I have a vibration in my steering wheel. It's annoying as hell. I've tired to fix it but I'm still having issues.

Symptoms:

Steering wheel shake 65 - 72 mph.
After 72 mph it vibrates less. It's still there but not as much as the sweet spot (65-72).


Causes:
Balljoints?
Bad bushings?
Bad alignment?
bent rims?
Improperly balanced tires?
Defective tires?
Warped rotors?

What I've checked:
Tires rebalanced 2 times
Tension rods bushings replaced with poly bushings.
Alignment redone


Detailed info:

Ball joints do not look busted, but they're old and I don't believe they've ever been replaced. Should I replace them?

Rims are used z32 rims. Not the best but I don't believe they are bent. I've had the tires balanced 2 or 3 times, and not once have they said the rim are bent.

I did have warped rotors, but I had them machined. The machinist stated that they were pretty warped, but he didn't say he couldn't get them into spec. So I'm thinking the rotors aren't the cause of it. I'm also thinking that warped rotors should only cause vibration when I apply the brakes. What do you say? I do plan to test how straight they are since I have the tools to do it. So I should be able to verify how straight for a more definitive answer.

Tension rods were not properly installed the first time (I just hit 'em with my 600 ft/lbs air gun to install them :-D. I reinstalled them and torqued them down to spec. I also loaded up the suspension when I installed them this time around. I don't believe they would cause any odd vibration anyways, but who knows.

I'm starting to lean towards a bad bushings somewhere in the front. I don't see anything out of the ordinary but I haven't really looked that hard. Plus unless you take the arm off you can't tell for sure. Perhaps ball joints?

With the vibration not being constant, I'm thinking it's not a bent rim or bad tire. Since they'd cause vibrations constantly.


Let's get a discussion going. What do you think it is? If you've had this problem how did you fix it?

 

most possibles can be ruled out by simply raising the tire off the ground and wiggling it. that's what i would do if the other things such as alignment and balancing checks out.

something i'd like to know is if this just started or if it's something you noticed after installing the cusco engine mounts and aluminum steering bushing. it's just a though but but replacing both the mounts and bushing the vibration from the engine has to go somewhere.

 

have you checked or replaced your steering rack bushings?

 

^ check that too.
does it shake bad when you brake around that speed too ?

I had the same problem in my goat and it was a bad alignment.

 

also the wheels you put on the car.... if they have those balancing weights on ....have them removed and rebalanced for your car. also what kinda of tires are you running etc? im sure you have matching tires that are uni directional... if they are one way, make sure they are going in the right directions.

every bushing on a 240 should be changed no doubt bro.. that stuff just needs to be refreshed.. Like Jram said... if you stiffen up one area, another weak area will take the brunt of the beating.

 

im a mechanic that vibration is called harmonic vibration it first shows up atound 60 then goea away at 70 then gets even worse at 90 well anyway just means ur wheels need to be balanced

 

i've had them balanaced twice! the driver side 3 times!

 

at the same location ?

 

each time at a different location.

to test that theory i will have the passenger side wheel rebalanced today to see if it cures the problem.

 

Bumnah: ive had this problem 3 different times on my s13.
First time it happend after i did my q45 brake swap. a piece of debris between my rotor and the hub was not letting the rotor seat properly.

as for the other two times. it just stopped on its own. i had my tires balanced 3 times. I put all new poly bushings on, new inner and outer tie rod ends and even new ball joint. and nothing seemed to fix it.

It just went away. i thought that one of my tires might be warped or messed up. but yeah, ive had that problem several times.

 

alright. i had the front tires rebalanced. I had the driver side done on monday and the passenger side done today (Tuesday). The vibration has gotten better. It still shakes though. 70ish+ I just hit a backroad to see how it was. It still shakes but much better.

So the tire balancing was a part of it I would say not all of it.

Next up would be the bushings. I just ordered some S14 front LCAs for my car. I'm going to swap the bushings and balljoints next. That will be a real test to see if the balljoints/bushings were the culprit. I will measure how straight the rotors are within the next few days. Any more ideas?

 

I had a similar problem, my car was vibrating from 60-70, and there was a pulsing type of feel from 25 and down. Rebalancing virtually eliminated the shake at speed, but the other problem was a flat spot in each of my front tires, probably from a time when I locked my brakes to avoid hitting a dumb bimbo that cut me off... but I digress. When the guy balanced my tires, he also did a quick check of my suspension, and gave it a thumbs up, maybe your mechanic could do the same?

 

you're talkin' to the mechanic. I'm not sure what check there is for determining how the suspension is other then the basic. Looking for physical damage to bushings/balljoints. Pressing down on the corners to see if the shocks are blown or not. I'm all ears for more tests to perform.

 

Bumnah, have you checked for uneven wear. I need new tires, I was running far too much camber up front and have a ton of camber wear. Got an alignment with much less camber and I too hit that sweet spot, 55-65.

Im 90% sure its my alignment and tires.

 

i have not check for uneven wear. I had new tires mounted when I did the 5 lug and z32 brake conversion. The car drove a total of 2 miles before it was on an alignment rack. Since they did not do that good of a job. I had it re aligned a week later at another location and it the car felt much better.

For uneven wear I know to look to see if the inner or outer edges of the tire are wearing prematurely against the other side. I do not see signs of that. I've put less then 2000 miles on the tires.