Steering Shaking at 55 mph

#1
Hello..I have been facing this for quite some time, no solutions found yet. Hope someone in this forum has an answer. Here's the problem in my car: Whenever i go over 55mph the steering starts vibrating and gets worse as i increase the speed. I took it to 3-4 mechanics, wheels were balanced. the vibrations still persist. One of the mechanics suggested alignment was off because the steering wheel was slightly off center. So, I got wheel alignment done but vibration still persists. Another mechanic suggested that tire was out of round, so got a new tire and did a fresh alignment/balancing. Vibration still there....it's getting really frustrating..I took it to another mechanic and they raised the car on those hydraulic lifts and ran the car on the lifts.. he said the tire was out of round too...i am confusd because i had just replaced the tire...to me it looked like the entire wheel was a wobbling (and the wobbling wheel caused the tire to look out of round) and probably the wobbling wheel caused the vibration at high speed..

My concern is that there is something wrong with my wheel/axle/ other steering components that is either broken/bent which is causing the tire to go out of round. Anyone have a similar experience with vibrating wheels where the main cause is not alignment/wheel balance??

Any inputs/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
#2
Sounds like a bent wheel if the entire tire and wheel appeared to wobble on the lift. Nothing else would cause that wobble because the the only parts that rotate are the tire, wheel, outer bearing race, and ball bearings. Everything else either moves up and down or left and right.
 
#3
Lift the front end and throw her in gear. Grab the coil spring with your hand. If you can feel vibrations in the spring, the bearing is shot.
 
#4
If the bearing is THAT shot I would replace it immediately before driving the car. Seen them make noise but never seen them cause vibrations that were described.
 
#5
Every car ive found that had the smallest bearing noise could be felt in the spring. When you remove the weight from the spring it just amplifies any vibration/noise.
 
#6
Oh, I see what you're saying. I didnt read the beggining of the thread. Just a bit of your reply lol. Yeah, id be amazed if it was your bearing causing that issue.
 
#9
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I saw something similar to that. Guy kept saying that no shop in town could balance his tires. I threw it on the balancer and saw a hump in the tire ... where the tread was getting ready to separate.

Most people throw it on the balancer and go to something else because they are under a time pressure, so they miss things like that. Me, I NEVER walked away from the balancer, period. I don't care how busy it is.
 
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