problem with a shaking/vibrating car

I have a 1998 Ford Escort station wagon that has been acting up lately. The car starts to shake after I've been driving for a while. It is worse when I am going at faster speeds 80km/hr vs 40km/hr. There is also an accompanying "helicopter" noise. It is quite loud, I can hear it with all the windows rolled up and the radio on. The noise is not present when I'm accelerating or breaking. The noise sounds like its coming from my right tire. This was going on a few weeks ago and then it seemed to resolve and just the past few days its been doing it again.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this problem. How serious is it and what can I do to fix it.

Thank you

 

Well you know when you get new tires, they need balanced as no tire is perfectly round with the road, so you balance it out using little weights on them so when you travel at higher speeds you dont get that "shaky" feeling and "helicopter" sound. Im sure youve got already balanced tires but when your alignment is off for a prolonged amount of time, the tires individually where down unevely, even with a rotation the inner or outter side of one tire can wear down, thus changing the shape of the tire again, which means rebalancing may be needed, but just to go down to the shop and have them rebalance the tires isnt going to treat the main problem which may fall down the the alignment, without looking at the tires i couldnt recommend replacing them, but id definately recommend a tire inspection and alignment check, alignment will probably set you back 40 bucks or so...

As for that right tire, it may have a slow puncture if the pressure is not hat it should be, which can be repairs at the shop but is most probably been caused by hitting pot holes along the edges of the road and crappy roads after winter and all, thats the cause of most slow punctures i bet!

keeping the tires in good check incuding keeping constant pressure helps gas milage too!

I recently had a quote on 4 "odd" size tires for a chevy aveo 05 from xxxxxxxxfor 268 including everything and tax! xxxxxxxxx price matched it and took an additonal 10 bux off!

Just incase new tires are recommended by the shop i suggest shopping around, xxxxxx tire is pretty decent too!

 

Thanks for the response. What youre saying about the slow punctures makes a lot of sense. The highways have been littered with pot holes and thats probably it. Its time to switch my snow tires back to my regular tires anyway. I'll keep an eye on the pressures as well. Thanks!!

 

sometimes a tire will start to come apart internally with now outward visible signs. sounds like a belt may be broken on the iside. snow tires that are only run for short periods of time in the winter last so long that the rubber starts to get hard/brittle . put on the other tires and see if it goes away.

 

My first thought, too, that maybe you were getting some tread separation. As speeds increase the added centrifugal force would make it worse.