steering wheel shaking/imbalance issue?

[Hertz]

Maybe that avalanche damaged something.

 

[turbowop]

No that just caused me to shat my pants.

 

[Hertz]

Sounds like a wheel bearing to me.

 

[turbowop]

So on my way home from skiing a few days ago the steering wheel in 503 started shaking back and forth at a frequency that tells me it's an imbalance issue with the tires/wheels. It was pretty mucky out so I assumed I had some snow stuck in a wheel. Well, the car sat in the garage overnight and the next day it was fine. That night though, it started doing it again, as well as today. Drove to get some food, it was fine, on the way back, it started shaking again. WTF? I pulled off both front tires and had a look. Everything looked normal to me. Tires in good shape, no caked on mud or snow in the wheels, etc. It's not a lost wheel weight as it's a much bigger shake than what that would cause and it does it at really slow speeds. Like cruising through a parking lot at less than 10mph I can feel it. It jerks the steering wheel pretty good, more to the driver's side. Problem is intermittent so I'm confused as hell. Anybody got any ideas?

 

[89Mirageman]

Maybe check the CV axle on that side? Happened once on my Colt when pulling into a parking lot. It never happened again after that which was very weird.

 

[turbowop]

Wheels felt pretty solid when I jacked up the car, so I kind of shrugged off wheel bearings as a culprit. There is no noise involved either. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

I'll pull the wheels off and check the axles next I guess. Just drove to the grocery store and back. That's the last time I drive the thing until I fix the problem. It's getting pretty bad. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/uhh.gif

 

[turbowop]

I jacked the car back up and removed the front tires. Wheel bearings feel tight, no slop in the CV joints, struts are tight, etc. I can spin the rotors by hand and don't feel any inconsistency as they spin. DAmnit. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Ben]

Do the tires have any holes, or did they ever go flat through this whole ordeal? I saw that once, and it was after a truck sat with flat tires in the rain(in your case snow). Aired the tires up without thinking about it and caused some weird vibration issues.

 

[turbowop]

Naw, but I do suspect a possible separated belt on the driver's front. It has always had a slow leak, but has never actually gone flat. I'm going to rotate the tires and see what happens.

 

[turbowop]

So I put the front and rear of the car on jackstands and removed all four tires. Let the car run in second gear while up in the air to see if anything looked wonky. Looked good to me, so I rotated the tires front/rear. Just went out for a drive and couldn't get the thing to start giving me any troubles. I went out on bumpy roads, did some tight circles both directions in a parking lot, hit the brakes hard, accelerated at WOT...nothing. I still suspect a tire issue, but perhaps it's not noticeable when on the rear? Weird.

 

[mitsuturbo]

I've had two different things happen which yielded these sort of symptoms.

First time.. a strut was so blown that at a certain speed it would start jumping up and down rapidly and causing shaking/shuddering. Bought a set of AGXs and rectified that situation.

Second time.. i had an axle go bad. CV joint was screwed up. When i got it back home, i dumped the clutch and shattered the assembly inside the outer axle cup. Took a spare to vato zone and got free replacement.

 

[jepherz]

Quoting turbowop:
Naw, but I do suspect a possible separated belt on the driver's front. It has always had a slow leak, but has never actually gone flat. I'm going to rotate the tires and see what happens.



Separated belt? Do you mean a bad bead?

 

[belize1334]

Is that the first time you pulled the wheels off? Maybe one of them was crooked on the hub and R&R fixed it...

Also, watch the wear on the tires. If one of them threw a balance-weight it could be out of balance which will cause it to wear unevenly. Putting front to back would decouple the shake from the steering and make it not as noticeable.

 

[turbowop]

Quoting jepherz:
Quoting turbowop:
Naw, but I do suspect a possible separated belt on the driver's front. It has always had a slow leak, but has never actually gone flat. I'm going to rotate the tires and see what happens.



Separated belt? Do you mean a bad bead?



No, I mean a separated steel belt within the tire itself. It's been known to happen and confirmed this with a buddy that has worked for years in the tire industry. I need to pull the tire I suspect back off and take it to a shop to have it spun and checked out. I will probably end up needing to find another set of tires off of Craigslist.

My buddy said that what could have happened is that when I got snow stuck in the wheel and it threw the balance off really bad, all that force goes straight to the belt and can do some damage. This was definitely not one of those vibrations you feel from a wheel weight going missing, as those usually only show up as the wheel starts spinning faster. I could pull into the garage and feel it tug to one side or the other as the tire rolled slowly.

I suppose the wheel being crooked could be an issue, but this popped up out of nowhere and when I pull the lugnuts off the first time, they were all nice and tight. When I put the tire back on the same location and torqued everything down properly, same issue. With the tires rotated, so far all is good. How long it lasts is still up for debate. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/noes.gif

 

[jb4]

I have seen similar issues quite often with customers cars. The rule of thumb I have always used is, low speed shaking/shimmy= tires, usually broken belt. High speed shaking/shimmy = balance issue. Obviously this is only a place to start not an end all be all answer.

 

[Rausch]

Definitely a separated/broken belt. Trouble with that is some will still balance out. They *can* balance, and only cause issue when loaded up. If you know someone, or a shop, with a Roadforce balancer, take it there first. That should confirm it if there are no other obvious signs when it comes off the wheel.

Did some suspension work on a Neon not too long ago that had the same issue. It was HORRIBLY bad, but literally >10% the vibration when moved to the rear. I hate Neons...