steering wheel vibration at highway speeds

[ninjajim4]

i am getting some strong vibration in the steering wheel when traveling at higher speeds, starting around 55MPH, and it seems to go away at speeds higher than 70MPH. new ball joints, outer tie rod ends, followed by alignment, and new tires mounted and balanced this weekend. i am a bit disappointed as i thought this last would really sort it out since the tires were pretty word and never balanced since originally mounted.

kinda stumped here as to what the issue could be. inner tie rods are my next guess? but i don't know much about suspension and don't want to just swapping parts without being reasonably confident..

[_-Night-Shade-_]

Sounds like unbalanced wheels/tires. I know you said you got them balanced but you never know who you can trust, it fully matches the symptoms though.

[ninjajim4]

thats how i feel too, but it feels more or less exactly the same before and after swapping tires altogether. i feel like there ought be at least some difference even if they hypothetically did a bad balance. i'll bring it back to em anyway...

[mikeinaus]

bad wheel bearing?

[ninjajim4]

there is no grinding or noise or play in the tire, so i feel pretty good about it not being a bearing. i'm taking it back for rebalancing this wknd...

[ninjajim4]

got the tires rebalanced and road force tested. wheels checked out ok too, no dents or anything.

seems like it's a bit better, but the vibration is still there at higher speeds..

[ninjajim4]

no suspension gurus out there with any ideas..?

[Sleeper6]

be sure to double check your tierod ends, lift it and set it on stands then apply force to the outside of your tire left to right and see if theres any play. That would give you some vibration but you should notice a significant amount when your cornering though if thats the case.

[solo_ryder]

What kind of tires? Did you say you got new ones or just balanced the old ones?

Are you sure that all the bolts are tight under there? Check the A-Arm bolts and nuts just to be safe, even though they should be cranked.

Take your balancing to another shop, I have had bad experiences with some shops as their machines dont seem to find the balance correctly.

[ninjajim4]

they are conti extreme contacts, brand new. the problem was pre existing the tire swap... i guess i will double check all my suspension components, but i was hoping someone would magically point out another piece of the suspension i may have missed or that needs replacing.

i feel that tire balancing is not the issue at this point. these guys are a big major chain, do NOTHING but tires all day. they don't know how to do anything else, and i've taken it over to them 3 times, with different techs working on it, on different machines.

[solo_ryder]

Does your car shake at any other speed? If your wheel is shaking and u turn left or right does it stop in any direction?

Shaking is almost always indicative of a balance issue, if the wheel is shaking its almost always the front.. If the car is shuddering and not the wheel its usually the rear.

What condition are your motor mounts in? Esp the rear? When was the last time you changed or checked your cv axles?

[ninjajim4]

it's definitely something in the front as the steering wheel is where the most vibration is felt.

i have not looked at the mounts in some time, but they were urethane filled when i did the ZE swap.

i was starting to wonder about the CVs. so far as i know they are untouched and original. i don't know what to check, beyond the boots which are intact. i get a little clicking when the wheel is fully turned, which has been that way for years and hasnt seemed to have gotten worse.

i do think maybe there is less vibration when the taking a curve, but that may be due to reducing speed as well. i hardly drive this car anymore to even know.

[solo_ryder]

Its hard to diagnose these issues but it definitely seems to be something rotational. That leaves rims/tires or cv axle. Sometimes a bad mount can cause an issue, but at that speed I would suspect the axle or the wheel balance.

Its hard to tell if the cv is the culprit though without swapping it out.. The issue is usually warpage in the axle or a broken component inside the boot area.

[ninjajim4]

got the tires rebalanced and road force tested. wheels checked out ok too, no dents or anything.

seems like it's a bit better, but the vibration is still there at higher speeds..

my god... put on new rotors last night and noticed that the front driver's side wheel was not torqued down. better than fingertight, but with a tire iron turned pretty much with no effort.

i actually checked this the first and second time i brought it in, but not the third. so it would seem that my old tires were off balance, the new ones weren't balanced right, then they finally did it right (^when i said it was slightly better), but didn't tighten the lugs. same symptom for like 3 months, 3 different problems. i just didn't know it. absolutely disgusting...

[solo_ryder]

Wow that is ridiculous