Why Does My Car Vibrate While Driving?

A vibration felt in your car while driving is almost always caused by something that’s rotating — most often the wheel-and-tire combination. However, what’s causing the rotating part to vibrate may be something stationary.

Related: Do I Need to Replace a Damaged Wheel?

Questions to Ask Yourself

When it comes to vibrations, it’s worth doing some diagnostics before tackling the problem. In this case, diagnostics starts with paying attention to when the vibration occurs, asking yourself some questions and making note of the answers. This will help not only in your own diagnostics, but also in the event you have to take the car to a professional for repairs, as it will give them a good starting point.

• At what speeds does the vibration occur? Often, the vibration can occur within a range, such as 50-70 mph — meaning that above 70, it subsides a bit — but it may be at all speeds. An unbalanced wheel or tire may show up only at certain speeds.
• Is the vibration felt mostly through the steering wheel, or is it felt through the seat or floor? The former indicates it could be something in the front of the car, such as a wheel or tire, while the latter means the culprit may be more toward the rear end or something to do with the engine, transmission or rear driveshaft (if your vehicle has one; front-wheel-drive cars don’t).
• Was the vibration suddenly noticeable, or has it gradually gotten worse over time? If a wheel weight falls off, it would be a sudden worsening; if uneven tire wear is causing the vibration, the worsening might be gradual.
• Does it mostly occur after hitting bumps? This might indicate a problem with worn or broken steering or suspension components.
• Is the vibration accompanied by any abnormal noises? This can indicate something that’s loose or worn.
• Have any repairs been done on the car recently, such as a brake job, strut or shock replacement, new tires, tire rotation or any other work that would have required removing the wheels? There may have been a bad part installed or the wheel lug nuts may not have been tightened correctly.
• Has the car been in an accident? This can result in bent or misaligned components that can cause uneven tire wear over time.

Simple Causes of Vibrations You Can Check Yourself

Since imbalanced wheels or tires are most likely to be causing the vibration, it’s good to start there. A vibration can be caused by something as obvious as a broken hub cap that’s partially gone or clumps of mud that have been deposited on the inside of the wheel or wedged into the wheel spokes — either of which might cause an imbalance. Another simple thing to check is tire pressure (which is good to check anyway).

Other things to look for include bubbles on the tire sidewalls (easy to see on the outside, and you might be able to inspect the inside if you turn the front wheels all the way right and then left or just run your hand along the inside sidewall), uneven wear across the width of the tire (such as deeper grooves on the outside versus the inside of the tread) and “cupping” of the tread (you can sometimes see patches of low spots or feel them by rubbing your hand on the tread along the circumference of the tire). Uneven wear or cupping is likely caused by a steering or suspension problem — such as bad tie-rod ends, poor wheel alignment, or bad shocks or struts — and can lead to an imbalance or vibration.

It’s also possible that the wheel’s balancing weights have fallen off. (Tires and wheels aren’t always perfectly round and balanced when they’re produced, so small weights are added when the tires are mounted to the wheels to compensate.) Note that in many cases, the wheels can be rebalanced to make up for minor wear or lost weights, and it can be done for free at the store where you bought your tires.

Another problem that could cause a vibration is tread separation. When this failure occurs, it usually causes a slight “wave” in the tread grooves that you can typically see if you spin the tire. This is best done with the tire off the car or the car up on a lift, but if you have another person to help, it can be checked by having them drive the car very slowly away from you as you crouch down behind the tire and watch the tread. You might also be able to see it by moving the car forward a foot or so at a time and getting out at every stop to check each tire tread.

Something that might cause a vibration at almost all moving speeds — and can be easily checked — are the lug nuts that hold the wheels on the car. When properly tightened, lug nuts are quite tight, so loose ones should be easy to identify.

Also, the wheel itself might be dented or bent from hitting a pothole or curb. It’s possible you might be able to visually check each wheel fairly well with the car on the ground, but it’s more thorough to either take the wheel off or have the car up on a lift so you can spin the wheel and hopefully see both sides to inspect it.

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Harder-to-Check Causes of a Vibration

The vibration in your car could also be caused by something that’s harder to check.

With the wheels still mounted to the car, you can try grabbing the top and both sides of each tire to shake it in and out and wobble it side to side. Although this is much better done with the car off the ground, any movement during this test would indicate a loose suspension or steering component, a worn wheel bearing or loose lug nuts; this is also more likely to be an issue with the front wheels than the rear. While you can do this at home, it involves jacking up each corner of the car and making sure it’s supported by a jack stand. However, even if you can figure out what’s worn, you might well have to have a professional replace it anyway.

If your vehicle drives all four wheels or just the rears, the rear driveshaft could be loose or out of balance, or a center bearing that holds it in place could be worn. In this case, you’re more likely to feel the vibration through the seat or floor than through the steering wheel, and it’s likely a job best left to a professional (who can lift the whole car off the ground) to check and replace if necessary. Vehicles that drive either the front or all four wheels have short front driveshafts on each side that are typically referred to as constant-velocity axles or CV joints; these can have similar problems and are also probably best left to a professional to diagnose and replace.

Another potential cause of a vibration is a problem with the engine running rough or its mounts being loose, which is more likely to show up when the car is sitting with the engine idling or when under acceleration. A warped brake rotor can also be the troublemaker, though that’s also likely to be noticed through a pulsation in the pedal when braking.

Vibrations when driving can be really annoying and potentially unsafe. Fortunately, the most likely cause, a wheel/tire imbalance, is typically easy to diagnose — though the remedy can range from fairly inexpensive (properly inflating the tires or rebalancing the wheels) to the cost of new tires.

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