Steering Wheel Shake at Highway Speeds

[3121]

I hope you're not okay with that completely unacceptable response regarding an $80K vehicle.

If that's normal... let them add it in writing to the owners manual! No vehicle should have wobble at any speed, period.

Typical service department tech making an uneducated guess with 100% certainty, hopefully you leave and the problem is assigned to someone else.

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[LaunchR1T]

Just got my R1T back from service, the steering wheel shake at 70-80mph was one of the items addressed. They did a 4 wheel balance and rotated the tires. The work seems to have helped it. I'm sure the Scorpion A/T tires don't help.. but they sure look cool.

 

[DadOf4Girls]

Had my truck in the Denver service center today for steering wheel shake and a couple other minor items.The small stuff was all fixed but had an interesting discussion with the service lead about the steering wheel shake.

First of all, he said this is a fairly common issue and they do plenty of wheel re-balancing and alignments that seem to marginally help but haven't been able to truly resolve it. They've also been sending details on each of the trucks they've serviced to the engineering team for their input and suggestions.

The latest they're hearing from the engineers is that this is going to require a larger fix, involving installing "something" (i.e. not a software fix). Current timeline for delivery of this solution sounds like end of the quarter so he suggested potentially opening another ticket in the October timeframe or sooner, if it gets worse, and they can hold the ticket internally until the new fix is in.

I also asked if there would be any proactive notification from Rivian to owners who had already been in for this issue. He said this is a new situation for them but suggested it could potentially be a notification/message from Rivian to owners with VINs that have been serviced or Rivian might send that list of VINs to the service centers for them to reach out to impacted customers.

As you can imagine, I have just slightly more than zero confidence in Rivian's communication skills so will likely open a ticket later this year when they've got the solution dialed in.

 

[AxelR]

It smells like a big recall is upon them.

 

[Lsthrz]

Had my truck in the Denver service center today for steering wheel shake and a couple other minor items.The small stuff was all fixed but had an interesting discussion with the service lead about the steering wheel shake.

First of all, he said this is a fairly common issue and they do plenty of wheel re-balancing and alignments that seem to marginally help but haven't been able to truly resolve it. They've also been sending details on each of the trucks they've serviced to the engineering team for their input and suggestions.

The latest they're hearing from the engineers is that this is going to require a larger fix, involving installing "something" (i.e. not a software fix). Current timeline for delivery of this solution sounds like end of the quarter so he suggested potentially opening another ticket in the October timeframe or sooner, if it gets worse, and they can hold the ticket internally until the new fix is in.

I also asked if there would be any proactive notification from Rivian to owners who had already been in for this issue. He said this is a new situation for them but suggested it could potentially be a notification/message from Rivian to owners with VINs that have been serviced or Rivian might send that list of VINs to the service centers for them to reach out to impacted customers.

As you can imagine, I have just slightly more than zero confidence in Rivian's communication skills so will likely open a ticket later this year when they've got the solution dialed in.

I’m one of the early owners who had head-shake from the very beginning and they brought the truck to the Denver service center and did a wheel re-balancing. It did help quite a bit, but has not been the complete solution so interesting to hear what you passed on. I have also noticed that road type makes a big difference - for instance, highway riding in grooved pavement really exacerbated the wheel shake.

 

[NY_Rob]

It smells like a big recall is upon them.

Agreed! How is steering wheel shake at high speeds (or any speed actually) not a huge safety issue?

Wobble causes components to shake back and forth... how long till steering components fail from metal fatigue or just come apart?

If not a voluntary recall, then the Fed will get involved.

 

[hayduke]

oh interesting. Anyone with the wobble, have you guys tried changing driving modes and see if the wobble changes? Wondering if stiffer suspension driving modes is translating road imperfections into the steering wheel...

It sounds like I might not have the same issue as many of you, but on the chance this info helps someone out, on a road trip last weekend I put the truck into "performance" mode from "all purpose" and the whole car started to vibrate a bit, not extremely but noticeably and a bit annoyingly. My passengers felt it as well. After a few miles, I went back to all purpose and the vibration went away. Not wanting to get "stuck" in the bad state for the next few hours' drive, I gave up any ambition to use performance mode and just left it in all purpose so don't really have more data, but it certainly wasn't my imagination.

I have had a suspicion since delivery that the shocks in my truck don't seem to always transition from "soft" to "stiff" (or vice versa) which is (I think) the suspension change that would occur from going between all purpose and performance at highway speeds (65-70mph). My reasoning is that in around town driving in all purpose mode, sometimes the ride feels "stiff" and the truck really rattles over bumps and cracks. Other times the all purpose "soft" shock setting seems to deliver a really smooth almost underdamped experience. If I switch from AP to performance and back, I can usually get the ride to feel smooth and soft / borderline under damped again.

I really wonder if the adjustable shocks are indeed transitioning properly each time (or put another way if they didn't, would the truck know or indicate some sort of error). I also wonder how well they transition under highway speeds.

Haven't noticed any other steering or alignment issues. In fact I've been amazed that with the airbags and ride height changes, the vehicle seems to always track straight and the wheel is on center. Pretty amazing tech.

 

[skyote]

FWIW, I think it might be play in the CV shafts that cause vibration/wobble at higher speeds.

 

[CGM55082]

FWIW, I think it might be play in the CV shafts that cause vibration/wobble at higher speeds.

Thanks for posting that video. I have the same issue. Truck went it for service and they told me the "tocking" sound I was hearing between acceleration/deceleration was normal. I persisted that there is no way it's normal. They then said they would re-lube the half-shafts, which quieted down the noise by about 80 percent. However, it's still there and there's still that slight looseness or play between accelerating and decelerating. That can't be good, putting major stresses on drive train components like half-shafts, CV joints, etc. Like you, I have to think a recall will come at some point to replace the shafts with a second generation that fit snugly and eliminate the play that currently exists.

 

[jakef801]

They picked up the truck and took it for a few days and knocked out a few different items (definitely not all the items I had), and then delivered it back to me.

What were the other items you had which were not addressed?

 

[ResidualReality]

What were the other items you had which were not addressed?

Things like the triangle window wind noise issues, and the hood being misaligned. To their credit both of those issues were then later fixed by mobile service appointments.

 

[DJG]

FWIW, I think it might be play in the CV shafts that cause vibration/wobble at higher speeds.

According to service, HQ is still researching a global fix for this, but one of the potential options is a "heavier steering wheel".

 

[Taco]

It's one of THE biggest problems I have with my truck. Drove my MX the other night on the highway and was like "ahhh this is how it should be at 80" Hopefully they'll get it addressed s00n!

 

[skyote]

According to service, HQ is still researching a global fix for this, but one of the potential options is a "heavier steering wheel".

Please tell me you're kidding.

"Don't address the core problem, try to hide the symptoms" is not the right type of solution.

 

[DJG]

Please tell me you're kidding.

"Don't address the core problem, try to hide the symptoms" is not the right type of solution.

Just a SC employee, so take it for what it is. If true, I would assume it means it's as designed and thus the core problem is not fixable, but they can alleviate the symptoms. I.e. I can't cure your paralysis, but I can make it easier to live with. I've seen others report that they switched wheels and it only showed up with the AT's on the same vehicle, but have also seen others report it on other wheels.

We shall see, I assume I'm on a list of people to contact once they determine the path forward. I was also told my slightly deformed passenger door (common in a lot of builds until recently) was within spec (meaning it's normal, even if not right), even though I know for a fact the same SC replaced another person's door (though admittedly they protested more and it was actually rubbing another panel/door). Mine is just aesthetic and not a huge deal, but there's clearly a threshold for whether they will remedy something, even if they have acknowledged it as a manufacturing defect and changed something so that it's not happening anymore.

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