Cars & Bikes, Driving & Riding

[skullman80]

I do ours when we get our oil changed which is like you every 5k to 6k or so miles (we run full synthetic). Honestly we hit the date much sooner than we hit mileage so I do it just to keep things uniform. We have a tire warranty that tires have to be rotated to keep it in place so it always gets done when we get our oil changed.

[robbiestoupe]

If you rotate your tires on a similar interval every time, there's no harm in doing them early. I would question this mechanic's assessment that the tires don't need rotated. You change your oil at 5,000 miles, rotate at the same number of miles. It's not like you're rotating every 3 months which could result in variable number of miles every rotation.

[dodint]

Get a staggered tire setup with directional tread and you'll never have to rotate them ever again.

[NTP66]

I do like the ease of directional tire rotation. I wrote a little diagram that I kept on my old winter tires for when I swapped them on, showing which one went where, and how to stack them back up.

[Shyster]

I don't think one could rotate tires too often, so long as the times are even. I swap to / from the regular tires to snow tires twice a year, so I rotate at the same time.

[mac5155]

How often do yinz get your tires rotated?

I've been doing it with my oil changes, which is every 6-7000 miles or so. I took my son's Accord earlier this week and they said the tires didn't need to be rotated...which was interesting. They are relatively new, and he doesn't drive a whole lot...but to decline a service? That's weird.

Anyway, that got me wondering if I was rotating too often. The Pilot is up for an oil change today, and with 36K miles on these tires, I'm wondering if it's worth it to rotate them.

Every 5k miles is normal. Frankly I'm not sure why they would turn Down a requested rotation

[AuthorTony]

The last few months I've noticed some vibration in my steering wheel when driving between 40 and 50 mph. I initially thought it was just due to uneven tire wear or a tire out of balance, and basically ignored it. Recently though, it varies between "I don't feel anything amiss whatsoever" on some days to "Yeah, there's some vibration there" on others to "The wheel is jerking so hard I might die" every once in a great while. Today was one of those latter days. The wheel jerks about 3 inches side to side, only when driving straight, and only when I'm between 40-50. It doesn't start below 40 and it stops above 50. But, on Saturday, I drove probably 75 miles and barely noticed a thing.

I set up an appt with my mechanic, but thought I'd ask the experts here if they have any idea what might be wrong. I still like it might be a tire issue, but it seems like that should be consistent day to day.

[NTP66]

Source of the post I still like it might be a tire issue

Based on the randomness of it, I'd bet against this, personally. I don't have a better theory, though.

[AuthorTony]

Yeah, the randomness is what has be baffled (easy to do though). I don't think it's death wobble either as that usually kicks up after hitting a bump/pothole.

[faftorial]

Bad axle?

[robbiestoupe]

There's something out of tolerance, and my guess would be a bearing. Since you're experiencing this at a particular speed range, the bearing or other component out of tolerance is hitting its natural frequency at some mode and causing an increase in excitation. Once you speed past that range, the part is still vibrating, just not at a natural frequency so you don't notice it as much.

This happens a lot in rotating equipment. If bearings or shafts or couplings are out of alignment, you get an eccentric rotation. That'll translate to an excitation in frequency causing an incident like you mentioned.

[dodint]

The train guy gets it.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Wheel bearing? Maybe?

[faftorial]

I had that issue at 3750 RPM at any speed on my car and it was due the shop putting an automatic trans axle on instead of the correct manual axle (they are slightly different in size) so between 72-78 on the highway caused a loud harmonic distortion (I believe that's the term).

[mac5155]

i had a jerkiness in the wheel that was a bad upper ball joint. if you care enough, you can jack it up and grab at 6/12 and 3/9 and wiggle to see if the wheel has any play.

[AuthorTony]

Thanks for the leads, everyone! It's much appreciated. I'll let you know how I made out when the mechanic gets it.

[Ad@m]

I had something similar happen to my truck. It turned out to be the drive shaft universal joint.

[faftorial]

[dodint]

Truck Nutz got wasted by PT Cruiser guy. Bravo.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Got an email from a local dealer wanting to buy my car. Of course, you can't see any actual prices for new vehicles on their site. Everything is "E-price only" and you have to give a phone number. No thanks. When we were trying to find a car in late 2021 we had to do that, and we got phone calls from dealers for weeks after we found (and bought) the car we needed.

[NTP66]

@dodint: What's the longest you've run a K&N-style filter? The one on my TL-S is 11 years old now, and kinda banged up. Thinking about finally replacing it.

[dodint]

I don't keep cars long enough to change a filter.

[NTP66]

K&N® High-Flow Air Filters™ can be cleaned and re-oiled using a K&N Recharger® kit as often as is reasonably necessary. K&N drop-in replacement High-Flow Air Filters™ typically require servicing once every 75,000 miles under normal highway driving conditions, and the larger filters included with K&N intake systems can go up to 100,000 miles before needing to be cleaned (under normal highway driving conditions). Follow this link to view complete cleaning instructions.

I guess I'll just wash it and re-oil it again as per usual.

[Ad@m]

I have an air force one cold air intake system. I clean and re-oil every April and October.

[NTP66]

I barely drive, but even when I did, I only ever cleaned/oiled it every spring. I just hate having to pull the wheel off for easier access (the filter sits directly in front of the wheel).