Steering wheel shakes

[KillerCharlie]

Lately my steering wheel's been vibrating (and by vibrating I mean rotating back and forth). It moves quite a bit at a low frequency.

What would cause this? It seems to be occurring at speeds from 0 to 45 mph (haven't driven faster since it's happened). It also seems to happen more when I'm moving from a stop and going straight.

It feels like it did when my rotors were warped, except it now has more movement and it's a lower frequency. Of course, it's not the brakes since it doesn't happen when braking, but it reminds me of that.

 

[jagec]

Bad alignment, most likely. Hit any curbs lately?

 

[RKS]

balance

 

[KillerCharlie]

I should probably mention that about 3 weeks ago I had an alignment AND the wheels balanced.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Has the wife driven the car?

 

[TheSlamma]

does the vehicle have an intermediate steering shaft? sometimes you have to inject a grease into those.

I did it to my truck and it made a world of difference. Havent had to do it again since (2002)

 

[Owls]

bent rims can also cause noticeable shaking at low speeds.

 

[Corn]

Originally posted by: KillerCharlie
I should probably mention that about 3 weeks ago I had an alignment AND the wheels balanced.

Generally an alignment will not cause vibration as you describe. Most likely you have a bent wheel or a tire that is out of round. When you had the tires balanced did they rotate them? You might not have felt an out of round tire/bent rim if it was on the rear of the car, but now that its on the front it may be very obvious. I would take the car to where you had the tires balanced and have the tech re-check the balance (sometimes a weight can fall off) and ask to observe the tire/rim while spinning on the balancer for any apparent high/low spots or wobble.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: Corn
-snip-
Most likely you have a bent wheel or a tire that is out of round.

I'd check that. It's happened to me twice in about 3 years.

Fern

 

[KillerCharlie]

Well it turns out that the tire wasn't round... because it was practically flat! It had about 12 psi.

All the other tires were fine. Hopefully the problem tire won't keep losing air that fast. I don't remember hitting anything though.