Mr2 Shaking At 60+Mph

April 22, 2011

I am having a bit of trouble with my mrk3 mr2. When I get up to about 60mph the car begins to shake quiet bad. You can feel this through both the steering wheel and the seats. Initialy I presumed it was a wheel balancing issue but after two diffrent garages balanced them the problem is still there. So I booked the car into my local toyota garage and they told me that I should downsize my wheels from 17" to factor standard.The car has been lowered so they said I should also change this back to the factory standard. Im pesamistic about this evaluation of the problem and would welcome anyones opinion. Im pretty sure its to do with the tyres. The front two are 215 40 17's the back to 215 45 17's. All four are diffrent brands of tyres and all very cheap brands. Should I seek a second opinion?

April 29, 2011

I am having a bit of trouble with my mrk3 mr2. When I get up to about 60mph the car begins to shake quiet bad. You can feel this through both the steering wheel and the seats. Initialy I presumed it was a wheel balancing issue but after two diffrent garages balanced them the problem is still there. So I booked the car into my local toyota garage and they told me that I should downsize my wheels from 17" to factor standard.The car has been lowered so they said I should also change this back to the factory standard. Im pesamistic about this evaluation of the problem and would welcome anyones opinion. Im pretty sure its to do with the tyres. The front two are 215 40 17's the back to 215 45 17's. All four are diffrent brands of tyres and all very cheap brands. Should I seek a second opinion?

By Mk3 I am assuming you mean the roadster?

Before you do anything else ditch the mismatched tyres and get a matched set of four - Utter madness to have differing tyres on the same axle on a performance car! Look to Camskill or black circles for good prices on rubber - they sell on line and can arrange fitting. Also the sizes and profiles do not look right, fronts should be narrower than the rears, even on 17's It sounds like you have real issues with the tyres so start with them. Camskill are on Scotland so worth a call to them as they know their stuff.

Next, I would check your tyre pressures are correct. This model runs lover ft pressure than a lot of cars due to the engine position. Next, get the wheels balanced on the car - you will need a specialist, not quick fit. It could be the wheels are bent or damaged or even the hubs (bells) the wheels are attached to are warped or our of true or even fitted poorly, same is true for the disks, if you are not handy with a set of spanners then take it to an independent. The stealership will spit out the usual company line about the car not being standard therefore that is the reason for the problem. Plenty of people run no std. wheels without any problems whatsoever.