Steering Wheel Shake/Burning Smell Rear Brakes?

D

DChan88

Member
Car
2005 fx35 awd
Hi all,

So my 2005 fx35 was fine until I left for vacation and got back just this week.

While driving to work on the highway I noticed my steering wheel starting to shake at around 60-85mpgh.. which it didn't used to before.

And when I got out of the car I can smell some burning smell from the left rear. What could it be? Stuck caliper or something?


Thanks
 
Your caliper could be stuck, easy enough to check that. Jack up the car and see if the wheel spins freely. The steering wheel shake may be related or it may be because your car has sat and the tires "flat spotted". It happens to me a lot on my other car because it only drives a few days a week or less. If I let it sit for a week and then drive, the first few miles there is noticeable shake that then smooths out. Low profile tires makes it worse. It happens much less on my FX (40 series vs. 30/25 series on other car).
 
Thanks, I will try that but if the caliper is stuck on the rear will that still cause shaking in the front?
 
I think it's best I take it in to the shop.

I still smell the burn from the brakes or whatever it might be. And it's been 3 days now. As for the shake it's still there maybe a balance fell off or something.
 
mine was and still is shaking, but it got to the point that I had to go at least get the tires balanced and I saw with my own eyes that there was no balance weights on the front wheels. Must have just fell off or something since I didn't feel the shaking in the wheel. I got them rebalanced and I was told the wheels might be bent or something since they needed a lot of weight on them to balance them, and I can still kind of feel the shake, just not as bad as before. I also got everything else checked out in front and it all seems to be fine
 
So I got the tires balanced. They weren't way off balance or anything. Nonetheless got it done. The shaking was gone for a bit then a couple days later it came back. Now I noticed today that even at 80KM's or when I'm slowing down? The shaking comes back again. but the shaking is still there at higher speeds. I'm thinking it might be tires? What else could it be?
 
1) Try swap the rear wheels to the front. One at a time to pin point the problem wheel
2) Check lower ball joint for play
3) Check outer tie rod for play
4) Check hub bearing for play
5) Check lower control arm for cracked rubber bushing
6) Have you try this? Steering wheel shake fixed
 
If the tires were running unbalanced for a while, they can get weird worn areas that cause noise and vibration (happened to me)... And the unbalanced tires will sometimes wear down the bearings, making them wobble and make noise too (happened to me :P )... So that's the first 2 things I would check...
 
Did you find the solution to this problem? My 2004 FX35 just started doing the same thing but once I've been driving on the interstate a little while it disappers, then reappears when I exit off the interstate. I've had the old tires balanced (didn't work), was told I need new tires (did that, also didn't work), so was wondering what to look for next. Please let me know if you solved this issue. Thanks!
 
One other thing to check... See if one of the brake calipers is seized... You can usually just check by seeing if one brake disc is hotter than the other after a short drive...
 
I had both of these problems in the last year.... the burning smell was a seized caliper on the brake, and caused the burning smell, and worse gas mileage. Should be easy to diagnose, if you get your hand at all close to the rotor and its 10 times hotter than the other ones, thats it. I think was about a $300 repair all in....

Unrelated, I was getting the shake in a 5 mph zone from about 68-73 mph on the highway.... it was the wheel bearing.... once fixed, rode very very smooth. Now it is starting to happen again a little, and I suspect the other side needs the same thing. I asked about doing it at the same time as the last one, and they said it wouldn't save any money to wait until it needed to be done, so here we are! haha

Hope that helps...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top