Gear shifter starting vibrating at 60mph!?

N

neva4self

Member
Car
2009 FX50
So today I was driving home in the snow storm that is abusing the north east right now. I jumped on the highway and at about 60mph my gear shift knob started vibrating hard. The car wasn't making any wierd noises and the steering wasn't vibrating. The only reason I noticed it is because I have the habit of driving with my right hand on the gear shifter. I got nervous because it seemed like going faster made it vibrate more so I pulled over shifted to Park then back to Drive just to cycle the gear shifter. I pulled off again and at about 60 it started vibrating again, so I slowed to 40mph were it wasn't vibrating and drove most of the way home like that. Right before I got off the highway I picked the speed back up to 60mph to what would happen and it still vibrated but not as bad as the first time. I did have my car parked in an area with no protection from the elements and it sleeted/snowed on the car for about 9hrs straight while I was at work. Could it be possible the something froze, or the ice affected something? I couldn't push the FX harder to see if it kept up because the weather was so bad I could only do so much.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this before?
 
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If your driving through the rough snow it will do that. I did it in my G tonight and does the same thing. Driving through the snow is pretty rough and sends some vibrations up the chassis.

If you dont like it on an AT shifter you definitely wouldn't like an mt transmission shifter. Those things vibrate violently!
 
Fire0nic3FX said:
If your driving through the rough snow it will do that. I did it in my G tonight and does the same thing. Driving through the snow is pretty rough and sends some vibrations up the chassis.

If you dont like it on an AT shifter you definitely wouldn't like an mt transmission shifter. Those things vibrate violently!
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Honestly I've never even driven my FX in manual mode. It's funny that I ride a mototrcycle and have never driven a stick shift. I'm just glad to hear that someone else has experienced something similar. I was like wtf, this is somethig new, I thought I was getting ready to have to spend an arm and a leg at the dealer to fix whatever the problem was.
 
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Is there any fix to to the steering shake when driving in the snow and ice? The shake I'm referring to is definitely not coming from uneven road conditions. It feels like something in the wheels are feezing up and forcing vibration as the wheels spin. It happened again these past two snow stroms. About 50mph the steering starts shaking and it's a violent vibration. It only happens in the snow and slush the type of weather where you would notice all the slush and ice getting packed in around the wheel well while driving. It also seems like when I maintain speed through the vibrations lets say at 50 they eventually start to slowly go away then if I increase speed to 55 they start again. Giving me the impression that the slush and ice may be getting packed around the wheel and freezing, then when I drive it is getting beat down by the spinning wheels. This is the only car I've ever felt that much vibration from in icy conditions. I've owned two 1st gens and no vibration. I hate drving when my car does this it forces me to drive at about 30mph if I don't want to feel the vibrations. Wondering if anyone else feels vibration to this extreme in ice and snow, and if so, is there a remedy?
 
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^Almost sounds like maybe ice or water is in your tire or something else....never had this issue with my 09 FX50s.
 
What Jonas said. Ice freezing on your wheels and creating imbalance.

I had some aftermarket wheels on a Maxima and this use to happen. They would shake like crazy at speed, so I would go into the local DIY car wash and blast the ice off the inside of the wheels. Then it would run vibration free.
I think some wheels are more prone to this, I got rid of those wheels and never had another problem
 
Thawing is the only fix that I know of. I get it every once in a while driving through thick snow. It just cakes up and causes balance issues with the wheels.
 
Shifter is just transmitting the shaking from everything else. It's not connected to anything unlike a manual transmission which is actually mechanically a part of the transmission. The auto shifter just moves a lever that is attached to a gear selector in the transmission. But they're not directly connected/attached. Are you running your aftermarket wheels in snow? Sometimes they have cavities that catch water/ice.
 
I usually don't run my aftermarket wheels in the snow but this year I have been. When it happened to me last year I was running the stock wheels though. Guess I will chalk it up to ice and around the wheels. It's crazy that it would cause so much vibration. It makes me feel like I'm doing damage to the car driving with that much vibration going on.
 
If the aftermarket rims you are referring to are the ones in your avatar, then any small amount of ice or snow or mud will cause that vibration. The further away something is from the center (hub) then the more amplified the imbalance becomes.

Another thing too, are those tires all seasons?
 
SCY7H3 said:
If the aftermarket rims you are referring to are the ones in your avatar, then any small amount of ice or snow or mud will cause that vibration. The further away something is from the center (hub) then the more amplified the imbalance becomes.

Another thing too, are those tires all seasons?
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Nope the tires on the aftermarkets are definitely not all seasons which is usually why I swap back to stock for the winter. But the stock tires are all season and the first time I experienced it I had stock everything mounted. That was the original post where the gear shift knob and the steering wheel where going crazy. With the aftermarket I actual get less vibration, a lot of steering shake but no gear shift shake.
 
hrmm.. steering wheel shake usually means an imbalance of the front wheels or warped rotors, but I'm guessing the first. Shaking shifter and steering, is it still happening? Maybe there's something on the front wheels, broken belt? Missing weights? ice? its hard to say without being there and feeling it for myself. Broken motor mount? j/k! its probably something small but has to do with some type of imbalance.
 
SCY7H3 said:
hrmm.. steering wheel shake usually means an imbalance of the front wheels or warped rotors, but I'm guessing the first. Shaking shifter and steering, is it still happening? Maybe there's something on the front wheels, broken belt? Missing weights? ice? its hard to say without being there and feeling it for myself. Broken motor mount? j/k! its probably something small but has to do with some type of imbalance.
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Lol @ broken motor mount. Nope not still happening, this has only happened in the snow, in the midst of the storm or right after at that. From the responses, I'm chalking it up to ice packed in around the wheels. Was hoping there was a fix other than thawing though. When I drive like this, I can't help but feel like I'm damaging something with such intense vibration. Looking into new wheels now maybe 22's will help instead of 24's but I love the look of the 24's. Torn between form or function.
 
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Vibrations are never good, big or small. They loosen and wear things down, car becomes soft after.

Sent from my SGH-I747
 
SCY7H3 said:
Vibrations are never good, big or small. They loosen and wear things down, car becomes soft after.

Sent from my SGH-I747
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Yeah I know, and the first time it happened with the gear shift vibration it was such a violent vibration I almost pulled over onto the service road of the highway but when I slowed down to merge right the vibration went away so I realized driving slow was the temporary remedy. Guess I will be driving at slow pace if this happens again. I'm sure it will, it's snowing now and I'm leaving for work in a few in the middle of this storm possibly bringing 6-10 inches.
 
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This happened to me also
Later to find out that there was alot of snow on my rims ~~~ causing there tire to be out of balance

Mext time u remove snow try removing snow off the inner rims ....

They can patch up to the inner side of the rims and causing bad tire balance
 
This sounds like snow/ice in caught in the wheels. It gets caught in the nook&crannies of the rim and throws them off balance. It happened to me while driving back from Buffalo to NYC area, when I stopped for gas the snow in my wheels froze then I got back on the highway and the entire car was violently shaking over 30mph I thought I broke my motor - but it ended up being fine after I poked the snow out of the wheels...
 
angryfx said:
This happened to me also
Later to find out that there was alot of snow on my rims ~~~ causing there tire to be out of balance

Mext time u remove snow try removing snow off the inner rims ....

They can patch up to the inner side of the rims and causing bad tire balance
Click to expand...

Yeah it didn't happen this last snow storm I was happy for that but at least next time I know what to do now.

---------- Post added at 03:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:42 AM ----------
jbaker1121 said:
This sounds like snow/ice in caught in the wheels. It gets caught in the nook&crannies of the rim and throws them off balance. It happened to me while driving back from Buffalo to NYC area, when I stopped for gas the snow in my wheels froze then I got back on the highway and the entire car was violently shaking over 30mph I thought I broke my motor - but it ended up being fine after I poked the snow out of the wheels...
Click to expand...

Exactly how it happened to me the first time, it's crazy that the snow/ice can create that much of an imbalance.
 
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