The bottom line, some wet snow stuck in my wheels. It was there at 50mph, and caused a lot of misbalanced shacking.

I had a scary experience today that I must share with others. I decided to show up at work. It was probably a mistake since there were very few people who did. I live in DC metro and we had a lot of snow recently. Anyway, I drove through all this snow and got to the 495 beltway, the highway around DC. Suddenly, as soon as on the highway the steering wheel started to shake violently. It almost tried to jump out of my hands. And, perhaps, even the car itself shook a little. I have been driving a car for nine years, but I experienced something like that only once, with badly misaligned front wheels, many years ago, after I crashed my right front wheel at low speed into the curb.

The situation was bad at 40mph, scary at 50mph. I did not have a chance to pull over, because of all this snow on the shoulder and right lane. However, two miles later the shaking was somewhat less intensive. Well, my exit was only 5 miles away. As soon as I got out of highway, I stopped. Upon visual inspection, I could not see any problems. On my way back from work I did not have ANY problem!

My theory is: it was caused by snow. We have a lot of it now. As the temperature is above freezing, the snow sits in these large sticky chunks. Probably, one of those was stuck to my wheel(s). That is my only explanation of how the problem self-resolved itself.

Again, I never saw anything like that before. Did you?

 

Weird, I was just gonna post the same thing right now! I took the car out for a 15 min drive tonight and I noticed the same. At 50mph steering shakes badly and at 60+ it feels too unstable to go any faster. Also, a LOT of vibration, felt like the car was gonna fall apart. So, is that what it is? Snow in the wheels?

 

...you know how they put weights on the wheels when they are balancing them? Well snow and ice act like a couple pounds of unbalancing weights! When I used to work for Midas (aarrgg!!) we would get dozens of people who came in complaining about the same thing after every snow storm.

Usually, it will work it's self loose when the brakes get hot or weather gets warmer. Nothing to worry about!

 

This has happened to me twice now and it appears I was right about what it was. The kicker is I always frget to check for it when I clean up my car after a snowfall. Luckily my commute is only 10 minutes but it is highway driving and you are right, above 50 you think the car is going to explode from the vibration. Its annoying, but not to big of a deal to fix when you actually do go after it.

 

In my case it was definitely not ice. I park underground, so I had clean car to start with. The temperature outside was slightly above freezing, and it took me 2 minutes to get to the highway. Therefore, there was no time for ice to form.
That's what surprised me. That this sticky snow can do sooo much!

 

Well, the weights they use for balancing weigh next to nothing. A handful of wet snow is pretty heavy in comparison.

 

This is amazing that we are all having this problem. I thought i was the only one. I was scared **** this morning. I was waiting for my from tires to fly off. I had the same problem at around 55-60 mph. As for after work, it was still happening. I was outside for like an hour and a half looking all over my car tonight and could not find anything. This morning was a really scary one, but it seems i was not alone.

 

Yea it definately scares you. I had it happen to me in the last snow storm. I even checked my tire pressure to be safe. I am glad someone posted this thread cause I would have forgotten to ask about it

 

Thank you guys for replying. I don't feel alone with this anymore. Besides, I hope that when somebody, who read my post, will experience it, there will be a crossreference for it.
I am still surprised with Maxima's design. I drove through snow, well not much. I never felt anything like it in my Protege or Altima. Altima had alloy wheels. Maxima wheels are much wider, of course. But can it be some engineering mistake in Maxima wheels design?

 

Any Time!!!1

 

im glad a read this post. i just drove my car for the first time since the snow. i was on the interstate going about 60 and me and my passengers all noticed that the car was shaking a lot. i was worried something was wrong but its a relief to know that it was probably just the snow on the wheel like you said.

 

....fully clean those Naganos!!!

B

 

Guys! I cannot believe I am reading this. Its just freaking amazing is all I can say. I was driving my wife to the station today and after cleaning up the car entirely from snow that was up to my window, the steering wheel started to vibrate like crazy on the highway. As soon as we hit 40-50mph, it was just scary. As soon as we got the station I went to do a visual and pressure check on all the tires. Even checked to see if any of the lugs came loose and nothing. I just left it all alone for now. Wow, I am much more relaxed now.

 

Sometimes when your car sits outside and its really cold out you will get the vibration and it is from the tire sitting flat on the ground..so it basically has a flat spot on it. I have been having the same problems aswell but i know mine is from the excess amount of snow in the spokes of my rims.

 

There was a little touch to the scene when I inspected the front wheels. There was this sound "psh-sh-sh" of evaporating water as one when you iron your clothes. It originated from snow falling on front disk brakes. I touched both left and right front disks, they were hot. Rear disks were just warm.

 

happened to me too! im glad we know what it is now... if you think about it, it only takes a little bit of weight to throw it off, wheel weights dont weigh much

 

ok, i can jump in and say, this just happened an hour ago as well. driving past it was freaky.....did it for about half hour, then i played pool. an hour later i came out, and the car was fine....it's a bad vibe i guess....hehe.

 

Samething happened to me earlier today in the afternoon. I had unburied my car out from the snow and I noticed patches of snow stuck between my rims and brakes. I tried to get as much off as I could and drove out. Got onto the main road, and as soon as I got up to about 35-40, I felt my steering wheel vibrate violently. I left off the gas a bit and it was still shaking, but not as bad...stepped on the gas again, and the samething happened. But the good thing is went away after 10 mins.

 

Just drive slow when there is snow/ice, esp driving with stock Craptenza.


~limsandy

 

I'm glad I read this thread. Like everyone else, I had the same problem on the way to work today. I also had a slight vibration but The vibration went away 10-15 mins. later. I also didn't have no problem whatsoever on the way home from work tonight. But I'll tell you what, when the vibration was happening I was like...."WTF" I'm kinda glad I wasn't the only one who experience this slight problem today.

 

God I thought i was the only one who experienced this. It happened to today going to work.. but after work the vibration was gone

 

Same here, scared thye $hit out of me.

 

just happen to me!!! but thanks to the ORG i dont freak out now!!!

 

Same here. Thought I'd be spending a few hundred dolars to fix. Glad to hear its not serious. But I'm wondering... Will the shaking affect the alignment at all?

 

Wow same problem last night. Got car out of 3 feet of snow (b@stards plowed me in) so at 40 I feel it, 50 I REALLY feel it, 60 is scary

 

It happened to me this morning too. I was driving on the NYS Thruway. After a few miles though it went away and is driving normally. Whatever it was melted or fell off..

 

Yeps, it's just snow stuck between the rims causing it to vibrate the steering wheel...only happens at high speed though. It happened to me on a previous snow storm and I had to pull over to get the snow off my rims. I've never had this problem with other cars w/rims on it before. I guess this is just another fault w/the Maxima design...SIGH!

 

hot damns .. so i'm not the only one .. on my way to work .. i noticed that it started a lil thump thump and i was wondering what it was .. it got to me so much that i kept my radio off and the heater off .. tryin to see where it came from .. then when i got on the highway it was like holey smokes .. the heck was that .. tried to slow down then speed up a lil to see if it changes nothing .. then after work on my drive home nothing .. just like the rest of you well we learn something about our babys every day .. haha sorry for the long rant

 

Well, add one more to the list of people that experianced this...

i was actually scared enough to give my dealer a call...they told me to bring it in and let them feel it. But then by the time I got off work and headed the dealer's way, I didn't noice it any more, so I drove right past them and head home...

 

lol
yeah, me too. There was a $hit load of snow in the wheels. Takes less then a minute to clean up all four of them though.

But what scares me most, is that a lot of you still kept going faster and faster after you felt the shaking. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you start to feel that something weird is happening to your car, the first thing to do is defenetely not to speed up, but the opposite.

In my case I felt it at 45mph. After cleaning the wheels it was gone even at 80.

Keep it safe.

 

yep, happened to me today as well. i wasn't scared, but it was jarring to feel this in a $30K+ car.

 

Same thing happened yesterday. I reached around 60 mph and it started shaking bad. I was ****ed because now I thought I had to go out and get my wheels balanced. Came to realize that everything was fine on my drive today. Snow must have thrown off the balance.

 

same thing here

 

Wow now that makes sense. Its been really cold here in Chicago and I took my car to a car was couple of times and since then my car has been shaking in the beginning when its cold and then it seems to stop. I will check my wheels for any ice formation. Learn new things on the org every day
I was worried there for a while