Thread: Shaking at high speeds?

My wife reported some truck and cross-wind buffeting on her Seoul Train when we first got the car. It was nothing like as bad as what one used to experience in rear-engine VW Bugs and Chevy Corvairs, but it still was there. She chalked it up to the light weight and boxiness of the Soul.

Then we had an SSD strut-tower bar installed. Among all the other benefits of the strut-tower bar, the buffeting problem almost disappeared. It's now no worse than she got with her VW Jetta wagon.

Originally Posted by riclee50

I bought new tires in April 2012 right before going on a long trip with it. No problems at all but after returning I went in to have the tires balanced (free service from where I bought the tires) and the next day I was driving in to work hitting about 70 mph and felt the wheel shaking. The next day I brought it back. They re-checked the balance and put the tires back on, saying they couldn't find the trouble. The next day going to work there was no shaking. I'm thinking whe n they mou nted the tires the first time, they may have not tightened the lugnuts correctly. Maybe they were in a hurry or whatever but I tolkd the service mngr my thoughts and he promised he would speak with his guys about it.

Not sure if my story helps. I hope all is well with your Soul now.

Regarding the lug not tightening. Tire shops, repair shops, virtually any shop that removes and re-installs the wheels & tires, use impact wrenches to tighten the lug nuts, and I'd bet that fewer than 1% of them ever adjust the torque of those nuts after removal and re-installation . It wouldn't take much to pull the hub out of true on such small hubs as are on the Soul if even one lug was left loose. Any time I remove & re-install a wheel, I always torque the nuts to spec. In the case of tire shops and repair shops, you can bet your bottom dollar that, short of them leaving a nut loose, virtually every nut they touch will be grossly over torqued. Impact guns are made for ease of use and speed and are not even close to being precise for torquing.

that's why they always say to call back after a few hundred miles for a torque check.

Originally Posted by The Old Grouch

Regarding the lug not tightening. Tire shops, repair shops, virtually any shop that removes and re-installs the wheels & tires, use impact wrenches to tighten the lug nuts, and I'd bet that fewer than 1% of them ever adjust the torque of those nuts after removal and re-installation . It wouldn't take much to pull the hub out of true on such small hubs as are on the Soul if even one lug was left loose. Any time I remove & re-install a wheel, I always torque the nuts to spec. In the case of tire shops and repair shops, you can bet your bottom dollar that, short of them leaving a nut loose, virtually every nut they touch will be grossly over torqued. Impact guns are made for ease of use and speed and are not even close to being precise for torquing.

This is so true.

You can pick up a torque wrench that will be good enough to serve the purpose of this for a mere $20.
1/2" Torque Wrench

The manual says 65~79 lb*ft of torque. (page 6-17) Honestly, that's not a lot of torque, so you can imagine someone cranking on a lug wrench with all they are worth or hammering it with a impact wrench getting 100+ ft lbs and damaging a modern car's hubs very easily.

So very true TOG and I remember when I was younger that we had to tighten in certain patterns to insure the wheel was tightened down evenly. I'm assuming it is still done these days. I have seen mechanics tighten the wheels 1, 2, 3, 4 .... not criss-crossing. I truly nbelieve this is what happened to my wagon which caused my problem.

Originally Posted by riclee50

So very true TOG and I remember when I was younger that we had to tighten in certain patterns to insure the wheel was tightened down evenly. I'm assuming it is still done these days. I have seen mechanics tighten the wheels 1, 2, 3, 4 .... not criss-crossing. I truly nbelieve this is what happened to my wagon which caused my problem.

I see that too, but it's "probably" OK to just do it that way with the way lug nuts are tapered, but it's virtually zero effort to do it correctly and ensure a proper seating of the wheel.

I tight my first nut just snug, then the 2nd one... and so forth, then go back a 2nd time in the correct order to torque them down.

I don't know about your wind issue but I will share that I just bought a Soul 13! and just went over to Tampa from Daytona Sunday @ mostly 75-80MPH... no shaking but the steering in my useless opinion is way touchy. It took me 100 miles to get used to it. Reminded me of "back in the day" when my old dog cars had so much play in the steering it was like a endless correction over correction experiment. Not safe but hey those cars were junkers....
I frankly "got used to it" and the return trip didn't notice it as much... still a very quick reactive steering vehicle.. I now have 750 miles so I think it just takes some getting used to. And FYI I traded out of a Ford Sport Trac... which are not know to track well on the road either and the Kia just has touchy steering not tracking issues in my case anyway.

Took me about a month to get use to. Now I do not pay any attention to it. Love my ride !

The Soul, with stock tires at the recommended 33psi, will have a little tendency to wallow, because the tires are soft and squishy and you'll get a lot of side-wall flexing.

I don't like that feel! I've increased my own tire pressure to 42psi (cold) and get much more responsive steering and a better Feel for the road.
Also the car steers easier, coasts longer and gets better MPG.

I've driven other cars with quite a bit of wind resistance so the FEEL of the soul, out on the highway is not too different. I hardly even notice it.

As for shaking at high speed..... any kind of debris sticking to the inside of the rims will cause this. Those rims need to be CLEAN, or you'll definitely get shaking.

As others have mentioned..... getting the lug nuts tightened properly is critical on both steel and alloy wheels.



Sorry, wrong car, but the right Torque Wrench, with High Impact/Deep well socket.

The car in the picture is my old SX4, that uses the same diameter lugs as the Soul. They spec @ 62.5 Ft/Lb of torque.
Since the lugs on the Soul are the same size, I just set my Torque Wrench at 65# which feels just right. *
Someone at the stealership mentioned 85#, which sounds about right for a F-250 or maybe a Buick, for the little lugs on a Soul,
I'd be snapping them off at that torque. Been there, done that, and NO THANKS!
Snapping off lugs is not the way to have a FUN DAY! Eh?

* When I first got my Soul, I wanted to replace those plastic wheel covers, which requires taking off all the lug nuts.
I was horrified to find that no two lug nuts were torqued the same. Some were so lightly torqued that I could remove them
with a 6" crescent wrench. YOIKS! So needless to say, when I put them back on I Torqued them down correctly with my Torque wrench.

I have NO shakes, shimmies or any other steering problems, even up to 100+mph. (she's smooth as silk)

Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?

TM

Originally Posted by Bay Soul

Hmm, our little car (Honda Fit) shakes horribly over 70. My Soul, on the other hand doesn't shake or wobble even past 80mph. So I have been using cruise control to keep from letting the speed creep so high. I'm trying for better mileage & you can't get that at 80+ mph.


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If your Honda Fit shakes at 70mph, there is something wrong with it. Wheel balance, bent wheel, ice or snow or mud built up inside a wheel, etc. etc. get it checked.