Steering wheel shake

[abracadabra]

Folks-

I have a shaky steering wheel at highway speeds, its not a constant issue and doesn't seem to have anything specifically to do with the road condition. Sometimes I notice its shaky and the roads seem totally smooth and non-bumpy, and other times there's not shake and the roads may or may not be in worse shape.

I've to stiff light duty truck tires on (Nankooks) which can be a rough ride on some roads (although the smoothest thing ever too on good roads) and I've sorta always thought the shake might be partly because the them, but, at this point I'm wondering.

There isn't play in the wheel, I think the tie rods are fine, are the bushings or something I should be looking at?

I have to admit I've never messed with steering issues, so I don't know where to start.

I should ad, I don't notice the vibration so much (at all? ) at slow speeds.

Thanks!

mark

[Jonny317]

My van is doing something similar at the moment as well... Firstly you would want to eliminate the tires as the issue... Unbalanced tires will cause a shake in the steering wheel at high speeds and be less noticeable at lower speeds. If you've had your tires balanced recently then you can assume it's not that. From there you could move into suspecting parts of the suspension. Worn tie rod ends , worn ball joints, worn control arm bushings, worn sway bar links or bushings, on 2WD vans there is also a positioning bar of sorts from the lower control arm to the frame that also has a bushing. You can jack the front of the van up and grab the tire at 9oclock and 3oclock and try and shake it back and forth, this will tell you if there is play in the tie rod ends (inner or outer). Grab it at 12oclock and 6oclock and do the same shake... this will tell you if there is wheel bearing or balljoint play. I think that i've narrowed mine down to worn sway bar links as I cant find much play anywhere else and they are quite rough looking on my van.. until I replace them tho i wont know for sure..

good luck :)

[llamavan]

I had a balancing weight fall off of a front wheel and that caused intermittent vibration, much more noticeable at higher (highway) speeds. The shimmy would begin after a turn, and would stop after the next time I'd turn (either direction). So you might want to pay attention to whether the shaking starts after turning and if so, have the tires checked and re-balanced as necessary.

Gwen

[timsrv]

I agree. Try rotating your tires 1st to see if things change. Sometimes you can get 2 or more wheels with slight imperfections (out of balance and/or out-of-round). When the "heavy" or "high" sides of the tires hit the ground at the same time these small imperfections can work together to make a small problem more noticeable. Then after turning a corner the imperfections become "out of phase" and cancel each other out. If rotating tires changes things, then I'd take it to a tire shop and have them re-balance the tires and check them for an out-of-round condition. Tim

[abracadabra]

Yeah I'm gonna have the tires rotated this week when the van is in for an oil change (something I never pay for but I don't have time to do it before our trip!)

I have to admit I'm really spacey sometimes and I've managed to put 7K on a brand new set of $500 Nankook tires and never had them rotated. Pretty stupid but I'll see what happens after rotation!

mark

[timsrv]

If you're going to pay for rotation then have them balanced and checked at the same time..........at the very least have the ones going on the front done. Tim