Need Help any Honda Techs here? (wheel vibration)

hazmat · Jan 23, 2004

Since it shares the garage with my tractor hopefully this counts as related topic.

The wife's new honda pilot has a vibration problem on the highway. I've been back to the dealer twice now. They computer balanced the first time & then used their new Hunter 9700 dynamic road force balancer the second time. They keep getting it better, but it's still not where I expect it to be. My ford truck has less vibration at highway speeds.

Anyway - my search of the internet tells me that the road force should be less than 9#, but the dealer has no clue when I asked what the specification was. I'm going to call Honda directly next week, but I'm wondering if there are any honda techs here that could look up the spec on tire & wheel balancing, out of round etc...

Thanks!

Chuck52 · Jan 24, 2004

Probably has nothing to do with your problem, but the two last times I've had weird vibrations from different vehicles, both were caused by separating belts in the tires. In neither case was it obvious by looking at the tires. One finally peeled....which made the problem rather obvious! After that, when the other vehicle seemed to be behaving in a similar fashion, I took it to the place where I got the tires, and they told me what was going on.

Chuck

Rowski · Jan 25, 2004

Have they tried switching the tires fron to back to see if the vibration changes?

hazmat · Jan 25, 2004

Derek,

Not yet. Maybe I'll give that a shot. My internet research says that the Pilot's suspension is highly sensative to unbalanced wheels. Means you have to get it dead nuts on or else there is a vibration. My big frustration is that the dealer keeps telling me that the vibration is gone - but it's not!

Junkman · Jan 25, 2004

Suggest to the dealer that they swap wheels and tires with another car on the lot and then YOU take it for a drive to see if it is any better. If the problem is gone, they you know that you need new tires..... if not, then it is in the suspension. I had a tire go bad last month and as slow speeds it feels just like it has a flat spot .... at high speed, there is no vibration. I don't know which one it is that has the broken belt because visually it isn't noticeable from the outside. You have to dismount the tire from the wheel and look at the inside of the tire. Usually you can see it then. I don't care, because I don't drive very far or very fast going into town. Don't have any long trips planned till the spring when I will put on 4 new skins...