Shakes at 50+mph after snowstorm

Feb 15, 2007 11 Replies

This has happened to 3 friends of mine today. We had a bad ince/snow storm in NJ yesterday and now when these cars gor over 50mph, they start to shake. 2 are 4wd cars and 1 is front wheel drive. These cars didn't hit anything yesterday, so it shouldn't be alignment. I just have no clue what this could be. Our car is not garaged, so I was wondering if it was some issue regarding ice...any help would be appreciated. I won't be able to get this car in the shop for 4 or 5 days and would like to know what I am looking at...as well as telling my friends the same info.



Jeff



it's snow packed in your rims....my sons done it too but i told him he went out and sure enough snow packed it front rims...good luck...

Likely ice buildup in the wheels throwing them off balance. Whenever it melts, they should return to normal.

Thanks so much for your help! I had a feeling it was something like that. Since I do not have a garage, is there a way that I can speed this up? Maybe a hair dryer? I don't have a lift so I can't get too far under the car, but I would think that I can reach around behind the wheel. It is supposed to remain in the 20's (in the single digits at night), so I would like to help move things along. Thanks again!!

Jeff

I use the window brush and scraper to get/scrape the worst of it off. On one winter off road trip, our Jeep wheels got coated in ice from creek crossings. That took a long time to chip off before we could drive without shaking.

Mike

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As others mentioned it is likely ice built up inside a wheel. We had the same thing happen last night.

Thanks very much to all who responded...I am going out there in a few minutes to scrape. most importantly, my wife is no longer nervous about a big repair job!!!

Borrow your wife's rolling pin if she has one and use that to knock the ice off.Better yet,get her to do it. cuhulin

It'd be nice if we could get back to "deep dish" wheels like were popular before the proliferation of FWD cars and ABS... now all the ice builds up on the INSIDE of the wheel... :(

nate

Go to some hardware or auto parts place and get some of that spray-on ice melt stuff. Maybe it's in a trigger-spray bottle now. It works ok on glass anyhow.

Have you actually done what you advise?

Hot water would probably do the best and quickest job and should only leave a thin film of ice on the wheel. Of course care has to be done to do this in the sunlight where ice on the pavement won't be a problem or drainage is good. If it's a sunny day odds are most of the water will become vapor before it can freeze.

And yes, I've done this. I've even washed my car by hand in subzero weather using buckets of hot water and washing one panel at a time.

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