounded edges on one side and sharp ones on the other. One side of the tire is clearly more worn than the other, and the ribs are not as pronounced.
Unless several years worn, hard to tell without running your hand over the tire as it's spinning.
This can cause vibrations at certain speeds depending on the amount of unevenness.
Could be your rear camber was off and once you moved the rear tires to the front, the tires are now sitting straighter and your feeling uneven sharper edge now hitting the pavement.
Just one possibility...
I have felt a short shimmy in our new Model 3 (2020) during highway speed inside lane corrections. No noticeable road surface issues, not departing the lane, but when slight corrections are manually made at about 55 MPH I often get what I would describe as a light "stick shaker" type feeling in the steering wheel only. The car does not vibrate like out of balance tires. Only the steering wheel. We have the steering set on sport setting, but its like there could be a looseness in the steering system and slight movement triggers this event. Anyone else have similar events - not balanced based for sure.
