Steering Wheel Shake at Highway Speeds

[nfrank]

I dropped off my 2023 gen1 R1T last week for the shake starting at 55mph and get worse at higher speed. They started giving me the spiel that the shake is normal and in spec. Got a 2022 R1T loaner and no shake until 85mph.

the loaner has 21” wheels and tires, mine has the 20” open all-terrains with 20k miles. Does anyone think it’s the tires and not the car? I took mine in for rotation and balance at americas tires and no effect.

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[ham]

I dropped off my 2023 gen1 R1T last week for the shake starting at 55mph and get worse at higher speed. They started giving me the spiel that the shake is normal and in spec. Got a 2022 R1T loaner and no shake until 85mph.

the loaner has 21” wheels and tires, mine has the 20” open all-terrains with 20k miles. Does anyone think it’s the tires and not the car? I took mine in for rotation and balance at americas tires and no effect.

I have 22” wheels and have same exact issue as you. They replaced a couple of my wheels and I got all new tires with the brilliant “heavier steering wheel fix”and still didn’t fix anything. I am currently suing them since they don’t think this is a lemon law issue and “in spec”

 

[SANZC02]

I dropped off my 2023 gen1 R1T last week for the shake starting at 55mph and get worse at higher speed. They started giving me the spiel that the shake is normal and in spec. Got a 2022 R1T loaner and no shake until 85mph.

the loaner has 21” wheels and tires, mine has the 20” open all-terrains with 20k miles. Does anyone think it’s the tires and not the car? I took mine in for rotation and balance at americas tires and no effect.

My guess is tires.

I rotate my own tires, just keep them on the same side and swap front and back so they spin in the same direction. Have not had any shake issues in years doing that method. Currently have 28k on my 22s and no shake on mine.

 

[emoore]

I dropped off my 2023 gen1 R1T last week for the shake starting at 55mph and get worse at higher speed. They started giving me the spiel that the shake is normal and in spec. Got a 2022 R1T loaner and no shake until 85mph.

the loaner has 21” wheels and tires, mine has the 20” open all-terrains with 20k miles. Does anyone think it’s the tires and not the car? I took mine in for rotation and balance at americas tires and no effect.

I have the 21s and when Rivian rotated the tires (no balance I think) I developed the steering wheel shake on the highway. Went to discount tire to balance them and the shake went away. It's the tires. The Gen 1 Quad is not very forgiving with out of balance tires.

 

[nfrank]

If it was just the tires, why does Rivian have this “heavier steering wheel” fix? The tech even told me about it on our test drive for me to show him.

Maybe I’ll ask them to balance the tires and say if it fixes the shake I’ll pay for the balance. If it doesn’t fix it, they eat the labor on that

 

[emoore]

If it was just the tires, why does Rivian have this “heavier steering wheel” fix? The tech even told me about it on our test drive for me to show him.

Maybe I’ll ask them to balance the tires and say if it fixes the shake I’ll pay for the balance. If it doesn’t fix it, they eat the labor on that

My guess is that the heavier steering wheel just doesn't transmit the shake as much as the normal wheel. It's fixing the symptoms not the problem.

 

[Riviot]

Has anyone with shaking issues tried to manually engage brake pads to fix it?

I periodically get shaking, usually on days I notice the brake calipers sticking when leaving the garage. I've come to drag the pads out of the driveway and first 10 seconds of my drive, holding brake down lightly and increasing speed till I hit 45 and letting off.

Doing this, I no longer notice shimmies and shakes where I used to on certain roads.

 

[snowboarder777]

I have stressed this over and over, the techs need to get the wheels and tires road forced balanced and no more than 10 lbs of road force on the front wheels and tires especially. My R1S had a slight vibration in the steering wheel on the 21s and Michelin Defenders MS2 tires and I went back in for road force and the numbers were high above 15 lbs on the front two and they re matched the tires to rims and got 2 lbs and 4 lbs road force which is perfect. The suv drives smooth as glass up to 90 mph. It doesnt matter what tire or road condition, its always the tire wheel balance most of the time. Heavy steering fix is not needed.

 

[nfrank]

I just got back my R1T. They replaced the steering wheel and all four tires. The shake is greatly reduced but not 100% gone. I feel this is acceptable. I may get the road force balance on my own if the shake crops up again.

 

[snowboarder777]

I just got back my R1T. They replaced the steering wheel and all four tires. The shake is greatly reduced but not 100% gone. I feel this is acceptable. I may get the road force balance on my own if the shake crops up again.

I'm glad to hear that. I had absolutely no vibration or steering wheel shake in over a 5 hour drive up north after this road force balance with my new Michelin tires on my 2024 R1S. The ride was smooth and the steering wheel didn't even shake once. It's truly down to the technician doing the mount and balance of the tires and wheels plus road force balance. Hopefully you can get a another technician to do a proper road force balance.

 

[Ngkgb]

Had new tires placed about a month ago. In the meantime I had the subframe replaced and the alignment corrected at the SC and afterwards noticed a shaking usually around 70 MPH or higher. Went to Americas tire today and they rebalanced tires and the shaking is gone.

 

[WattTruckMatt]

I've been chasing a highway shake for a while. 7000 miles on new K03s along with 6 balances. Now switched to Toyo AT3 EVs and after alignment / road force balance at the SC, I still have a slight vibration right around 65mph.

My truck used to be 100% smooth up to 111mph. Nothing particular has happened to the truck that would cause this. I don't believe it is the tires at this point.

 

[ham]

Rivian was unable to fix the shakes, after 2 months in the SC they repurchased the vehicle and I got all my $ back. I am wishing y'all luck and hope your SC doesn't gas light you into owning a vehicle that can barely drive down the highway.

 

[Ngkgb]

Rivian was unable to fix the shakes, after 2 months in the SC they repurchased the vehicle and I got all my $ back. I am wishing y'all luck and hope your SC doesn't gas light you into owning a vehicle that can barely drive down the highway.

Wow. How bad were your shakes?

 

[ham]

Wow. How bad were your shakes?

Same issues from day one going back to march 2022. I really hope this can be addressed at some point. I've had the wheels rotated and tires balanced twice now by service. Has not solved anything. Maybe not as bad as it used to be, but still unacceptable.

Same exact severity as this user. They did all the tricks in the book and nothing worked.

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