Causes for steering wheel shake?

IA-SteveB

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What other things can cause steering wheel shake? It acts like a wheel is out of balance but the weird thing is that it doesn't happen all of the time. Both wheels are in perfect balance and the front end has been aligned. I thought a rotor may be warped but I changed those out during the last brake job and there was no change. The car doesn't pull to either side driving or braking. I just don't get why it doesn't do it all of the time ... it just comes and goes for no attributable reason.
 

1998 Cobra Vert

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I have the same issue with my '98 Cobra 'vert. Car only has 34k miles. I'll be driving and all of a sudden the steering wheel starts to shake. It is intermittent and seems to depend on road surface and speed. I just deal with it and chalk it up to being a 20 year old car.
 

IA-SteveB

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I may have to put it up on a lift and check a few things out. It just baffles me how it will be just fine and then all of a sudden decide to shimmy and shake. You don't feel the car shaking, just the steering wheel decides to act like the wheels are out of balance.
 

SVTdreamin04

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I found on my car that the steering shaft under the dash was loose at the u joint. This was causing my steering wheel to vibrate randomly.


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Murder Snake

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are they after market wheels? or, have you changed the front hubs. if yes to either, you may find the hubcentric of the wheel is not fitting the hub properly so even if the wheel is balanced correctly, it does not fit down properly around the hub. if it is loose, you can use a tape that some of the alignment/tire shops use to take up the slack, if larger, then you will not have the wheel seat properly on the hub.
 

SVTdreamin04

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Just take a look at the u joints in the steering shaft. Mine would shake quite a bit sometimes and all it was, was the bolt loose on the u joint under the dash. Why it was loose, I have no clue, but I am like the 6th owner.


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Goindeafonmtx

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You haven’t provided enough information. What speed does it occur? Does it shake the steering wheel or does the car vibrate ( meaning do you feel the shake in the steering wheel or in your butt in the seat)? Does it only occur when the brakes are applied? Go out and drive the car and pay attention to when the car shakes and attempt to find the the condition at which the problem occurs and you can make it occur again and again. That’s your homework, report back.

Just because a tire is balanced doesn’t mean it can’t be the cause. A tire that has a broken belt can balance balance perfectly on a balancer, but the operator has to pay attention to the tire while the balancer spins the wheel assembly to look for a “hop” in the tire. 9 times out of 10 shakes, vibrations, and a car pulling one direction or another is a bad tire.


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ToddW702

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I had a similar issue on my 13 GT and had the tires balanced by a couple different shops because I thought that was the problem. It still did it though. Then one of my friends who worked at a tire shop asked if I had them “road force balanced” I think that was what he called it but I said no. So I went there and they found one of my front tires would balance fine but had a slight high spot anyways I replaced the one tire and never had the issue again. I may be calling the process the wrong name but basically they put it on a balancer and there is also a roller on the tread of the tires too then they spin it. Anyways hope this helps and hope you find it.


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Goindeafonmtx

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I had a similar issue on my 13 GT and had the tires balanced by a couple different shops because I thought that was the problem. It still did it though. Then one of my friends who worked at a tire shop asked if I had them “road force balanced” I think that was what he called it but I said no. So I went there and they found one of my front tires would balance fine but had a slight high spot anyways I replaced the one tire and never had the issue again. I may be calling the process the wrong name but basically they put it on a balancer and there is also a roller on the tread of the tires too then they spin it. Anyways hope this helps and hope you find it.


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You are exactly right. It’s called road forcing balancing. Not every shop has that type of balancer. Even brand new tires won’t road force balance.


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IA-SteveB

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Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will do some more checking and get some more accurate symptoms. I did rotate the tires and the problem remains. They are stock 99 Cobra wheels.

The car doesn't do it all of the time and it is mostly above 30mph that you notice it. The car itself doesn't shake, it is just the steering wheel. It also doesn't seem to vary much with speed like you normally see when a wheel is out of balance and you hit a sweet spot with speed where it all of a sudden is balanced.

I will definitely check out the bolt in that joint in the steering column. I wish I had a spare set of wheels/tires to throw on there to test.
 

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