shaking 47-53ish mph

IF your tires are balanced as you reported the likely cause is possibly front end bearings going out. Now I am not going to just point that out as the ONLY possible but the deal is that a front end inspection is necessary to find out which components may be worn and loose. This is noto to say your alignment needs to be checked as well. Many times when you get the shakes your wheels start to occillate and a small tap of the brakes stops them from continuing. Now another issue is even though your tires are balanced the run out on the rims is another factor to check. In thinking back to your original complaint - I think that one of your rims has too much runout and now is in the front instead of in the back as before. Remember none of this happen before your rotate and rebalance work. I would get the tires back to their original positions in hind sight and go from there. Sorry I should have written this portion first but I was rethinking the problem as we go and see that putting the tires back to where they were is the logical thing to do.

 

welcome! did you have them dynamically balanced?

 

First, check the lug nuts, then take it to the dealer and have them do a road test, bearings don't shake a car, they make it disturbingly loud to drive it, increasing in volume with speed. Lots of frozen snow and mud on the wheels would have a shaking effect.

 

So your saying one tap of the brakes and it stops all that you described in one instant?

 

Like Bisco said how did you have them balanced? Any issues with tires have them Roadforce balanced which means there balanced on the car instead of on a balancer. The difference is the tire is rotating during balancing and they can measure run out.

Thats a bent wheel to you. Sounds like maybe a warped brake rotor. Especially if you don't use B mode and ride the brakes down mountains alot. That heats the crap out of the brakes and rotor. The rotor will be red hot. Ever smell anything burning after a mountain run?

After a down hill run on big mountain pull over and feel the front wheels. Be careful they may be really hot. The brakes are pretty bad on this car. Next time your on the highway at 60 mph's and no one is behind you put the car in neutral and try to stop without regen.
No regen just plain old brakes. Scary.

 

Could be a combination of things including rear bushings. I would take it to a good tire shop that also does alignments and related repairs.

 

wow, hard to believe they could miss all that when doing the tyres.

 

One can never tell these days. Any issue with my Prius and I am going in here first. The knowledge and car experience is just the best!

 

Good you found the problem. In the future because you drive on gravel roads it puts more stress on parts which were really not designed for that kind of service as a regular event. Also in light of that you will experience more wear on your front end parts like bushings as well..
You can minimize those wear concerns by driving slower as then the forces are less but still could make your wear longevity longer.
If you were driving a 4x4 truck I would not be typing this but with cars they are more fragile. But in any event your concerns are now in the repair/completion stage. Good Luck.

 

Broken tie rod you can't drive the car. Its what steers the wheel. I think you got rumped pretty hard there.

 

Well he does drive on dirt roads all the time. Maybe you can drive with one wheel pointed wherever it wants to go. My wife can drive on a flat tire and not know it and she grew up on a dirt road.

 

lol ....you got me there with the wife thing...I'm happy if the car's not on fire when she comes home...