Gas pedal vibration ?
 

Hi,

I recently notice a vibration/pulsation in the gas pedal starting from a very low speed (to highway speed). It is more noticeable when just resting the foot on the pedal. When I shift it to neutral, the problem is still there. The car drives very smoothly and I do not notice any vibrations elsewhere aside from the pedal

The wheels and tires were mounted for a month or so without problems until recent weeks. I have tried installing hub centric rings but no luck in fixing the issue.

However, the vibration sometimes disappears for a very little bit when driving on very smooth pavements.

Any suggestions on what I should do? I was thinking of getting the tires balanced next in hopes of solving this mystery.

Tires are Falken Azenis FK510 with 80% tread. Both the wheels and tires are around 1 year old

EDIT: tires are balanced, car had alignment, tires rotated, wheel bearings checked with no play, brake rotors and pads changed.... And, the pulsing is still there. Ran out of solutions, probably it is what it is lol. Most likely the harsh summer tires.

Thank you

This is an interesting one. Following.

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You have taken some good steps and understand your frustration. There might still be a few things worth checking, starting from cheaper to more expensive checks since you mention vibration while rolling (I assume) in neutral.

IMO, balancing is very important. I've had cars with heavy vibration, which I thought was mechanical, but due incorrect balancing (balance only on one side of the wheel). The issue can also be aggravated by tires that get damaged by potholes or tires left flat or with low tire pressure for extended periods of time during storage (might not be your case), deforming tire. You might be able to pick up wheel and or tire deformation looking at wheel/tires from different angles while they are being sped up on the balance checking machine. These issues might not be fixed by balancing alone.

You might also look into wheel bearings. They wear out slowly, which might make diagnosis difficult due to the gradual change. Bad conditions and potholes can accelerate wear and damage them in a hurry. I happily replaced my front wheel bearings around 80k, but left the rears on for nearly 120k, which was a mistake. It all starts with noise, but can easily transform into noise + vibration given the wear level. This can easily confused with tire / wheel related problems and should not be overlooked.

Well the gas pedal is purely an electronic device so it’s the floor that’s shaking and not so much your gas pedal.

I second getting a rebalance on the tires.

It could be wheel bearings, but you’d definitely be able to hear them as well.

Does this get worse with sudden acceleration? Have you checked where the gas pedal connects to the firewall?

Yep, I also suggest you have the tires balanced.

Nope it does not get worse with acceleration. In fact it feels better since maybe I'm pushing onto the pedal instead of resting on it, feeling less vibration

Tire condition. Check your tire pressure, get it perfectly balanced.

How about at different speeds? It's the frequency of vibration higher at 70mph vs 35mph?

I'd say its a bit higher frequency at higher speeds

Now that you mention this, there's vibration in the brake pedal and clutch too if i rest my foot on there during cruise. So most likely it's the floor vibrating...but there's not much when I actually rest my foot on the floor ��

Just to add, there's also a slight noticable humming sound from the tires. I will have the tires balanced tomorrow and see if it fixes the issue

Humming tends to point towards wheel bearings, IMO. Still, wait until wheel / tire combo is balanced. IF they allow you to, remember to observe wheels and tires while they are being checked on the machine.

Can you precise if that humming present with the previous tire, wheel combo? It's difficult since bearing noises come in gradually, unless a pothole eats one up.

Just had tire balance done and it has definitely made the vibrations less noticable but is still there. I guess I can stick with this and be less ocd about it lol. Maybe it's just our cars being more "road feeling" and I'm just worrying too much? Or maybe it's the summer tires

The humming I believe might be normal tire sounds and just overthinking. Is present before and after tire balance

I notice they did add more wheel weights to the front two wheels after the balance**

Next I would try jacking up the car and try shaking the wheels (Still mounted) back and forth via its spokes. If it moves, the wheel bearing is bad.

https://youtu.be/YvKWGjmPKoc

have you tried rotating the tires front-to-back?

1 year on a bad alignment could be cupping/scaling the rubber.

I had a slight vibration coming from the gas pedal some years ago. Definitely not something you could feel through your foot, but it was very much audible.

You can try putting some sort of gasket between the throttle pedal assembly and its support to help reduce it (I used a bit of an old air filter), but it won't do a lot.

What improved the problem the most for me was switching back to 17" wheels with milder tyres.

Overall, the best advice as for rattles in this car is to live with them. It's a cheaper Toyota, not an Audi. It will probably outlast the Audi, but will do so rattling all along the way!

I would like to add that if you do have that movement, the bearing has gone really bad. In my case, it didn't have such play.

Also, I forgot to say using spacers also deteriorate bearings faster. It could have affected my ride since I used the 20mm and 25mm spacer combo for a while.

BTW, what is your car's mileage? And also, have you checked your specific tire model reviews on tire rack . Com (or some other site). Although you don't seem to have many miles on your current tires, some are loud depending on their design (like the BFG Sport Comp A/S I rode for a while), some are fine at first and then get noisier after a while.

Did you see anything (slight bobbing) on tired wheels while they were getting balanced, sped up on machine?

I have to side with that statement. Milder tires might have an effect... I'm waiting to have my vehicle returned to me in order to install the new Michelin A/S 3+ I bought. These are 87 load rating like the OEM Primacy tires, so I'm anxious to see if they are more compliant than the 91 or 94 load rating tires I've used in the past.

Also, if wheels are 18" you could feel some of the effects of the stiffer sidewalls, provided you adjusted the correct aspect ratio for OEM ride height.