My wife's 2012 LR4 randomly starts shaking like crazy on the highway for no apparent reason. It only happens once in a while. When it happens, the whole car starts violently shaking and it gets worse and worse until you pull over. It comes on slow and then by the time you get to the breakdown lane it feels like you're riding on square wheels. Then if you shut the car off, wait a minute and start again then everything is fine. Sometimes it will do it again 5 miles down the road. Other times it won't do it again for a month. The reason I think it's electrical is because it seems to "reset" somehow when the car gets turned off and on again. What in the world could be electrical that would cause such an intense vibration? At first I thought it had some correlation to happening after the electronic e-brake had been used, so we stopped using the e-brake but it still happens once in a while. Only other common thread I can find is that it seems to happen on rainy or very humid/foggy days. My local rover techs have never heard of such a thing. It's also near impossible to have a mechanic diagnose because they may have to drive around with me for 3 weeks in order to see it happen. Any ideas?

 

I had a Saab that would do a very similar vibration. Finally figured out it was a bad lower control arm bushing that would re-seat itself when I steered off the road.

Drove me crazy smooth for days or months than all of the sudden I was driving a paint shaker...

 

Thank you for the suggestion but I actually just had all the control arms replaced two weeks ago due to a clunking in the front right and It had no effect on the vibration issue. Any other ideas?

 

Uppers and lowers? Rear uppers get overlooked a lot

 

all front upper and lowers. Haven't touched the back so that's possible. It only has 60k on it so I was surprised the front needed replacing.

The only thing is, I'm pretty sure when we stop but do not turn the car off then the problem persists when we start going again. I'm 99% sure I tested this theory when the isdue first surfaced but I can't remember 100%. Normally when I drive this car my wife is with me and she isn't much for letting me test things!

 

60k seems to be right about the life expectancy for control arms worth talking a look at

 

Hey there, did you end up figuring out what that vibration was? I’ve had my 2012 LR4 for a year, and it’s happened 3 times. Today being one of them. Current mileage is 100k. The first time was nerve racking, but today I simply pulled over, put it in park, then pulled back on the highway and it was fine. It happened on a sunny day and rainy day, so I don’t think weather has anything to do with it. Look forward to hearing your reply.

 

Well one way to test the electronics theory may be to drop the vehicle in neutral and kill the engine. Obviously you need to be somewhere you can coast and slow to stop, safely.

 

It ended up being the electronic e-brake. Yours sounds like the exact same problem. Don't let the problem go too long. By the time I figured it out and got it fixed it had melted the whole e-brake assembly, cost me $850 to fix at the dealer

 

Makes sense. The e-brake is ALWAYS working by maintaining a constant pressure on the e-brake wire. Basically, even when not in use the system is active. I think most feel its only working when being applied or taken off. So if there is any wear issues, binding issues, etc, it can really mess with the system.