Shaking/vibration between 50 and 80+ mph, more on excel, but not on smooth road

2015 Prius V 5

On regular less than perfect roadways it shakes starting at around 51/52, sometimes a little less between 60's and 70's, but mostly gets worse on up to 70's, 80's.

There is no shaking when braking, but, the shaking doesn't seem to ease instantly upon braking either. It shakes depending on the speed.

You could accelerate and it's smoother ‍♂️
You could drive at any of speeds between 50 and 68 and it's smoother ‍♂️ incline decline or flat

Accelerating at higher speeds makes it worse usually, say 70 - 80, kind of does it less at 80 and above, you still feel whatever it is tapping fast.

On a very smooth rural road (baby smooth) smooth like big rigs use this road all the time so the road is like butter, glass smooth. So I got up to 75 and higher without much shaking, could still feel whatever it was in the steering but just very slight fast cyclic taps.

When the shaking occurs I can feel it in my seat, feet, steering wheel. I'm unsure sometimes what makes it worse going uphill or downhill.

What does usually make it worse is when the road turns left or right, mostly left I think from my memory, could be right turning just as bad as well.

I also hear a horn sound in the rear right it seems. When driving on freeway and the car is lifted up and gravity is in effect after a rise in the road then fall in the road, the more weightless the car is, the more likely you hear this horn type sound. I say it's similar to what a tire sounds like when it's been tapped, but continuously. Not tapping, just solid sound. Not too loud, slightly noticable.

Also shortly after I purchased the car I noticed downhill shook the car when braking. Doesn't do it anymore when braking now. I found that the rear axle has been bent in some way, so both wheels in the rear, the bottoms are jetting out slightly more. I almost got someone to install spacer shims from Auto Zone to correct the degrees. They said it's so close it wouldn't do too much. I might do that later.

About 8 or 9 months ago there was a problem which if you have time to answer this one that'd be great, I was in a mountain range going up and down big hills (bad idea), using PWR mode, AND, B instead of Drive, not tapping on my brakes, going about 30-45 down these ravines. I started smelling brake smoke. I thought there was some forest fire somewhere with seashell smell. Nope. And so my braking almost ceased, pedal was like butter. Almost no braking at all. I stop somehow on a gravel side thing, wait a minute, then I go "I'm heading back, this is too dangerous". Happens again down another road, only this time my front rotors are so hot I throw water on them and they immediately evaporate the water. Probably glowing from what I remember. The rear rotors were hot too but not so much.

Got the pads replaced in the front, seemed fine. They were of course grinded down way past the lines, just a hair left on them.

3 months ago this shaking bad started, got much worse after alignment first, same day did balancing and rotation I just did about 2 weeks ago.

Just before the balancing and rotation I installed Spring Buffers. Shaking was still minimal, almost nothing just 60's it would shake, then one day after 2 weeks of them being installed I go 75-80, upper 60's, and it shakes like a leaf. I start thinking maybe it's the front struts being too lifted, after all they do say it might make your car shake being lifted slightly.

So I take them off. Basically shaking goes away after one 3-5 mile drive on the freeway. I'm like, damn I was right. I get back on and it shakes again, upper 70's, 80's. Not so much lower speeds.

I go, maybe it's the tires.

Because, I have 2 matching treadwear (oldest) and 2 others newer, except the older of the two is from 8,000 miles ago. Newest is from just before the alignment, balancing and rotation (day after).

So I have two older, 80% tread? Maybe 75.
Two newer, one with 90 one with 98% probably. Or so it seemed.

So here's the weird thing.

Both of the newer tires were put on the right side of the car. The first new one was originally in the rear right, stayed there for over 8,000 miles probably along with the other two older ones staying. I usually do balancing and roation every 5-6k tops. The second one (highest tread) was in front right.

When they did the rotation, it seemed like the problem was real bad after. So I measured the tread depth, saw that it was low tread front left, high tread rear left. high tread front right, low tread rear right. So I figured, rotate the right side wheels back, you want the higher in the rearw. So now it's both lower in the front, both higher in the rear.

The problem I have with this if you were reading, is that I've only known the lower treaded tires to be on the left side of the car, the higher ones on the right side, so why are both the lower in the front? but that's just food for thought. I think someone switched stuff around without telling me.

The rear left tire, has the most amount of tread than any of them, and checking the tread again, all 3 other tires are basically the same depth now, RR, FR, FL.

The rear right one which is the one that was originally there for 8k miles or so, the depth is higher on the inner, a little lower on the outer..

The only other thing is that both front strut boots are torn and fallen down, plus the front right makes this sqeaky sound after a dip on a speed bump or getting back onto a road from a driveway, sometimes.

The front seems to be shaking, I can feel what's shaking in the steering wheel, my seat under me shakes, the floor shakes. It doesn't feel like the rear, however the rear right wheel makes a horn sound, and the weird tire is there to match an issue.

It feels cyclic in nature, I don't hear grinding.

I just installed the rear brake pads (Akebono Plus, ceramic, just like front).

The old RL pads: Outer pad was much more worn than the inner pad, by about 75% more, about a pencil lead thick left on the wear line.

The old RR pads: Both pads had plenty of meat on them, 70-75% left.

I'm taking it into Toyota for $225 for a full looksee in a week.

Any thoughts or suggestions besides that I should put high high temp brake fluid in? Lol. And by the way, the overheating rotors has happened to me about 5+ other times even after replacing the pads, down a hill going only 55-60 or slower.. Even using the tap method, no Boost mode, no PWR mode. Just on Eco. I can only gauge that the regenerative braking within the wheels are heating it up too much. I don't know much about that, just a quick search lead me to figure that, plus deductive reasoning.

What's real great is that this exact same thing happened to my 2002 Subaru Outback H6 for years, the main culprit was that aftermarket CV axle half shafts I got were loose on the inner, very loose, you could wiggle them up like cups on a smaller peg. And, the rear adjustment bolt was seized, plus there was probably a bad bearing in the rear right. Horrible situation.

Anyways

Any suggestions or ideas would be great

Thanks

 

I just checked all 4 bearings up down left right, absolutely no movement what so ever and I really forced them, slamming them even with my hands, not a single atom of movement.

So front Rotors, CV, or most unlikely bushings/control arms, end links, tires out of round which I doubt but who knows, or rear axle. Not a chance at all being an motor mount issue.
Unless bearings can be cock-eyed and still not move.

I'll give you this as well, at around 33 mph you feel a slight wobble, no sound just feels like tires are out of round, about 4 1/2 - 5 wobbles per second at 33 mph lol.

So what could wobble like that at 33 mph in a cyclical way besides the road its self, CV, or tires.

Been bouncing around in this 50 deep pot hole (man hole) riddled area by my work for 4 months as well.

 

Might be confusing at the beginning, it shakes anywhere between 50's and 80's, 60's is worse, 70's much worse up to 80, kind of planes around there then gets even worse. You drive anywhere in there above 50's and it shakes usually consistently. Worse above

 

Right sorry 165k miles on her

 

Also tires are 205 60R16 92H, Primewell all season, Firestone stopped selling them some months back for unknown reasons, but their sister stores still have them I forgot the name. The first tire issue was the sidewall easily punctured from hitting a fine point edge of a piece of sidewalk gutter riser L shape

 

Here's a recording of this morning, didn't shake on this road going into work but was between 45 and 70's on mixed road, concrete asphalt, there are two tones you can hear, one that sounds like an airplane, the other a horn / howling sound.

I'll record when it shakes later today hopefully. Bead separation hu, what does that look like?

 

One thing I did notice yesterday is I saw a slight inward dimple on the sidewall, about an inch and a half wide, looked today can't find it but it was somewhere in the middle at night, saw it during the day several hours before too, I believe right side

 

:::SOLVED::: Shake is gone: Balancing was way way way off.

It was the balancing, and possibly the brand Primewell, I doubt that has much to do with it but the balancing was way off.

It was off by .50 oz both fronts, 2.50 rear left, 3.50 rear right. I've been going to this one place for years, and only that one place. Never again.

Shake is gone. I got balancing done, 99% was gone. Did a Roadforce Balance right after. Basically still 99% gone. Only at around 73 mph there is a very slight bit, and either I apply that small amount of shaking to the horrible Primewell tires I have, or that there is some residual from the shaking imbedded in the tread, or both.

Damn.

And I thought I'd be paying thousands to fix this. Stupid low end shop didn't do the balancing right.

Other than that this picture is showing how off my rear wheels are, both are jetting out much. I just need to go get these plastic alignment shims and install those at some point.

Next I'm getting a full set of Bridgestone Turanza Quiettrack tires at Costco coming up, just under $600 without tax, then I'm going over to my new favourite shop Joes Tires and they can do it all real real proper.