(Frozen) Car shaking after a snowstorm
12-21-2021, 03:32 AM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
(Frozen) Car shaking after a snowstorm
[TL;DR] Car was shaking/vibrating noticeably above 55mph the day after driving in a storm. No CEL or any other error, but the front end of the car was pretty much a block of ice. After shutting it off and restarting, it was perfect. Any ideas what specifically could have caused this?
On Saturday afternoon, I made the poor decision of leaving Boston towards Montreal without properly checking the weather along the entire route, and we ended up in the middle of a pretty bad snow storm. On long stretches of the i89 cars were going around 35mph (instead of the usual 75+ given the 65 limit) single file in the right lane following each other's tracks, with only the occasional dare devil "speeding" (still below the limit) on the left. Even with my Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV winter tires I felt just OK but not super confident changing lanes since the roads were accumulating snow and ice, and only the right lane had some semi-decent tracks to follow. I also got an alert that the sensors were dirty so most driver assistance features were deactivated. Drove by at least 4 separate single car accidents.
Anyway, since the conditions were poor and progress was slow, we decided to stop at a hotel in Vermont. I parked the car in front of the lobby, checked in, settled the wife and kids, then about 30 minutes later went back to the car to put it in the parking garage overnight. No issues restarting the car and driving it for a few minutes, but I did notice that the front end of the car was covered in close to an inch of solid ice, including the license plate and pretty much everything below the headlamps and grill (including obviously the sensors). The front wheel wells were full of slush and ice and there were even icicles under the front bumper almost reaching the ground. Was pretty surprised at how bad it looked. I tried scraping some of it off but it was really frozen solid and even hacking away at it like a chisel or trying to kick off some of the larger pieces with my foot didn't accomplish much, so I gave up.
About 15 hours later we continued our journey under pretty much perfect road conditions, but with the front end still a block of ice. Everything seemed fine at first but after 10 minutes of side roads we got back on the highway and the car started to shake/vibrate noticeably as I got up to normal speeds, as if I was driving on gravel roads or the edge of the lane where it's grooved to warn you about veering off. The shaking would pretty much go away when I reduced my speed to about 50-55mph and get worse the faster I went. Steering and breaking seemed fine, tire pressure was fine, suspension otherwise seemed fine (I tried off-road mode and comfort), everything felt OK other than the significant vibrating which came back every time I went above around 55. There was no CEL or error about suspension or anything else.
It took about 15 minutes at slightly reduced speeds until I could get to the next rest area where I turned off the car to take a closer look. Couldn't see anything obviously wrong under the hood or outside and the tires looked fine, so I turned the car back on and moved the wheel all the way left and right a couple times, raised and lowered the suspension at each wheel (I have e-ABC), drove slowly in the lot in a slalom pattern and tried out the brakes again. Everything felt solid. We got back on the highway, and thankfully the problem totally disappeared despite all the ice still being there. I've since driven it several times without any issue.
Not being a real car guy, I'm curious what could have caused this behavior. Obviously the unusual amount of solid ice was the contributing factor, but what system was impacted? The engine? The suspension? Something else? Was some sensor misfiring and causing odd behavior? Curious what the experts think. Without any error or warning codes I'm not even sure if the dealer can figure anything out, although I'm not particularly concerned about an ongoing issue and was quite pleased with how the car handled the terrible conditions. Also pleasantly surprised that e-ABC took the beating like a champ and each corner was whisper quiet individually going up and down despite the wheel wells being a mess.
Thanks for any suggestions!
On Saturday afternoon, I made the poor decision of leaving Boston towards Montreal without properly checking the weather along the entire route, and we ended up in the middle of a pretty bad snow storm. On long stretches of the i89 cars were going around 35mph (instead of the usual 75+ given the 65 limit) single file in the right lane following each other's tracks, with only the occasional dare devil "speeding" (still below the limit) on the left. Even with my Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV winter tires I felt just OK but not super confident changing lanes since the roads were accumulating snow and ice, and only the right lane had some semi-decent tracks to follow. I also got an alert that the sensors were dirty so most driver assistance features were deactivated. Drove by at least 4 separate single car accidents.
Anyway, since the conditions were poor and progress was slow, we decided to stop at a hotel in Vermont. I parked the car in front of the lobby, checked in, settled the wife and kids, then about 30 minutes later went back to the car to put it in the parking garage overnight. No issues restarting the car and driving it for a few minutes, but I did notice that the front end of the car was covered in close to an inch of solid ice, including the license plate and pretty much everything below the headlamps and grill (including obviously the sensors). The front wheel wells were full of slush and ice and there were even icicles under the front bumper almost reaching the ground. Was pretty surprised at how bad it looked. I tried scraping some of it off but it was really frozen solid and even hacking away at it like a chisel or trying to kick off some of the larger pieces with my foot didn't accomplish much, so I gave up.
About 15 hours later we continued our journey under pretty much perfect road conditions, but with the front end still a block of ice. Everything seemed fine at first but after 10 minutes of side roads we got back on the highway and the car started to shake/vibrate noticeably as I got up to normal speeds, as if I was driving on gravel roads or the edge of the lane where it's grooved to warn you about veering off. The shaking would pretty much go away when I reduced my speed to about 50-55mph and get worse the faster I went. Steering and breaking seemed fine, tire pressure was fine, suspension otherwise seemed fine (I tried off-road mode and comfort), everything felt OK other than the significant vibrating which came back every time I went above around 55. There was no CEL or error about suspension or anything else.
It took about 15 minutes at slightly reduced speeds until I could get to the next rest area where I turned off the car to take a closer look. Couldn't see anything obviously wrong under the hood or outside and the tires looked fine, so I turned the car back on and moved the wheel all the way left and right a couple times, raised and lowered the suspension at each wheel (I have e-ABC), drove slowly in the lot in a slalom pattern and tried out the brakes again. Everything felt solid. We got back on the highway, and thankfully the problem totally disappeared despite all the ice still being there. I've since driven it several times without any issue.
Not being a real car guy, I'm curious what could have caused this behavior. Obviously the unusual amount of solid ice was the contributing factor, but what system was impacted? The engine? The suspension? Something else? Was some sensor misfiring and causing odd behavior? Curious what the experts think. Without any error or warning codes I'm not even sure if the dealer can figure anything out, although I'm not particularly concerned about an ongoing issue and was quite pleased with how the car handled the terrible conditions. Also pleasantly surprised that e-ABC took the beating like a champ and each corner was whisper quiet individually going up and down despite the wheel wells being a mess.
Thanks for any suggestions!
Last edited by maalox; 12-21-2021 at 03:57 AM.
12-21-2021, 07:01 AM
#2
Super Member
Most likely snow and ice build up in your wheel wells and on your mud flaps caused car misbalance. Once all the packed snow/ice fell off you car was just fine.
The following 2 users liked this post by Vladimir Livson:
maalox (12-22-2021),
Tommyboy928 (06-17-2022)
12-21-2021, 11:32 AM
#3
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Join Date: Oct 2009
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'21 AMG53 wDPP & ARC, 19 GLC300 - Former- 10&14 ML BlueTecs, 20 GLE450 E-ABC, 15 Cayenne D, 17 Macan
Snow buildup in the wheel barrel. It's not unusual, but hard to dislodge.
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maalox (12-22-2021)
12-21-2021, 12:08 PM
#4
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Thanks both. I don't think much if any snow/ice got dislodged between both drives (I certainly didn't have much success clearing any manually) but it's possible turning the wheel left and right and raising/lowering the suspension a couple of times dislodged something while I was in the car and couldn't see.
12-21-2021, 12:17 PM
#5
Super Member
[TL;DR] Car was shaking/vibrating noticeably above 55mph the day after driving in a storm. No CEL or any other error, but the front end of the car was pretty much a block of ice. After shutting it off and restarting, it was perfect. Any ideas what specifically could have caused this?
On Saturday afternoon, I made the poor decision of leaving Boston towards Montreal without properly checking the weather along the entire route, and we ended up in the middle of a pretty bad snow storm. On long stretches of the i89 cars were going around 35mph (instead of the usual 75+ given the 65 limit) single file in the right lane following each other's tracks, with only the occasional dare devil "speeding" (still below the limit) on the left. Even with my Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV winter tires I felt just OK but not super confident changing lanes since the roads were accumulating snow and ice, and only the right lane had some semi-decent tracks to follow. I also got an alert that the sensors were dirty so most driver assistance features were deactivated. Drove by at least 4 separate single car accidents.
Anyway, since the conditions were poor and progress was slow, we decided to stop at a hotel in Vermont. I parked the car in front of the lobby, checked in, settled the wife and kids, then about 30 minutes later went back to the car to put it in the parking garage overnight. No issues restarting the car and driving it for a few minutes, but I did notice that the front end of the car was covered in close to an inch of solid ice, including the license plate and pretty much everything below the headlamps and grill (including obviously the sensors). The front wheel wells were full of slush and ice and there were even icicles under the front bumper almost reaching the ground. Was pretty surprised at how bad it looked. I tried scraping some of it off but it was really frozen solid and even hacking away at it like a chisel or trying to kick off some of the larger pieces with my foot didn't accomplish much, so I gave up.
About 15 hours later we continued our journey under pretty much perfect road conditions, but with the front end still a block of ice. Everything seemed fine at first but after 10 minutes of side roads we got back on the highway and the car started to shake/vibrate noticeably as I got up to normal speeds, as if I was driving on gravel roads or the edge of the lane where it's grooved to warn you about veering off. The shaking would pretty much go away when I reduced my speed to about 50-55mph and get worse the faster I went. Steering and breaking seemed fine, tire pressure was fine, suspension otherwise seemed fine (I tried off-road mode and comfort), everything felt OK other than the significant vibrating which came back every time I went above around 55. There was no CEL or error about suspension or anything else.
It took about 15 minutes at slightly reduced speeds until I could get to the next rest area where I turned off the car to take a closer look. Couldn't see anything obviously wrong under the hood or outside and the tires looked fine, so I turned the car back on and moved the wheel all the way left and right a couple times, raised and lowered the suspension at each wheel (I have e-ABC), drove slowly in the lot in a slalom pattern and tried out the brakes again. Everything felt solid. We got back on the highway, and thankfully the problem totally disappeared despite all the ice still being there. I've since driven it several times without any issue.
Not being a real car guy, I'm curious what could have caused this behavior. Obviously the unusual amount of solid ice was the contributing factor, but what system was impacted? The engine? The suspension? Something else? Was some sensor misfiring and causing odd behavior? Curious what the experts think. Without any error or warning codes I'm not even sure if the dealer can figure anything out, although I'm not particularly concerned about an ongoing issue and was quite pleased with how the car handled the terrible conditions. Also pleasantly surprised that e-ABC took the beating like a champ and each corner was whisper quiet individually going up and down despite the wheel wells being a mess.
Thanks for any suggestions!
On Saturday afternoon, I made the poor decision of leaving Boston towards Montreal without properly checking the weather along the entire route, and we ended up in the middle of a pretty bad snow storm. On long stretches of the i89 cars were going around 35mph (instead of the usual 75+ given the 65 limit) single file in the right lane following each other's tracks, with only the occasional dare devil "speeding" (still below the limit) on the left. Even with my Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV winter tires I felt just OK but not super confident changing lanes since the roads were accumulating snow and ice, and only the right lane had some semi-decent tracks to follow. I also got an alert that the sensors were dirty so most driver assistance features were deactivated. Drove by at least 4 separate single car accidents.
Anyway, since the conditions were poor and progress was slow, we decided to stop at a hotel in Vermont. I parked the car in front of the lobby, checked in, settled the wife and kids, then about 30 minutes later went back to the car to put it in the parking garage overnight. No issues restarting the car and driving it for a few minutes, but I did notice that the front end of the car was covered in close to an inch of solid ice, including the license plate and pretty much everything below the headlamps and grill (including obviously the sensors). The front wheel wells were full of slush and ice and there were even icicles under the front bumper almost reaching the ground. Was pretty surprised at how bad it looked. I tried scraping some of it off but it was really frozen solid and even hacking away at it like a chisel or trying to kick off some of the larger pieces with my foot didn't accomplish much, so I gave up.
About 15 hours later we continued our journey under pretty much perfect road conditions, but with the front end still a block of ice. Everything seemed fine at first but after 10 minutes of side roads we got back on the highway and the car started to shake/vibrate noticeably as I got up to normal speeds, as if I was driving on gravel roads or the edge of the lane where it's grooved to warn you about veering off. The shaking would pretty much go away when I reduced my speed to about 50-55mph and get worse the faster I went. Steering and breaking seemed fine, tire pressure was fine, suspension otherwise seemed fine (I tried off-road mode and comfort), everything felt OK other than the significant vibrating which came back every time I went above around 55. There was no CEL or error about suspension or anything else.
It took about 15 minutes at slightly reduced speeds until I could get to the next rest area where I turned off the car to take a closer look. Couldn't see anything obviously wrong under the hood or outside and the tires looked fine, so I turned the car back on and moved the wheel all the way left and right a couple times, raised and lowered the suspension at each wheel (I have e-ABC), drove slowly in the lot in a slalom pattern and tried out the brakes again. Everything felt solid. We got back on the highway, and thankfully the problem totally disappeared despite all the ice still being there. I've since driven it several times without any issue.
Not being a real car guy, I'm curious what could have caused this behavior. Obviously the unusual amount of solid ice was the contributing factor, but what system was impacted? The engine? The suspension? Something else? Was some sensor misfiring and causing odd behavior? Curious what the experts think. Without any error or warning codes I'm not even sure if the dealer can figure anything out, although I'm not particularly concerned about an ongoing issue and was quite pleased with how the car handled the terrible conditions. Also pleasantly surprised that e-ABC took the beating like a champ and each corner was whisper quiet individually going up and down despite the wheel wells being a mess.
Thanks for any suggestions!
The following users liked this post:
maalox (12-22-2021)
12-22-2021, 06:34 PM
#6
Shaking Car
[TL;DR] Car was shaking/vibrating noticeably above 55mph the day after driving in a storm. No CEL or any other error, but the front end of the car was pretty much a block of ice. After shutting it off and restarting, it was perfect. Any ideas what specifically could have caused this?
On Saturday afternoon, I made the poor decision of leaving Boston towards Montreal without properly checking the weather along the entire route, and we ended up in the middle of a pretty bad snow storm. On long stretches of the i89 cars were going around 35mph (instead of the usual 75+ given the 65 limit) single file in the right lane following each other's tracks, with only the occasional dare devil "speeding" (still below the limit) on the left. Even with my Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV winter tires I felt just OK but not super confident changing lanes since the roads were accumulating snow and ice, and only the right lane had some semi-decent tracks to follow. I also got an alert that the sensors were dirty so most driver assistance features were deactivated. Drove by at least 4 separate single car accidents.
Anyway, since the conditions were poor and progress was slow, we decided to stop at a hotel in Vermont. I parked the car in front of the lobby, checked in, settled the wife and kids, then about 30 minutes later went back to the car to put it in the parking garage overnight. No issues restarting the car and driving it for a few minutes, but I did notice that the front end of the car was covered in close to an inch of solid ice, including the license plate and pretty much everything below the headlamps and grill (including obviously the sensors). The front wheel wells were full of slush and ice and there were even icicles under the front bumper almost reaching the ground. Was pretty surprised at how bad it looked. I tried scraping some of it off but it was really frozen solid and even hacking away at it like a chisel or trying to kick off some of the larger pieces with my foot didn't accomplish much, so I gave up.
About 15 hours later we continued our journey under pretty much perfect road conditions, but with the front end still a block of ice. Everything seemed fine at first but after 10 minutes of side roads we got back on the highway and the car started to shake/vibrate noticeably as I got up to normal speeds, as if I was driving on gravel roads or the edge of the lane where it's grooved to warn you about veering off. The shaking would pretty much go away when I reduced my speed to about 50-55mph and get worse the faster I went. Steering and breaking seemed fine, tire pressure was fine, suspension otherwise seemed fine (I tried off-road mode and comfort), everything felt OK other than the significant vibrating which came back every time I went above around 55. There was no CEL or error about suspension or anything else.
It took about 15 minutes at slightly reduced speeds until I could get to the next rest area where I turned off the car to take a closer look. Couldn't see anything obviously wrong under the hood or outside and the tires looked fine, so I turned the car back on and moved the wheel all the way left and right a couple times, raised and lowered the suspension at each wheel (I have e-ABC), drove slowly in the lot in a slalom pattern and tried out the brakes again. Everything felt solid. We got back on the highway, and thankfully the problem totally disappeared despite all the ice still being there. I've since driven it several times without any issue.
Not being a real car guy, I'm curious what could have caused this behavior. Obviously the unusual amount of solid ice was the contributing factor, but what system was impacted? The engine? The suspension? Something else? Was some sensor misfiring and causing odd behavior? Curious what the experts think. Without any error or warning codes I'm not even sure if the dealer can figure anything out, although I'm not particularly concerned about an ongoing issue and was quite pleased with how the car handled the terrible conditions. Also pleasantly surprised that e-ABC took the beating like a champ and each corner was whisper quiet individually going up and down despite the wheel wells being a mess.
Thanks for any suggestions!
On Saturday afternoon, I made the poor decision of leaving Boston towards Montreal without properly checking the weather along the entire route, and we ended up in the middle of a pretty bad snow storm. On long stretches of the i89 cars were going around 35mph (instead of the usual 75+ given the 65 limit) single file in the right lane following each other's tracks, with only the occasional dare devil "speeding" (still below the limit) on the left. Even with my Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV winter tires I felt just OK but not super confident changing lanes since the roads were accumulating snow and ice, and only the right lane had some semi-decent tracks to follow. I also got an alert that the sensors were dirty so most driver assistance features were deactivated. Drove by at least 4 separate single car accidents.
Anyway, since the conditions were poor and progress was slow, we decided to stop at a hotel in Vermont. I parked the car in front of the lobby, checked in, settled the wife and kids, then about 30 minutes later went back to the car to put it in the parking garage overnight. No issues restarting the car and driving it for a few minutes, but I did notice that the front end of the car was covered in close to an inch of solid ice, including the license plate and pretty much everything below the headlamps and grill (including obviously the sensors). The front wheel wells were full of slush and ice and there were even icicles under the front bumper almost reaching the ground. Was pretty surprised at how bad it looked. I tried scraping some of it off but it was really frozen solid and even hacking away at it like a chisel or trying to kick off some of the larger pieces with my foot didn't accomplish much, so I gave up.
About 15 hours later we continued our journey under pretty much perfect road conditions, but with the front end still a block of ice. Everything seemed fine at first but after 10 minutes of side roads we got back on the highway and the car started to shake/vibrate noticeably as I got up to normal speeds, as if I was driving on gravel roads or the edge of the lane where it's grooved to warn you about veering off. The shaking would pretty much go away when I reduced my speed to about 50-55mph and get worse the faster I went. Steering and breaking seemed fine, tire pressure was fine, suspension otherwise seemed fine (I tried off-road mode and comfort), everything felt OK other than the significant vibrating which came back every time I went above around 55. There was no CEL or error about suspension or anything else.
It took about 15 minutes at slightly reduced speeds until I could get to the next rest area where I turned off the car to take a closer look. Couldn't see anything obviously wrong under the hood or outside and the tires looked fine, so I turned the car back on and moved the wheel all the way left and right a couple times, raised and lowered the suspension at each wheel (I have e-ABC), drove slowly in the lot in a slalom pattern and tried out the brakes again. Everything felt solid. We got back on the highway, and thankfully the problem totally disappeared despite all the ice still being there. I've since driven it several times without any issue.
Not being a real car guy, I'm curious what could have caused this behavior. Obviously the unusual amount of solid ice was the contributing factor, but what system was impacted? The engine? The suspension? Something else? Was some sensor misfiring and causing odd behavior? Curious what the experts think. Without any error or warning codes I'm not even sure if the dealer can figure anything out, although I'm not particularly concerned about an ongoing issue and was quite pleased with how the car handled the terrible conditions. Also pleasantly surprised that e-ABC took the beating like a champ and each corner was whisper quiet individually going up and down despite the wheel wells being a mess.
Thanks for any suggestions!
Something to keel an eye on .
