Horrible shaking/vibrating steering wheel at speed.

[James28]

My steering wheel shakes horribly at 70mph + . Literally to the point its shaking my hands. Below that speed its fine.

Both track rod ends have been replaced, and doesn't appear to be any movement in the ball joints or wheel bearings.
I recently had two new front tyres and wheel alignment, and am running with camber bolts.

Any ideas what could be causing it?

 

[Chi]

Can you drive through it?
Did you get tracking done when you changed tall rod ends?

 

[James28]

What do you mean through it? Above 70mph, faster I go, worse it gets.
I had all the tracking/alignment done when i had new tyres fitted, which was after I replaced the TRE's

 

[-J-]

Have you checked you have not lost any wheel weights?

Drive shafts are a problem area as well.

Worst case (like I had) diff in the gearbox can also cause this.

 

[James28]

I'm guessing it happens at all speeds, but is only noticeable at faster speed?
Trouble is it did it before I had the new tyres/alignment done, so I assumed it was that. But doesn't seem to have changed.

Unless alignment/wheel balancing was done poorly?

How can you check for play in the track rods themselves?

 

[.Stevo.C.]

I'd get the wheels balanced again.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

I'd get the wheels balanced again.

Yup.

Fronts if the steering wheel is wobbling .. rears if the whole front end - dash etc - is wobbling.

 

[James28]

I'll get wheels balanced, and get one of the free alignment checks done, then report back!

 

[Thrust-Rated]

I get shaking at 70+ but it disappears a little at higher speeds

Had wheels alligned 3 times now too and weighted/balanced a couple of times, it's improved things but hasn't taken the issue away

 

[James28]

Above 80 it gets too scary! Feels like a wheel is going to fall off. So I just don't.

 

[djjonnibgood]

Buckled wheel?

 

[Darren S]

I'd get the wheels balanced again.

Probably is this m8. I had my wheels powder-coated recently and got the tyres refitted and balanced. Got on the motorway the following day and between 50-70mph was just horrible. If I pinched the steering wheel with my thumb and fore-finger, my other three fingers were vibrating like mad from the steering wheel.

Took it back the following day and told them of the issue. They popped off the tyres and re-balanced them for free and now the problem has gone.

Hopefully it is just this?

​D.

 

[Jekyll]

Would imaging is loss of wheel weights James. I had this coming back from a car show and it was a horrible vibration through the steering wheel at 70mph+. Had my wheels rebalanced (was missing weight/weights) and was perfect after.

 

[Lawro]

I had exactly this issue and mine was wheel balancing. It was almost undriveable at 70mph+.

 

[Craig-182]

If the tyres are directional tread are they on the right way. Daft question I no but happened 2 a mate of mine in the past.

 

[ben lee]

sounds like wheel balance have a look on the alloy to see how they have balanced it. if they have done it correctly you will have weights just behind the spokes and a set on the inner edge of the wheel if one set of weights is more than 100g get them to deflate the tyre and move it round on the rim and rebalance it.
if there is weights on the same edge opposite each other defiantly get them to re balance them.
also check the dot on the sidewall is lined up with the valve (normally yellow).

also check to see if its buckled.

 

[Sash]

Buckled wheel?

If this was the case any tyre fitter worth his saltw would've picked this up and told you.

Did you have all 4 tyres done?

 

[James28]

Cheers guys. Will definitely get the wheels rebalanced then. Hopefully its that simple
Sash I had two front ones replaced, across the axle. All four tyres are same contintentals.

 

[Darren S]

James - another thing to check that can add vibration up front, is if your CV boot-clips have come loose at some point? In doing so, it can splatter CV grease onto the inside of the rim in an uneven pattern and create 'vibration' as the wheel rotates.

Over the weekend, I had all the wheels off at some point and noticed the tell-tale splats on the inside of the nearside front alloy. Cleaned that off (warm water and Fairy liquid works really well) and the motorway trip in this morning was super-smooth

D.

 

[James28]

James - another thing to check that can add vibration up front, is if your CV boot-clips have come loose at some point? In doing so, it can splatter CV grease onto the inside of the rim in an uneven pattern and create 'vibration' as the wheel rotates.

Over the weekend, I had all the wheels off at some point and noticed the tell-tale splats on the inside of the nearside front alloy. Cleaned that off (warm water and Fairy liquid works really well) and the motorway trip in this morning was super-smooth

D.

Ah cheers Darren, It did happen to me a while back, replaced them with jubilee clips. I cleaned it all off. And have been through two sets of wheels since lol.
Didn't manage to get my wheels rebalanced over the weekend, and can't really do it during the week as I work full time