Steering wheel vibration high speed

[Calebman15]

This is my first post on this forum. And I've looked but I haven't found anyone with a similar situation to mine. If I missed it point me in the right direction please. But so I bought the fist with 9k miles on it over the winter with steelies and all seasons on it. The factory wheels and tires came with it too and I never inspected them like I should have and with spring arriving I put them on and low and behold there's a hole in the side wall of one tire. The rim on that tire is slightly bent as well. So I had that tire replaced. The bell tire tech I talked too seemed to think the wheel itself was ok. But following that I have pretty bad vibration in the steering wheel and it feels like is coming through the whole car. It didn't seem that swapping wheel locations had any affect. I brought it back to have them balanced and it's still there. They were not road force balanced. So I thought that might have something to do with it. So I've just gone and put the steelies back on while I try to sort out whatever's wrong with the stock wheels/tires but there is still vibration at high speed. Less noticeable but still there. The steelies are I believe 15s with thicker tires so I'm thinking maybe it was vibrating all along but I just didn't notice it before. I'm stumped. I don't have a torque wrench so my next step is to go get one and make sure I've got the lug nuts on there tight. But anyone have any other ideas? Thanks in advance and sorry for the novel

 

[Hypntick]

Alignment issue maybe? I know when I bent my wheel it jacked my alignment all to hell and back and I had the same issues that you're having.

 

[Calebman15]

I'd thought that maybe too but it doesn't pull at all. Could it be alignment even if it doesn't pull?

 

[dyn085]

Given your description, it sounds more like something is broken or loose. If you can't isolate vibration from moving wheels around and swapping them, especially with the damage you've indicated was found on the summer set, then someone most likely hit something and traded the car off to avoid dealing with the problem. Even if your wheels aren't torqued specifically to spec, you shouldn't notice vibration unless the nuts are ridiculously loose. Not that having a torque wrench and properly torquing them is a bad idea, I just don't foresee that being the issue.

Take a look at your suspension/steering components for tool marks associated with hardware being removed/installed. I would also look at any hardware that holds body parts on (fender bolts, etc.) to see if there is any indication of body work following an accident. It may not have been in one, but that would have been one of my first thoughts on a used vehicle that is new with so few miles.

 

[Calebman15]

Well I hope that's not it. I'll get under there and look. Any idea what could be damaged and causing this? Thanks

 

[dyn085]

With vibration it could be a multitude of things, unfortunately. Loose mount hardware, bad bushings/bearings, worn components, etc.-all things that you shouldn't have to worry about with so few miles on the car. At the mileage your car has it should really only be relegated to improperly balanced wheels/tires, but if you've already tried wheel swaps and not found resolution then it basically rules that out. Unfortunately, that's why the next step that I would take involves looking for signs that indicate previous repair work.

Until you can isolate a region to be looking in, it's tough to say what could be a cause. It could simply be a bad damper that's not properly controlling spring movement or a loose tie-rod. Vibration is something that's difficult to work through online, so it takes a lot of steps to get an accurate assessment of where possible issues can be. All you've mostly ruled-out is what should be the problem (given the age/mileage) if there was no accident-the wheels/tires.

 

[Calebman15]

Well. I'll take a look at it and probably set up an inspection during the week. I'll let you know what I find out thanks

 

[CanadianGuy]

Check the bolts on your steering rack [MENTION=879]D1JL[/MENTION] notice his were very loose and he has a thread with pictures to see which bolts. Yes alignment will do what you described, so would flat spots and tire weight, broken mount (another thread exist on a broken motor mount bolt).

If doing alignment make sure to do all wheels not just the fronts.

One thing to try is when at speeds and the vibration is there try pressing lightly on the brake for a short distance while keeping speed (left foot braking) does it have any affect (worse or better). Worse could be a warped brake rotor, especially if you feel it in the pedal. Better something is loose/broken in the wheel area, could be a lower ball joint etc...

Good luck

 

[speed racer]

I recently had a screw in my tire, pulled it out and filled with fixa flat. At high speed the car started shaking exactly how you described. The goo caused the wheel to be unbalanced maybe one of your tires has fixa flat in it? I removed the tire and cleaned the gunk out and patched the whole. No problems. My two cents.

This is my first post on this forum. And I've looked but I haven't found anyone with a similar situation to mine. If I missed it point me in the right direction please. But so I bought the fist with 9k miles on it over the winter with steelies and all seasons on it. The factory wheels and tires came with it too and I never inspected them like I should have and with spring arriving I put them on and low and behold there's a hole in the side wall of one tire. The rim on that tire is slightly bent as well. So I had that tire replaced. The bell tire tech I talked too seemed to think the wheel itself was ok. But following that I have pretty bad vibration in the steering wheel and it feels like is coming through the whole car. It didn't seem that swapping wheel locations had any affect. I brought it back to have them balanced and it's still there. They were not road force balanced. So I thought that might have something to do with it. So I've just gone and put the steelies back on while I try to sort out whatever's wrong with the stock wheels/tires but there is still vibration at high speed. Less noticeable but still there. The steelies are I believe 15s with thicker tires so I'm thinking maybe it was vibrating all along but I just didn't notice it before. I'm stumped. I don't have a torque wrench so my next step is to go get one and make sure I've got the lug nuts on there tight. But anyone have any other ideas? Thanks in advance and sorry for the novel

 

[Sourskittle]

Worn out tires did it to me. But at 9,000 miles, that's about impossible.

And... Mine were REALLY WORN OUT

 

[Calebman15]

Yeah I'll check the steering rack. Thanks I don't think it's the tires or wheels because it's doing it with both sets of wheels. If I can't find anything and the shop can't find anything I'll have them check alignment. And I'll do that with the brakes at speed see what happens. Thanks for the input

 

[praecurvo]

Not to announce a potentially bad scenario, but what if it was slid into a curb. That would explain the hole in the tire, the bent wheel, and the vibration. Might want to have a body shop take a look at it too.

 

[dyn085]

Not to announce a potentially bad scenario, but what if it was slid into a curb. That would explain the hole in the tire, the bent wheel, and the vibration. Might want to have a body shop take a look at it too.

That was exactly what I was alluding to. I had that happen once to a car back when I was much younger and 'because racecar' driving, where I collapsed the front drivers strut into the body from hitting a curb at speed with the wheel turned. The day after I got it out of the shop I took it straight to the dealership and traded it off...hence my reasoning to look for the things I was stating to look for.

 

[PhoenixM3]

Well I hope that's not it. I'll get under there and look. Any idea what could be damaged and causing this? Thanks

I'd recommend getting the bent rim straightened if possible, but get the car to the dealer or an alignment shop. We can make guesses all day, but the vibration will not fix itself.....

 

[Calebman15]

Yeah I've got an appointment later today at the dealer to find out what it is.

 

[Calebman15]

They couldn't find anything mechanically wrong with the car so they road forced the all seasons and discovered 2 of them have pretty bad tread separation. So they put those 2 up front and that's seemed to fix it for now. I'm gonna bring the summer wheels in tomorrow and have them see what's up with them. I'm assuming maybe they are really unbalanced or something. But at least it appears not to be more serious. But I'll keep my fingers crossed.