Car vibration analyzer and ride comfort meter.

RidePulse is a car vibration analyzer and ride comfort meter that uses your phone’s motion sensors, with no OBD dongle. Lay the phone on the passenger seat, run a guided test, and see whether a shake follows your wheels and tires, your engine or your brakes. You get a comfort score based on the ISO 2631-1 whole-body vibration standard, the vibration broken down by frequency, possible causes in plain words with how sure the app is, and your car’s history over time. It’s a screening tool, not a diagnosis.

It can screen for it. The steady-speed test (Pro) works out how fast your wheels turn at each speed from your tire size and GPS, then looks for vibration at exactly that rate. If it finds that at two or more speeds, the possible wheel or tire imbalance it reports gets high confidence. It can’t say which wheel, and it doesn’t replace a balancing machine. See how to tell if your tires are out of balance.

Most often a wheel or tire out of balance: once per turn it nudges the suspension, and at one road speed that rhythm matches the suspension’s natural bounce, so the shake peaks there and fades above it. A bent rim, a damaged tire or worn steering parts can do the same. More in why a car shakes at 60 mph but not 70.

The AC compressor loads the engine, so a little more vibration is normal. A big jump often points to worn engine mounts, an idle that doesn’t rise enough, or the compressor itself. RidePulse’s free idle test measures exactly this: 30 seconds with the AC off, then 30 seconds with it on. More in why a car vibrates when the AC is on.

No. RidePulse is a screening tool, not a professional diagnosis. It points out vibration patterns that often go with common problems, such as a wheel out of balance or worn engine mounts, says how confident it is, and suggests what to have checked. A qualified mechanic should inspect any suspected fault.

Usually not. An OBD2 scanner reads fault codes and live data from the car’s computers. A wheel out of balance, warped brake rotors or a worn engine mount normally set no code, so a scanner can show nothing while the car shakes. A misfire can set a code, so scan if the idle is rough or the check engine light is on. See RidePulse vs OBD2 scanners.

It works on Android phones (Android 7 or later) and iPhones (iOS 15 or later) with motion sensors, and it checks that the phone is flat, still and measuring fast enough before every test. Most Android phones measure 200 to 500 times a second, so RidePulse analyzes vibration up to 100 Hz. iPhones measure about 100 times a second, so their results cover up to about 50 Hz and are marked as limited. Results depend on the phone, where it lies and the road, so compare runs from the same phone and placement. More in how a phone measures car vibration.

ISO 2631-1 is the international standard for measuring how whole-body vibration affects people. It weights vibration by how sensitive the body is at each frequency and gives comfort ranges in m/s². RidePulse turns that into a score from 0 to 100, always shown with the measured value: 85 or more is ISO’s “not uncomfortable” range (below 0.315 m/s²); lower scores step down through “a little uncomfortable” to “extremely uncomfortable”.

Yes for the drive tests: add the car as electric or hybrid in the Garage. The steady-speed, braking and comfort tests follow wheel speed from GPS and your tire size, not the engine, so they work the same. The idle test has no engine to listen to in an electric car, so it skips the engine checks; hybrids are often too quiet at idle for it, so use a drive test instead.

Yes. RidePulse’s pre-purchase check measures vibration at idle, at steady speeds and while braking, and gives you a PDF to share. A mechanic’s inspection covers everything a phone can’t see: leaks, rust, accident repairs, worn parts and the car’s records. Use RidePulse to screen cars on the test drive, then have the one you’re serious about inspected. See the used-car test drive checklist.

A passenger. The phone lies flat on the passenger seat and the app speaks every step, but the speed and braking tests are meant to be run by a passenger while the driver just drives, within the speed limit, on a safe and legal road. The idle test is done parked.

Yes. Choose mph or km/h, and m/s² or g, in Settings. In mph, the steady-speed test offers 25, 40, 50, 60 and 70 mph, and the braking test brakes from about 50 mph down to 15 mph.

No. As a guest, everything stays on your phone, and you can run every free test and see comparisons with other cars. Sign in only if you want a backup that follows you to a new phone, or to add your results to the shared statistics.

Only if you choose the “Share anonymous metrics” level. Then the bumps and road sections your drives measure help build a road quality map, with the first and last 300 m of every drive removed on your phone before anything is sent. The private backup has no location in it at all.

The idle test, the comfort drive, scores, the vibration spectrum, comparisons and the last 5 runs of history are free. RidePulse Pro adds the steady-speed and braking tests, the pre-purchase check, full history, change alerts and before-and-after comparisons: in the US, $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year with a 7-day free trial. A single pre-purchase check report is $6.99, no subscription. Prices in other countries are set by the store and shown in the app before you buy. No ads.

Soon, on Android and iPhone. RidePulse is in testing; this page will link to Google Play and the App Store as soon as the listings are live.