Steering Shakes at High Speed ?!

[me_myself]

I have a Vibe 03 2WD. When i go in highway speeds (above 60), the steering shakes (wobbles) - what could be the reason? I would like it to be pretty smooth without shaking at high speeds. What should i do to stop the shaking?Thanks.

[VforVIBE]

Quote, originally posted by me_myself »I have a Vibe 03 2WD. When i go in highway speeds (above 60), the steering shakes (wobbles) - what could be the reason? I would like it to be pretty smooth without shaking at high speeds. What should i do to stop the shaking?Thanks.Wind? or alignment?

[Kamikaze]

Check the balance of your tires (a shop should be able to balance them) one thing you could try if you don't want to pay first to have them balanced is to swap the front tires and back tires... if it goes away, then you know it's probably the tire balance.. if it persists, then maybe all 4 tires need to be balanced... that's where I would start...If it was an alignment issue, usually it would just pull one way or another..

[tribalman]

before you swap around tires, i'd say jack the car up then loosen the lug nuts then put them to the 71? pound/foot of torque. if you are using grease on the lug nut or on the bolt, only use 45? pound/foot of torque. i had this same problem when i rotated my tires. i used a spot of grease so they wouldn't rust on, then when i put the lugs back on they weren't all to the same ammount of pressure and it caused the shaking. when i took them off and did it to the 45 lb/ft it went away. i still have a bit of shaking at 75, but i almost never go that fast, and it is as bad as if i was going over bumps so it's nothing i worry about. i'll see if i can find my old thread.

[me_myself]

Thanks for the info. Will try it around over the weekend and let you know how it went and how the car handles.

[DavidPIL]

Heya me_Those are all very good suggestions. I had a very slight shaking that I could only see on a phone holder I have attached to my stereo bezel. I rotated the tires back to front/front to back and it went away. I'm about due for tires as it is though and the front tires were near the wear bars.Also, if you have aftermarket rim, make sure there are the appropriate hubcentric rings used. mine are stuck to my hub except for 1 which was stuck to the wheel. Obviously in rotating, I had to fix the one that was different. But in an case, if you have aftermarket rims, the centering rings should be snug either on the rim or on the hub itself.I had a major problem with having no hubcentric rings in 2004 which I discussed here. The car was perfectly fine up to around 55-60. From that point it progressively got worse till I hit around 75, then it seemed to level out and subside a bit. The steering wheel's travel was about an inch in it's wobbling.Also, though I think they'd do this when balancing, you may have a bad wheel. A bulge in the tire itself or an internal steel belt issue. I would suggest to do a road-force balancing on all 4's. That's what was recommended to me with my Continental ExtremeContact tires just because of the issues some places had with balancing them.Dave