[Closed] Steering wheel vibrating at high speed?

Proper 4-wheel alignment or just boggo tracking? Not quite the same. Could have thrown off some weights from the wheel but tbh that's not usually so obvious. Assorted mechanical wear and tear things if it's an older car.

Any number of things

On my car this was caused by the steering rack end seal shitting itss self into the rack boot....ruining the inner tie rod.

Cure = new steering rack and tie rods.

The last thing id have thought it would be

Oh and on my van had this... Turned out to be a build up of dried mud on the inner wheel rim .....after id been bog trotting in thick mud.

Thrown off a weight from a rim would be my guess....

I had that on a cavalier, accelerate to 80 and it went away.

could be a tyre getting old/ deformed/blistered or the carcass or rim damaged by a pothole (alloy wheels in particular are easy to damage on the in-board edge)

could be the nut that holds the steering wheel.... oh wait a minute - thats you!

Difficult to say as it could be a number of things. In rough descending order of likelihood: thrown balance weights, buckled rim, (very) badly warped discs, worn track rod ends or steering rack, worn cv or inner tripods joints, bent driveshaft.

Mate had a skoda octavia 4x4 that did this when the front and rear tyres were unequally worn.

Thanks all.. The tyres are new 4 mos ago where i had the balance and alignment by National iirc. .. My suspect is tie rod ends.. Should i take this to a mechanic or some tyre specialist thingy like National or Kwikfit? Car is 8 yrs old

Get the wheels balanced again. National may do it for free if you still have the invoice.

70mph is about right for a tyre out of balance. Try swapping front to back. The vibration should dissapear from the steering wheel and be felt more though the floor

Wheels are balanced

No they aren't.

I'd put money on your wheels needing a balance. In 4 months they could easily drop a weight. Go back to where you had them done and see if they'll check them.

If they were balanced four months ago that doesn't mean that they're balanced today. Get them re-checked.

Vibration starting at about 70 = wheels need balancing.

Swap the front wheels for the rear wheels.

Strange never had to rebalance a wheel in my puff

Vibrations have always been mechanical related for me

Swapping wheels front to back is a cheap way to try and eliminate it though

Take it to an independent tyre fitter and ask them to check the balance. Don't go to one of those nationals.

They can mess up wheel balancing. Happened to my Dad, he had to go back and get them to do it properly.

Does the wobble come through the steering wheel or the chassis of the car? Mate of mine had a wheel wobble issue on a car he bought recently. I immediately thought out of balance wheels but when I drove it I realised the wobble came through the chassis of the car. Although it was speed related the frequency if the wobble also felt lower than usual out of balance wheel wobble and a higher amplitude. I advised him to check wheel balance anyway and bushes and they all checked out. Turned out to be a drive shaft.

I get that in my car, it's 50-55mph for me, settles down above that..

Hm, may need to get wheels balanced but I'll get tracks rods checked too..

Balance weights on cars are only stuck on, they can fall off if the surface wasn't properly cleaned beforehand or if they've been knocked.
That's by far the most likely cause.

I had a similar problem on my Land Rover recently.
Bigger diameter wheels and slower speeds means I don't bother with balancing the wheels.
It turned out to be something a bit more serious. 😯

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Another one for get the balance re-checked. Many places don't do a very good job of balancing wheels.

If National balanced them four months ago it doesn't mean they were balanced four months ago.

thanks guys, will sort out the wheel balance first.. i remember i had it car wash before the vibrating steering wheel started and that dude pressure wash my wheels for surprisingly longer than necessary might do the tracking as well.

vibrating is just in the steering..its like holding a vibrating phone at all times while on 70mph

Normally you can "drive through" an unbalanced wheel wobble, so if it disappears as you go faster (on your private test track obviously), its almost certain to be a balancing issue.

that dude pressure wash my wheels for surprisingly longer than necessary might do the tracking as well.

Or jetwash off a wheel weight...

I had this. Rear passenger side tyre was deformed.

could be a tyre getting old/ deformed/blistered or the carcass or rim damaged by a pothole

+1, missus-spoon's fiesta has a wobbly tyre that needs replacing on the back which makes it wobble at ~70.

Try swapping front to back. The vibration should dissapear from the steering wheel and be felt more though the floor

Not convinced, as above, it's the rear that's wobbly, but you can stil feel it through the wheel (sounds like a quieter version of a worn bearing at the back though). Maybe it'd be horrendous on the front though.

I had this. Rear passenger side tyre was deformed.

I always suspected she was spying on me on here, didn't think it was you!

Remove one wheel at a time and drive along. If you can't feel the vibration, it was the wheel you removed that was duff. 😐

I always suspected she was spying on me on here, didn't think it was you!

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Alternative suggestion, slightly sticky brake caliper - disc gets warmer than usual, pad material then bonds to the hot disc in one spot when at traffic lights. While on the motorway the pads are just brushing the uneven disc enough to set the wobble off.

Less likely than wheels out of balance due to crud build up / lost balance weight though.

I once had a similar issue - hit a pot hole quite hard and turned out I had deformed the alloy.

Was only noticeable at motorway speeds.

Or it could be crap between the hub and rear of the rim where the 2 faces meet.

Have you had the wheels off at all? , It only take a minute bit of dirt or corrosion to get sandwiched between the hub face and rear of wheel to throw the balance out.