Steering wheel shake. need some help here!!

[Stainbox12]

Hello, fellow dsmers. I did search, and found some topics regarding my problem, but i came here because the problem im experiencing is random. from time to time, my steering wheel shakes, from side to side, the car goes straight, so i dont think its aligment. This tends to happen at medium speed, because when i floor it, it usually goes away, when begin braking its goes away too. I know something is shaking because i can hear it while driving, but i can't see any noticeable damage or problems. This is coming from the drivers driveshaft area. any thoughts? thanks.

 

[motox-010]

Is the wheel shaking horizontally like back and forth? Or is it turning very slightly?

 

[jemsoccer]

Usually the shaking in the steering wheel is a result of tire balance. Now I'm not sure if this would cause periodic shaking, but I don't see why it wouldn't. My suggestion would be to have them balanced and go from there. That would probably be the easiest thing to check. And if it's not that, then at least you have newly balanced tires!

 

[Zmann42087]

When you're driving and the steering wheel starts to shake, quickly shift the car into neutral. Does the shaking go away? If it does go away, your problem could be the engine vibration/motor mounts. If it doesn't go away, its probably driveline related (or alignment & tire balance related, but you said you don't think thats the case).

 

[Stainbox12]

When i referred to shake, i meant to say that it just turns left and right violently and very fast. This happens in neutral too.

 

[motox-010]

I would say its the tires being unbalanced. When I first got my Jeep I took it on the interstate to get to Wally world to buy new tires, they wheel shook pretty bad. After I got the new tires on it was 200% better. It even drove straighter. That would probally be the cheapest and easiest way to check it.

 

[coltbrown]

at what speed is it shaking? if it is a always around a certain speed, then it is more than likely an unbalanced tire. if it is at all speeds it could be a seperated tire or a bad wheel bearing.... on our cars you cannot buy a new wheel bearing you have to get the whole hub assembly. It could also be a warped cv axle.... but that is highly unlikely. The route that I would go is jack up the front of the car, then to to the drivers front tire and place hands on each side of tire and shake it from side to side, then shake it up and down.... example: push with your right and pull with your left hand and do this back and forth. It should feel tight w/ no play in the wheel. if there is play from both side to side and up and down, then it is your hub assembly. Do this to both sides. If there is play from side to side only, then while you shake it watch your tie rod ends on the side that has the play. But tie rod ends will not make ## car act like your describing, also while you have it jacked up spin the tire around by hand and see if you have any seperations (knots) in them.


In a nutshell: If at all speeds when accellerating and brakeing and cruising, then suspect hub or seperated tire or badly warped rim.... if just between certain speeds, (typically 60 and 80mph) suspect tire unbalance. If just when braking, warped rotors.

 

[KGB Pilot125]

most likely a bad tire, either out of balance or out of round. I just got new tires on my 4runner and between 61 and 68mph it shakes and vibrates really bad. I double and triple checked the balance (have a tire store) and its a tire out of round.

 

[Zmann42087]

When i referred to shake, i meant to say that it just turns left and right violently and very fast. This happens in neutral too.

Well since it happens in neutral too it most likely isn't engine vibration/motor mounts.

Next I'd have your alignment checked and your tires balanced.. even if you don't think thats the problem that really is the place to start.

If tires/alignment isn't the culprit, start inspecting the driveline components... drive shaft, axle shafts, CV joints, etc.

 

[Defiant]

Check the driver's side axle carrier bearing on the back of the block.

 

[AKGEN1DSM]

It could also be your wheel bearings, mine did that for a while until i replaced them, now they are smooth and it doesn't vibrate.

 

[Icarus]

I had an issue like this on another car. After several wheel blancings, alignments, new tires and a dealer mechanic (waste of money), I couldn't get it resolved. One day I had the car up doing the brakes and noticed some play in the lower control arm. Turned out the rear bushing was shot. Replaced it and solved the problem.

The way to check for this is:

1. Uneven tire wear in front

2. Take the front wheels off and give the hub lock nut or wheel studs a good crank.

3. If there is some play without the steering rack or strut moving then check the bushings.

 

[Stainbox12]

Here's an update:

I switched the back tire to the front, and same thing happened. So this is not tire balance. I don't think its alignment either, because the car goes all the way straight while driving, doesn't tend to turn to any side. This is the weird part: It happens at mid speed, at high speed it seems to dissapear, it happens at low speed too, but in order to make it happen in low speed it had to come from a mid cruising condition. When the car is parked, its smooth, no vibration, it develops after 5 or 10 minutes of cruising, and sometimes it seems to go away when im at a stop light. So this is obviously driving me nuts here. I lifted the car up, and moved the wheel from side to side and there was minimal play, all the parts seemed to be pretty strong, and i could not find anything wrong with it. When i say this is vibration, i mean that the steering wheel shakes really violently from side to side, not just the regular unbalanced tire vibration. When im cruising and the steering wheel is shaking i floor it, and it goes away. By the way, how do i check if the carrier bearing or bearings are bad?

Now that i remember, i felt this problem before, when i lost my driver axle bolts. I checked and the bolts are there, pretty tight.