Strange low frequency vibration in the car & the steering wheel

Is one of your front tires unbalanced, or out of round, or suffering a bubble-up defect (I once had such from a puncture that didn't leak until it expelled the offending debris) on the tread?

 

That GIF is a very good example to explain the exact situation.
Can you check if alignment is an issue?

 

It sounds like my tires near the end of their usefull life. They looked like a normally worn tread, but underneath the top-tread was slowly shifting. The steering wheel did shake, and a 'growling' sound could be heard.

 

Also check for broken belts in one or the other front tire. That can be hard to spot, but will make you wheel do what yours is doing.

 

I've taken Wheelworks life time alignment deal (usually they offer it for $110 on every new years day), I get my wheels aligned for every 6 months. So far nice. (from one week, TPMS is flashing , at times going of but mostly staying.. need to have it checked though).

 

congrats!

 

Are you going to also get an alignment?

 

I guess you must get the alignment done.

 

Good to hear, I assume the two new ones went up front and the others to the back.

 

As I understand it, repair shops want the new tires in the rear even with fwd. That's because they want the best traction back there because of the way cars respond when the rear losses traction on a slippery curve versus the front. I'm not sure I totally agree and many vigorously disagree, but I do see their logic.

 

Two new tires being put on back is pretty much industry standard now. There are different opinions in what amounts to a religious dispute about what is best, but legal liability pushes the shops towards the solution that works best for non-super-expert drivers.

While front wheels do the bulk of braking in ordinary controlled perfectly-straight-line conditions, this arrangement is unstable in emergencies when things get out of control. When things start to go sideways, the tire set with the weakest braking traction wants to slide ahead of the better traction set. So if the poorer set is in back, they want to spin around and become the new front tires. Very few non-professional drivers can keep in control of the car when it is suddenly facing and sliding backwards.

Modern ABS and skid control reduce this tendency, but can't perform the miracle of abolishing it. Symmetrical traction is intuitively much easier to control than asymmetric traction. That is why many of us prefer having (nearly) matching tires on all four. Beside replacing all four together, regular tire rotation helps keep them nearly matching.

 

Yeah, there's a long rather heated thread on the topic here somewhere, but I just didn't feel like digging it up. You explained it very well right there. Thanks, Fuzzy.