Shaguar47

One of my friends 93 hatch hit a pot hole in a construction zone late last week (go figure for any street lights) and now his steering wheel is shaking violently when he drives....but....it's not consistent nor all the time. It's just plain out weird. So this is how it works. We left the car parked for a night. Got it and started to drive it, no shakes, nothing. Drives good until you get up to a speed of 40-50 and you start to feel the wheel shaking a little bit. Soon when you hit the brakes to slow down, the wheel shakes violently (this is also probably because his rotors are warped) and from there it stays that way whether you slow down to a stop and speed right back up. It's constantly there. When we park the car and let it sit for a while and then drive it again, it's not there until we hit a certain speed or apply the brakes.

We let go of the steering wheel as it shakes and the car itself doesn't shake, it's drives perfectly straight. We also tried cornering and it doesn't go away, it's always there until we pull the car over and let it rest a bit. It's so weird. This is how we've broken it down.


- Outer tie rods were loose so we replaced them. Still shakes
- Lower and upper balljoints looked great, no play whatsoever.
- Got the tires re-balanced. Still Shakes
- Replaced both front hub bearings with new knuckles. Still Shakes (for sure thought it was this.)
- Swapped over another set of wheels and it still shakes. (This leaves the wheels out of question.
- Jacked the front of the car up and watched if the axles were uneven. Couldn't see the hub wobble or anything, but I'm still thinking it could be them. Is it possible the axles or the CV joints might be the culprit?
- Ordering Inner tie rods today and hopefully replacing them. There's a little bit of play in them as well but not much.

So with all this, anything you guys can think of? What throws me off is the shaking is not consistent nor is it there all the time. It only comes and goes. So would this rule out possibly bent axles, bad inner tie rods or something else? I'm up for any suggestions cause this has stumped me. Thanks guys.

Shaguar47

Bump

hyperblu

Potholes tend to blow struts. Pop the hood and sit on the fender and watch the tophat.

Shaguar47

Would bad struts really cause this to happen?

hyperblu

It could be anything. Checking the struts is easy to check. You could have damaged the steel wiring in the tire, bent a rim, etc. Being as when you let it sit, the tires cool off and the tire pressure drops causing a bulge in the tire to shrink... Just a thought.

Shaguar47

I'll check the struts tonight. I know their weak but there not shot, but I'll check.

The tire theory doesn't work after I swapped over a good pair of tires & rims and is still shaking.

Shaguar47

Checked the struts today and their weak but not blown. The car does have cut springs but it's never had a problem like this before.

I replaced the inner tie rods as well today and it didn't work. I'm stumped now. Only thing left is the axles but I'm sure their okay. Any other takers on what this might be?

Shaguar47

Ordered newer and better brake calipers so we'll see if this will fix it!

Shaguar47

Turned out to be the rotors. Guess they got warped so bad at one point, the portion of the brake rotor that goes over the hub was slightly warped. New Calipers, pads and rotors fixed it!

Ayyxbro

this happened to me, when i got up around 50 my steering wheel would shake very bad. I took it to my mechanic and he told me the beads in one of my tires was shot. Sure enough i put on a new set of wheels and it stopped.

Try rotating the front tires to the back, and vise versa