Antee

I am experiencing a steering wheel vibration and maybe a slight seat vibration on my new to me 16 Cayenne even after a tire swap from Toyo Open Country Q/T to Pilot Sport 4 SUV's. The wheels are OEM 19" Turbo style and the vibration starts at 55-60 and doesn't go away at any legal highway speed in the US but sometimes feels like it goes away for a minute or two at normal speeds for some unknown reason possibly pavement change or after suspension compressing.

At this point I don't suspect it's a balance problem given the behavior feels the same between both tires and both times a Hunter Road Force machine was used. The dealer that balanced the old tires believes the wheels are straight and recommended replacing the tires if the vibration continued as they had higher road force numbers (the Toyos balance balance was off and the issue was made better but still bad). The selling dealer who sold me the car installed the new tires didn't mention anything being off with the wheels so I am leaning towards the wheels being straight.

If anyone has an idea or experience with this problem it would be greatly appreciated. I am also not sure if the Cayenne can also have the VW Touareg Steering Wheel Shake issue build date is 3/16?

dbv1

Misalignment can cause vibration. I can’t guarantee that’s what’s happening here.

RAudi Driver

Before you tackle the list below and if the Michelin's are new, you have a 30 day 100% money back guarantee. You also have a Michelin pro-rate schedule for any mishap on the tire. My Michelin Pilot 4S tire, that was about 6 months old when it blew out, was replaced for $75. Also Michelin will take back any tire that doesn't balance. This should be your first move.

Now on to the troubleshooting:

1. Spin wheels and make sure they are true.

2. Rebalance tires and sometimes the Roadforce isnt' the best machine. My GT3 needed a regular balance machine to get the cups to balance, The hunter kept balancing them to vibrate. Also clean the wheel where the weights are attached to and maybe toss a piece of tape over them.

3. Alignment. Have this done by Porsche.

4. Rotors and properly torqued lugs. Check both! Rotors for mating surfaces and lugs for proper torque.

5. Suspension components.

Last but not least, do let the selling dealer do this work. They aren't your friend in this. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this car wasn't purchased from a Porsche Dealer.

fstr n u

If your rotors are out of spec they can cause vibrations.....how old are your rotors...how many miles on them? Even at lower miles they can develop warpage.
Suspension comes to mind
Have a secondary and trusted dealer balance your wheels. If you have a couple minutes strip the weights off your rims yourself and let them have a go at your wheels with no weights as a baseline...you'd be surprised the results....(I've owned over 30 vehicles...and the most troublesome one i had was a 2010 Jeep SRT......bane of my existence....learned a lot about tires/rims/balancing/suspension/driveline components tho
Your driveshaft or other axles could have an imbalance (very low probability....but last of things to check

RAudi Driver

Did you have the vibration before the tire swap?

Galion

Interesting.. my rotors are almost out of spec. Wonder if this could be the problem even if there’s no pulsing in the pedal.

Antee

Yes, it was really bad before the original tires definitely weren't balanced.

Selling dealer was a premier Porsche dealer last year and was sold CPO with some original warranty left. Rotors I would guess are original as the car has about 34k miles and I haven't measured them myself but the dealer has and I know they use a pneumatic gun putting on the wheel bolts (no idea if that makes a difference but service manual explicitly states not to do this but it seems all the dealers in the area do it).

I got the car back a few days ago after they did an alignment, re-balanced the wheels, and checked everything over (they covered the cost) and it still vibrates but not as bad and is surface dependent at this point. It also didn't seem to matter if the tires where hot or cold.

The car is still far worse than anything I have driven recently and it's depressing as our 18 RAV4 LE has next to no vibration on the same stretches of road. I am having another Porsche dealer drive it next week to see what they think of it.

Antee

If anyone happens to travel Massachusetts I-93 S from exit 45 to around exit 37 (I-95) can you confirm if your car vibrates during that section? It seems to be 100 percent repeatable for me hot or cold tires and is the worse spot where the steering shakes heavily like a balance problem.

jimwood

Rotors or brakes is where I’d start.

Maybe the wheels are bent.

125shifter

The tire shop I use has a special balance machine that they'll use if you ask. It has some sort of laser measuring system that shows wheel and tire runout and how the two line up.