Shaking Regal

[Pat84]

Hi, this is my first time ever posting, and I have a bit of difficulty navigating all posts...anyway. my issue. 2019 Regal, 2.0 liter fwd, 65,000 km (40,000 miles).
Car shakes, most noticeable 70 kmh and up ( roughly 40 mph and up).
Got wheels balanced, no changes. Got new tires, then balanced, no changes. Got new rims and new set of winter tires, no changes.
It's felt mostly in my floor and seats, but also some in the steering.
Speeding faster seems to increase the intensity of the shake. 112 -115 kmh ( 70 mph) seems to be the worse and most intense. After that you feel it less. 140 kmh and up you don't notice as much ( 80 mph).
Engine RPM's don't affect it at all. If I downshift it a couple gears, it is solely based on speed.
Used car dealership won't come good for it. Fresh out of ideas.
... CV? ( I don't hear clicking when I turn though)... Alignment? ( Car drives and holds a straight line)

Thank you for any input

 

[verano4u]

I would look at the brake pads and calipers and see if anything is loose causing vibrations.

Then I would look at the suspension....shocks, linkages, bushings.

Check torque on lug nuts.

Check you have correct air pressure in tires.

Check that hubs and back of the rims are clean and do not have any debris on them before mounting.

 

[Pat84]

I would look at the brake pads and calipers and see if anything is loose causing vibrations.

Then I would look at the suspension....shocks, linkages, bushings.

Check torque on lug nuts.

Check you have correct air pressure in tires.

Well, I have 35 psi in each tire.
I will recheck calipers, pads and rotors... TQ on nuts, unfortunately I don't own a torq wrench, but seeing a shop did the them the first two times with no difference, my method never has failed nor cause vibration before... I am thinking maybe a mechanic or going to the stealership.

 

[powermax]

Did you take it to the dealer? It should still be under the bumper to bumper factory warranty of 80.000km or 4 years. Just curious is it a ex-rental? There are tons of them in Ontario.

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[Pat84]

Did you take it to the dealer? It should still be under the bumper to bumper factory warranty of 80.000km or 4 years. Just curious is it a ex-rental? There are tons of them in Ontario.

It is an ex rental ☹️

 

[powermax]

It is an ex rental ☹️

That is not a bad thing. They are a great bargain and the manufacturer warranty is still valid. I would take it to the dealer, it should be covered under the remaining warranty.

 

[Pat84]

Thank you
I called a few dealers and left voicemails today,calling again tomorrow morning. Hope they are able to fix it before the new year ( doubtful mind you)
I'm supposed to go back to work January 4th, option 2 is to have it repaired there, or 3- leave it here and borrow my mother's Fiesta

I appreciate all of your replies, that my post didn't get in noticed. I will post the outcome when it is resolved!

 

[1500cc]

Try jacking up the wheels (mainly the front) off the ground, then grab each one at 12 & 6, then 9 & 3, and wiggle them to see if there's any play. 9 & 3 usually means tie rods, and 12 & 6 can mean wheel bearings.

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[eccs19]

A rotor that is no longer true will cause a vibration, but would typically be more noticable when applying the brakes. Are you getting any difference between braking and non braking conditions?

 

[Jmlo96]

Did you have your new wheels and tires roadforce balanced? Most shops do not do this and it is very common to have a tire balance fine but still vibrate. I once had a set of winter tires and aftermarket steel wheels balance fine, but had 50 pounds of roadforce (pass is 15 pounds).

 

[jamyang]

A rotor that is no longer true will cause a vibration, but would typically be more noticable when applying the brakes. Are you getting any difference between braking and non braking conditions?

Unless it's out enough to move against the caliper. My 1st thought was strut bushings, seat and floor are usually rear, yea sway link etc more clunk that shake but possible..

 

[PrincipalDan]

Thank you
I called a few dealers and left voicemails today,calling again tomorrow morning. Hope they are able to fix it before the new year ( doubtful mind you)
I'm supposed to go back to work January 4th, option 2 is to have it repaired there, or 3- leave it here and borrow my mother's Fiesta

I appreciate all of your replies, that my post didn't get in noticed. I will post the outcome when it is resolved!

I know you went to the "Big O" store but are there any trusted local tire shops you could use?

As an example I'm fortunate to have a local independent tire store (sells many many different brands from different parent companies), the shop has been in the same family for years and they've helped me out on things like correct sized tires for my 1967 Mustang.

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[PrincipalDan]

My TourX just went to dealer with the "vibration" at 20,000 miles. Starts at 65 mph and get's worse with speed. Can be felt through the steering wheel and through the seats, like holding onto a handheld massager. As far as I can tell from studying my tires I don't seem to have the "Conti-Silent" tires. (Some might consider mine an "odd" build - it's a 2018 with white needles, newer infotainment system, but no foam in my tires.)

Being serviced by the dealer I bought it from and they came to the house picked up the car. Service advisor rode along with my salesman to pick it up. Brought me a new Encore GX AWD as a loaner.

I'll update when I know more and if/when they cure it.

 

[FavaBean]

I've got the shakes too.

I drive manual most of the time. Seems to start around 60 with a bit of a shimmy. And it turns into a shake if I downshift and hit the throttle.

Seems like it is more likely to shake when the drivetrain is loaded because when I let off the throttle the shaking goes back to a shimmy. Around 80, the shaking can get bad enough it sometimes feels like a tire is separating.

Here's the kicker...it doesn't do it all the time. I have yet to check the differential for leakage and I personally have performed many plug flat repairs which may accelerate the inevitable tire foam separation.

2018 Essence 2/18 build date. 40k miles.

 

[PrincipalDan]

My TourX just went to dealer with the "vibration" at 20,000 miles. Starts at 65 mph and get's worse with speed. Can be felt through the steering wheel and through the seats, like holding onto a handheld massager. As far as I can tell from studying my tires I don't seem to have the "Conti-Silent" tires. (Some might consider mine an "odd" build - it's a 2018 with white needles, newer infotainment system, but no foam in my tires.)

Being serviced by the dealer I bought it from and they came to the house picked up the car. Service advisor rode along with my salesman to pick it up. Brought me a new Encore GX AWD as a loaner.

I'll update when I know more and if/when they cure it.

They rotated (which is what they do with oil changes on AWD vehicles anyway) and balanced all 4 tires. Sufficient chalk/grease pencil parks on the tires to show they did what they said they would do. Techs set tire pressure at 34/35 all the way around (ambient temp 30 degrees F when I picked it up, they had it overnight).

Seems like things are back to normal, good road feel like our European born Buicks should have. Dealer charges $90 for a 4 tire balancing. If I feel I need one again I'll be letting the local independent tire dealer do the job. Buck (the owner) has always taken good care of me.

 

[MMKRegalTX]

Oh no, principal Dan, you were the hold out on my hopes for the vibration with these cars!

I have a tour X so I it might not be apples to apples, but I was getting a vibration around 55+. It was a guarantee over 70mph. I had the car aligned, wheels balanced. Tires replaced. And then rebalanced. All road force balance. I even had a dealer put vibration sensors on it and they told me nothing abnormal. Somehow just rotating my tires seemed to do the fix per my dealer, but I think they found something and didn't tell me.

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[14BlackGS]

Hi, this is my first time ever posting, and I have a bit of difficulty navigating all posts...anyway. my issue. 2019 Regal, 2.0 liter fwd, 65,000 km (40,000 miles).
Car shakes, most noticeable 70 kmh and up ( roughly 40 mph and up).
Got wheels balanced, no changes. Got new tires, then balanced, no changes. Got new rims and new set of winter tires, no changes.
It's felt mostly in my floor and seats, but also some in the steering.
Speeding faster seems to increase the intensity of the shake. 112 -115 kmh ( 70 mph) seems to be the worse and most intense. After that you feel it less. 140 kmh and up you don't notice as much ( 80 mph).
Engine RPM's don't affect it at all. If I downshift it a couple gears, it is solely based on speed.
Used car dealership won't come good for it. Fresh out of ideas.
... CV? ( I don't hear clicking when I turn though)... Alignment? ( Car drives and holds a straight line)

Thank you for any input

I would check CV axles. I've had that happen to me before

 

[PrincipalDan]

Oh no, principal Dan, you were the hold out on my hopes for the vibration with these cars!

I have a tour X so I it might not be apples to apples, but I was getting a vibration around 55+. It was a guarantee over 70mph. I had the car aligned, wheels balanced. Tires replaced. And then rebalanced. All road force balance. I even had a dealer put vibration sensors on it and they told me nothing abnormal. Somehow just rotating my tires seemed to do the fix per my dealer, but I think they found something and didn't tell me.

Likely.

After a little less than 50 miles my vibration is back but it is in the rear on the same tire I'm certain was causing the vibration in the front. I inspected everything and it appears the dealer removed all the factory balancing weights and re-balanced the wheels BUT the dealer did such a sloppy job some of the weights have flown off (which is why everything was good for a while.) They also left a bunch of the old adhesive behind from the old weights (clearly visible through the factory open spokes.

I'm taking it tomorrow morning bright and early over to the locally owned tire shop who I've bought 4 sets of tires from and had numerous punctures repaired over the years. They've always done right by me. The dealers job is so half-assed I'm going to ask them to re-do the balancing on all 4 wheels.

I'm going to tell them the full story. Perhaps the rouge tire is actually "bad" - I noticed that tire seems to have weights all over the place from the dealers latest work. The local shop sells Continental as one of their many brands, they should be able to help me if I need to start a warranty claim against Continental.

I know that by rights I ought to march back over to the dealer and tell them to fix their f$%k-up but there is a strong streak in me that just wants to keep them the hell away from it.

 

[PrincipalDan]

Just got back from A-J Tires (only mentioning them in case any of you are breezing through on I-40 and happen to need some tire assistance.)

First of all they charge 1/2 what my local Buick/GMC dealer does for a 4-wheel balancing. I told them what was going on so my ticket had a note on it to "check the right rear for out of round tire or bent wheel" - tire was out of round. The tech came out with the tire told me he had 8 oz on it already and the machine was calling for another 6! Told me they would get it close but still within acceptable percentage of wheel balancing weights as a total of the rotating mass.

I'll be reaching out to Continental today and see if I can get a response. I had been idly fantasizing about tires but not thinking I'd need any for at least another 20,000 miles.

(edit - don't know who's paying attention) Here's Continental's response:

Thank you for contacting Customer Relations at Continental Tire the Americas. The total tire warranty term sis 72 months, or until he tires are worn down to 2/32" of tread remaining. As for ride vibration, this is covered for the first 12 months or the first 2/32" of wear; whichever, comes first. The tires are also covered under the GM bumper to bumper warranty for 4 years, 50,000 miles; however, tire vibration, not due to another warrantable issue, is limited to 12 months/12,000 miles.

So I'm outside the warranty on "vibration" - I guess I'll be posting in the section about what tires I've chosen soon enough.

 

[PrincipalDan]

I'll talk about tires in the tire thread and likely not until after I get enough miles on them to at least rotate them once.

So the car only has about 20,000 miles on it and originally the tire shop wasn't even pushing me to get an alignment, but I told them - I don't do tires without an alignment that's just the way I am. I was also suspicious about alignment issues when the one tire was "out of round" (or as I've found out the industry term is - a "run out".) Their alignment shop is so busy getting an alignment meant I had to schedule an appointment - which couldn't be had for 3 days.

So 4 tires and one alignment later... THREE of FOUR were out of alignment! Both fronts and one rear. I also noticed that with the new tires there were far less balancing weights on the rims than even when the car left the factory. I've only driven it about 10 miles so far but it feels like a different car. I though things were smooth before but it's even better.