What Causes Vehicle Shaking While Driving?
2 Answers
The reasons for vehicle shaking while driving are: 1. Severe engine carbon buildup. When excessive carbon deposits accumulate inside the engine, the gasoline sprayed by the cold-start fuel injector gets largely absorbed by the deposits, resulting in an overly lean air-fuel mixture during cold starts and making ignition difficult. In this situation, the engine only starts easily after the carbon deposits become saturated with gasoline. After starting, the gasoline adsorbed on the carbon deposits gets drawn into the combustion chamber by the engine's vacuum suction, making the mixture overly rich. This fluctuation between lean and rich air-fuel mixtures causes idle shaking after cold starts. 2. Ignition system issues. Check the working condition of spark plugs, high-voltage wires, and ignition coils. Poor performance in the ignition system can cause this problem. 3. Aging engine components. Engine mounts act as the vibration damping system for the engine, absorbing minor vibrations during operation. If engine mounts fail, these vibrations get transmitted to the steering wheel and cabin, causing shaking during idle.
I encountered this situation last time on the highway! When the speed reached 90 km/h, the steering wheel shook so badly that I couldn’t hold it steady, but it stopped shaking when I slowed down. Later, it turned out to be severe wear on the CV joint, with metal particles causing imbalance during rotation. For this kind of shaking that only appears while driving, it’s most likely an issue with the drivetrain or tires. If the tire balance is off or the wheel rim is deformed, the shaking is especially noticeable at certain speed ranges. If it shakes during hard acceleration, it’s probably due to spark plug leakage or aging ignition coils causing a misfire. A reminder to everyone: if you experience high-frequency steering wheel vibrations, check the tires first; if the whole car shakes, inspect the engine mount bushings.
