Hi all. My new car gives a tiny wobble/vibration at the steering
wheel at about 60mph and up. The dealer rebalanced one wheel and
checked all 4, rotated tires and still feels it. He is now doing
an alignment job on the car (though I don't know what sort of
alignment problem would cause the symptoms...)

Any ideas?
thanks,
Joe

Update: the dealer did do a re-alignment with no major changes, but did
say the wheel was off-center a little and fixed that. One wheel was 3 oz.
out of balance, and they fixed that, and rotated tires front-to-back, and
now I don't feel the problem.
Joe

Joe - you can also feel a little tiny vibration in the steering wheel when the car kicks into active fuel management and drops to 4 cylinders at speed. I don't know why - but it was significant enough to be remarked upon in Car and Driver.

can you post the link to this article in C&D? Thanks

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Owns G8 GT Maverick Silver with Sports Package

Sure -

Here's the quote:

"And there’s power, enough to pull quarter-miles in 13.8 seconds at 104 mph. This Gen IV small-block is the L76, a 5967cc V-8 that bellows through its eight-into-two-into-one-into-two-into-four exhaust but lives much of its life as a V-4 to conserve juice. To dodge a gas-guzzler penalty, the cylinder shut-off is aggressively programmed and not altogether transparent. A faint flutter through the steering wheel and floorboard means half the cylinders are asleep. It’s an acceptable trade-off for a claimed 10-percent gain. The EPA says the V-8 makes 24 mpg highway. We saw 18 for one fill-up; the test average was 16."

From page 2 of this article here:

2008 Pontiac G8 GT - Road Test/Family Four Doors/Car Shopping/Hot Lists/Reviews/Car and Driver - Car And Driver

I can feel the litttle vibration they are talking about.

Dave

Just had my '09 back to the dealer for the same deal....for the 3rd time.

They found that the bead was slipping around the rim. Cleaned them up, applied bead sealer and road force balanced. Also said they kept in contact with GM engineering during the process. Drove it home last night and it was the smoothest I've felt the car, including the day I bought it. Hopefully this "fix" sticks.

May be worth suggesting this if anyone else is in for this.

I had similar problem at highway speed with vibration. The dealer rebalanced tires and rotated them(Goodyear rsa's 18"). Still didn't fix problem took back to dealer. Dealer did another test drive 40 miles to say couldn't find a problem. Went with them smooth ride. They say tires need to be "warm" for a smooth ride flat spot easy and temperature affects ride.

Never heard of such crazyiness....

Does seam crazy but read the reviews on tire rack and alot of people are unhappy with these tires they get alot of low ratings. Apparently the dealer thinks the car sits to much. That won't happen.

My CTS-V caddy had a shimmy at around 40-50mph....dealer replaced tires, then the rims, then the tires and rims.

Some hot shot mechanic said it was my TC, hell we all laughed till they did the tests...sure'nuff had a bad TC causing the shimmy......replaced and she was good to go!

I have experienced the TCC issue for years. It can get quite severe. To diagnos it, keep the speed and vibration going by maintaining a steady throttle with the right foot. Crowding the throttle and hot, is more noticeable. While the problem is acting up, take the left foot, and very gingerly, slightly depressed. This will disconnect TCC. If the vibration goes away, you know what it is

mike
dms

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i know this is going to be a stupid question but what is tcc?

This seems to be a common problem! I too have and continue to experience the same issue. At high speeds vibration begins at about 108 kms is worse at 113 kms then settles out once over 120 kms.

Have had wheels balanced - which was a waste of time.

Have been reeding other articles about this same issue and all seem to refer back to the fact that the tires may be flat spotted due to the shipping time and method for the vehicle. Several owners have reported successful elimiation of this annoyance after doing a Road Force type of balance. This will probably have to be done by a thrid party as your dealer will probably not have this type of equipment. More likely to be done at a tire center.

Here is a link that talks a little about it (it is a website of the balancer manufacturer). Hunter GSP9700 Wheel Vibration Control System

I have an appointment set next week to have this done though the dealer (only 5000 km on the vehicle - under warranty of course).

I will update the post once I have more info.

GM does have a technical bulletin about warming up the tires first to relax the beads before driving. A car sitting for a while can take a tire set.


mike
dms

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I had the exact same issue when I bought mine......it's because these 19" Bridgestones are waaaay too soft. They probably do have a flat spot when they sit for a few days. With only a tread wear of 140, I'm sure we won't have to deal with them too long. Then on to some nice Goodyears or Yokohama's.

There was a bulletin that came out concerning the vibration between 55 and 65. My GT had the issue. The dealer put the best mechanic on it and he found there is a 2 peice drive shaft that at the factory was or could of been place slightly off center. he fixed mine and the car drives like you are on glass at 50, 60, 80, even 130. He was awesome and maticulous. Check with your dealers guys.

mike dms

the vibration goes away when i do exactly what you said I keep the throttle steady at 60 it vibrates the i press the throttle slightly and it goes away. So that means the torque converter needs to be replaced?

I`m new to this forum, but not to front end
shake.
I have already gone the route;
1)NEW wheels & tires
Michelins on Elbrus`s 18"
Both sets (19" stock) Hunter road force balanced.
2) Drive shaft T.S.B.ed
3) I even did a indicator total runout on
the mount rims (.010 TIR was the worst)
and even then was able to bring that in a bit with some lug torque massaging.
It (lug torquing) seemed to make the shake less, but it`s still there.

So why is this thing still shaking at
60 mph@1600 rpm smoothing out a bit
by 70 mph.

And no its not the DOD or the ESP; as
it does it even when I push into nuetral
at speed.

Saw something about caster/camber increase !?
Can someone who really knows the CAUSE
help

I`m sure by now GM knows,but there dummy up!!

__________________
D.L.Brown

mine was doing the same thing.im nowon the waiting list because i need 2 new control arms...

So I took my car into the dealership this morning to have them look at the steering wheel vibration (I was seeing it mainly in the 70-75mph range) as well as warped rotors (I think my car sat out in the Michigan winter on the lot), and it looks like they were able to resolve both issues.

For the brakes, they turned the front rotors, and for the steering wheel vibration, they road force balanced the tires. Here is the comment on the RO: "Find left front tire has 31 lbs. road force match to 16lbs & balance all 4 tires. Road force 12 lbs, 6 lbs, 4 lbs. All check Okay."

As I said, I think the issue has been correct as I took a trip up to 80mph on my way home, but FYI to the forum.

But...
They scratched all four wheels when they removed them for the procedure. It looks like they were careless with the air gun. They aren't huge, but it still pisses me off - the car has under 1900 miles on it .

Any advice? I'm going to put a call into the service advisor, and see what they have to say. Can anything be done short of purchasing new wheels? I have the OEM 19" on the vehicle.

Thanks in advance.

Just an update to my previous post - went back to the dealership this morning, and got the opportunity to show one of the techncians my dings, and one comment he made was 'looks like it happen with an air wrench' which were exactly my thoughts. He also told me that one of the wheels came without a weight on it at all! My wheel installation/balance must have happen over lunch in the plant...



Next came the service manager - he kept walking in an out of the technician area, to talk to techs. When he came out, he said that he couldn't give me new wheels (which I fully expected), but that he could have them re-clearcoated at the body shop. Then he followed this with 'The dings are so minor and I'm not sure our guys created them based on the tools we use'...so he basically admited guilt without saying it.



I'm kind of caught in the middle - I can just let it go, and take the chance it doesn't oxidize, or I can take the chance that the dealer wouldn't screw up the clear coating...



Does anyone have experience with this re-clearcoating? Any advice is much appreciated.

Let me know what you guys think...perhaps I'm over-reacting to this...

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its been 2 months now and they just now received the two control arms for my car.

this is a function of motor mounts

mike
dms

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Hey guys - just got a copy of this from a dealer. GM now recognizes the AFM vibration as a problem.

Document ID: 2334O37
#P1P4691: Phasing Vibration In Drivers Seat And Steering
Wheel - Under Investigation - keywords BQMI - (Aug 27,2OO9)
Subject:
Models:
Phasing Vibration in Driver's Seat and Steering Wheel - Under
Investigation
2OO8-2OO9 Pontiac G8
with 6.OL Engine (RPO L76)
and 6 Speed Automatic Transmission (RPO MYC)