Ive tried reading all the archives for steering wheel shakes and keep finding the problem but noone ever posts what made it stop.

Steering wheels shakes around 55-60 mph then goes away above or below. A slight vibe around the 35mph range also.

First I went to get a nail removed and saw inside of tire was going so I bought 4 brand new tires 205/40/17s. Once fully balanced/installed still got the same thing. Next weekend I got an alignment. Still no help.
Bought a new set of FKs and another new set of tires 215/40/17s Yoko ES100s and still exactly the same thing.
Had axels serviced and new inner cvs installed and same thing.
Just replaced Control Arm bushings and the problem is still there.

Im at a loss and getting very irritated at this problem.
I have seen people in the search mention strut bushings/bearings but my car doesnt make any noise while moving even at low speeds. My axels are straight as an arrow also.

How can you tell if your strut bushings are bad?

This dam shake is hurting my pocket more than anything. Doesnt affect anything else but the steering wheel around 60mph and my pocket and now I have to fix it

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



Modified by Silver VR6 Corrado at 10:08 AM 3-6-2004

How do I know if Ball Joints are bad? Can I locate that with only a floor jack or needs a mechanic shop to look at it?

Also how do I check Steering Rack?

I cant wait to get this dam shake taken care of.

Modified by Silver VR6 Corrado at 6:27 PM 1-23-2004

He had the inners done, but what about the outers???

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

A. Einstein

___________________________________________

Would wheel bearings make noise? My mechanic is baffled by this problem also. He says the wheel bearings are fine.

Quote, originally posted by bulldog2.G »

WhiteLightning......King of the MASS QUOTE!! Love it!

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Audi Valvelift System (AVS) - now all VW owners who made fun of VTEC can put their foot in their mouth

WTB B5 RS4 parts, body panels, interior, let me know what you have. Used or new.

But for now:
My steering wheel shake is better than yours.
Id teach you but Id have to charge.

Does it bring all the Cs to the yard?

Good Luck

Definately going for broke on this venture.

STOP

your all over the place! you shouldn't be "guessing" whats wrong and replacing parts randomly in hopes of repairing this vibration problem.

What you need to do first is establish what kind of vibration problem your having. We know what speeds you are complaining about but is the vibration a shimmmy? (ie: wheel rotates at a high frequency) or is it a vertical vibration/roughness? (ie: wheel shakes up and down & feels like a "buzzieness")

From that you can start to focus on key areas...

First and foremost, you need to check suspension play. Although not all that common, a bad BJ or Tie rod (especially inner) can accentuate a vibration. So jack up the front end and place jackstands as close as possible to the ball joint. Then check the suspension/steering play and make sure there isn't any. If there is, replace the necessary components to fix the play then check to see if the vibration is there.

Now I will list common root-causes of "shimmy" and "roughness" steering vibration problems

Shimmy:
- poor wheel imbalance. How good is the machine your using? Has it been calibrated lately? (most machines in the market, even at dealerships arent properly maintained or calibrated) are the wheel weights falling off? Is the tire slipping on the rim? (usually happens when new tires are installed and tech uses too much tire lube... this causes imbalance to change.)
- what kind of balance did you conduct? Static or Dynamic? You would want to get your static as close as possible to zero as static balance affects "shimmy" more than dynamic since it is a 1st order vibration
- what kinda shape are your brake rotors in? brake rotors too are balanced and can have an affect. Ive seen old rotors that rust and end up missing chunks of material at the edges cause this.
- have you had a brake job performed recently? could be that your rotor isnt sitting flush to you hub ie: rust or some other foreign debris
- are you using plastic centering hubs for your wheels? If so, try without them. SOmetimes these plastic hubs are so poorly manufactured they can make things worse
- what shape are your wheels in? are they dented/dinged? have you tried match mounting them to your tires?
- what shape are your tires in? when you spin them on the balancer, do they have a high spot? Does the balancer you use have a road force measuring wheel? Find a place that has a Hunter GSP9000 machine. Although this machine is not very accurate, it would be able to pick up defeciencies in the tire if your vibration is this bad.
- If all of this I mentioned above is OK then you might have a problem in your drivetrain like warper driveshafs or bad CV joints. This is pretty difficult to check unless you have expensive vibration measuring equipment or are willing to then start swapping parts in hopes of correcting the problem. At this point I would recommend you find a place with an "on car balancer" or "finishing balancer" that can balance your wheels on the car and take into consideration the imbalance of the drivetrain as well. It usually works really well.

Roughness:
- key thing to check here are your tires. This type of vibration is usually caused by a bad tire. Run your hand around the tire and see if the surface is smooth or rough/lumpy. Or again, find a shop that has a Hunter GSP9000 and get them to measure the Radial Harmonic Forces (1st, 2nd & 3rd) that could tell you if you have a bad tire. Or you can swap front to rear and see if there is a noticeable difference. The rear should be less sensitive to transferring the vibration to the wheel.
- This type of vibration will usually also transfer to the floor or cause a cabin resonance like a "booming". Are you getting any of this as well or just steering vibration?
- What condition are your bushings in? ie. front lower arm bushings. Are they dry and cracking?
- Have you done any suspension repairs lately where you loosened the bushings? If so, you need to make sure that the bushing are retorqued with the vehicle at the "1G position" ie: with the vehicle on the ground so that you don't preload the bushings. Usually when you preload thebushings, they are not able to function correctly and transfer alot more vibration.

Well, there's alot more that you can do to try and "bandaid" this problem if you cant fix it 100% but like i said, you need to figure out exactly what kind of vibration you are having.

Hope this helps,
Mikey

My steering wheel rocks back and forth from about 50-65 MPH and then again around 80-85 MPH (going this fast only for diagnosis purposes ).

Car rides straight as an arrow and not bouncy only the steering wheel. No bad rattles like when you have a bubbled tire.

My Wheels/Tires are Brand New as of 12-23 and been on the car since 12-28-03. This problem was here before the NEW Wheels.

My Front Sway bar was installed wrong and it broke the mounting piece when they were pulling it off the lift for an oil change. This is when the problem started. Not sure if something was bent/smashed during this or what not. I know one of the weights was off of the Right Front Wheel also (rebalanced but no help).

Since then I have done/replaced:
Tires (on old wheels), Alignment, Wheels/Tires again, Inner CV Joints (Axels were straight and Outers were in LIKE NEW state), Control Arm Bushings.

All of this and still exactly the same thing.

Maybe I should go get another Balance/Alignment before I try anything else.

Other possibilities are Ball Joints and Tie Rods . Never messed with suspension and its stock height.

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

A. Einstein

___________________________________________