Last week I noticed that my steering wheel shakes above 70 mph.
I'm not sure what the real culprit could be.
Here's what I've done so far.

I checked the suspension for any play. I checked the wheel bearings by grabbing the tires and pushing and pulling them -- there was no play. I checked the wheel weights on the wheels. They were all there.
The mechanic who put the wheel weights on my left front tire, put a strip of weights that would travel underneeth the calipar. There is minimal clearance and I can see a slight gouge in the wheel weights. I turned the wheel and inspected the clearance. The wheel weights do not touch the caliper anymore.

I jacked up the front of the car and put the car in neutral.. When I turn the right front wheel, it turns freely and easily. When I turn the left front wheel, it turns freely and easily until it hits one spot. At that spot (maybe about 45 degrees of rotation), it is noticably harder to turn the wheel by hand. It isn't difficult, but it does require increased effort. You can even hear the brake pad grab a little more too. If I spin it to give it a little momentum, it will pass the "sticky" point without a problem.

I don't remember feeling any pulsing or vibration when braking. I just have vibration in the steering wheel going 70+ mph.

What are your thoughts? A little rotor warpage? Did the wheel become unbalanced? I don't think it lost a wheel weight, but I can see that a little material was scrapped off the top because it was scraping the caliper before.

 

Balance is off or axle...

 

99% sure it's a wheel balance problem. rotate your tires to the rear and see if it goes away. warped rotors would only be while braking unless they were extremely warped. tire balance machines need calibration every so often so whoever balanced them was probably off or used the wrong cone while balancing, either way, needs balancing

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by arren123 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Last week I noticed that my steering wheel shakes above 70 mph.
I'm not sure what the real culprit could be.
Here's what I've done so far.

I checked the suspension for any play. I checked the wheel bearings by grabbing the tires and pushing and pulling them -- there was no play. I checked the wheel weights on the wheels. They were all there.
The mechanic who put the wheel weights on my left front tire, put a strip of weights that would travel underneeth the calipar. There is minimal clearance and I can see a slight gouge in the wheel weights. I turned the wheel and inspected the clearance. The wheel weights do not touch the caliper anymore.

I jacked up the front of the car and put the car in neutral.. When I turn the right front wheel, it turns freely and easily. When I turn the left front wheel, it turns freely and easily until it hits one spot. At that spot (maybe about 45 degrees of rotation), it is noticably harder to turn the wheel by hand. It isn't difficult, but it does require increased effort. You can even hear the brake pad grab a little more too. If I spin it to give it a little momentum, it will pass the "sticky" point without a problem.

I don't remember feeling any pulsing or vibration when braking. I just have vibration in the steering wheel going 70+ mph.

What are your thoughts? A little rotor warpage? Did the wheel become unbalanced? I don't think it lost a wheel weight, but I can see that a little material was scrapped off the top because it was scraping the caliper before. </TD></TR></TABLE>

how long from last tire balance? if its really bad, then get all 4 tires rebalanced.

 

I just got the tires new in 1/2006 and just rotated them in April. I didn't notice any vibration issue until recently.

There was one odd thing though. It may or may not be related. I was in my car and was only going 15 mph and I heard a loud pop that sounded like it came from my passenger side front quarter panel as a car passed me on my right.. No damage or dings. I thought it was just a rock that was popped up when the car passed me. And I did see a good sized rock in the road behind me in my lane after I heard the pop. Then the next day I noticed the vibration. Probably just a coincidence though.

I took off both of the front tires today and reseated them. I'm going to see what happens tomorrow. If I still feel a vibration I'll swap driver side tires and see what happens (I have Falken Ziex 512's).

 

i should have asked how many miles has it been.. out of all possible problems, rebalancing is the cheapest and should be the first option to explore - most of time it helps.

 

Looks like one of the front tires were not seated properly.
I visually inspected them before reseating them, but it looked like everything was flush.

When I drove to work this morning it was all smooth driving.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by arren123 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks like one of the front tires were not seated properly.
I visually inspected them before reseating them, but it looked like everything was flush.

When I drove to work this morning it was all smooth driving. </TD></TR></TABLE>


WHO THE HELL DID YOUR TIRES?!?!?!? Damn...thats a lawsuit waiting to happen...Joo are one lucky man... I worked at discount tire when I was 18 and 19. We had something similar happen at the shop I worked at here in Bellingham. Ladies' wheel fell off. Wheel didn't get torqued.... Big money came out of that situation...

Thats a really stupid mistake not to check for bead seating...

Count your blessings, man...that couldn have been REAL bad...

 

i had same problem with mines it was shaking and results it was the bearing in the the axle that went loose try that... if u feel that ur car shakes while braking then i think it should be the rotors that are warped

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BMaDOHC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">99% sure it's a wheel balance problem. rotate your tires to the rear and see if it goes away. warped rotors would only be while braking unless they were extremely warped.</TD></TR></TABLE>



My suggestion: Get together with another ITR owner in your area who has an extra set of wheels/tires. They can be winter tires, track tires, or plain old regular street tires, as long as they're known to be properly balanced. Swap his wheels/tires onto your car and take it for a drive, and see if the wheel shakes. If it doesn't, you know it's your wheels/tires and not anything on the car itself.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Circuit Star-29 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">


WHO THE HELL DID YOUR TIRES?!?!?!? Damn...thats a lawsuit waiting to happen...Joo are one lucky man... I worked at discount tire when I was 18 and 19. We had something similar happen at the shop I worked at here in Bellingham. Ladies' wheel fell off. Wheel didn't get torqued.... Big money came out of that situation...

Thats a really stupid mistake not to check for bead seating...

Count your blessings, man...that couldn have been REAL bad...</TD></TR></TABLE>


Ooops.. I meant, the wheels probably weren't seated properly (they may not have been flush against the rotor) . the tired beads are fine.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by arren123 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks like one of the front tires were not seated properly.
I visually inspected them before reseating them, but it looked like everything was flush.

When I drove to work this morning it was all smooth driving. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You mean, you re-seated them, and re-torqued the lug nuts, and the shaking went away? If so, ...

 

You should be more careful when working on your car Mistakes can cause alot of problems.

I'm still unsure how you can not properlly seat a wheel.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by walker111 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm still unsure how you can not properlly seat a wheel.</TD></TR></TABLE>

If the wheel is not properly seated (or the lug nuts are not tightened, allowing the seat to be loose), you would notice a vibration immediately, and you wouldn't need to go 70 mph to feel it.

&lt; shrug &gt;

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by walker111 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I'm still unsure how you can not properlly seat a wheel.</TD></TR></TABLE>

the only way is.. if you have non-oem wheels with larger hub and don't use hubcentric rings. otherwise, if you torque the lug nuts to specs theres no other way that i can think of.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtec.dc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

the only way is.. if you have non-oem wheels with larger hub and don't use hubcentric rings. otherwise, if you torque the lug nuts to specs theres no other way that i can think of.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I would think it would still center itself with tapered lug nuts. I've run my wheels without the hub-centric rings and no problems. I do however have the same problem as the OP with shaking at about 75-80 mph. I've rotated my tires and had them rebalanced. I've had an alignmet, checked the wheel bearings with the good old grab it and shake it method. I still have the problem.

Is it possible the the steering rack is loose, or needs new bushings?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 88 rex &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I would think it would still center itself with tapered lug nuts. I've run my wheels without the hub-centric rings and no problems. I do however have the same problem as the OP with shaking at about 75-80 mph. I've rotated my tires and had them rebalanced. I've had an alignmet, checked the wheel bearings with the good old grab it and shake it method. I still have the problem.

Is it possible the the steering rack is loose, or needs new bushings? </TD></TR></TABLE>

are you saying that you still had problems while using hubcentric rings? in my experience there was a difference running with/without the rigngs.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtec.dc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">are you saying that you still had problems while using hubcentric rings? in my experience there was a difference running with/without the rigngs.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree. I've known quite a few others who have had similar problems when trying to use a lugcentric approach to a hubcentric setup. In theory, it shouldn't matter, but in practice, relying solely on the lug nuts to center the wheel can leave it ever so slightly off center, enough to create the kind of slight vibration you describe.

 

I currently have the hub-centric rings installed, but there have been times when I forgot to install them. I noticed no difference.

 

Not everyone experiences vibration problems without using hubcentric rings. But it happens with some folks, so there's a risk of it happening. Sounds like maybe you're one of the lucky ones.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxtasy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Not everyone experiences vibration problems without using hubcentric rings. But it happens with some folks, so there's a risk of it happening. Sounds like maybe you're one of the lucky ones.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oh, yea, I'm not saying that is the case with everyone It's just been my own personal experiences, and I've heard the complaint from others who negelcted to use the rings. I'm also curious though as to how many have tapered lugs as opposed to the rounded acorn lugs.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by walker111 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You should be more careful when working on your car Mistakes can cause alot of problems.

I'm still unsure how you can not properlly seat a wheel.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not sure how it happened either.. I have wheel spacers on the front for my Mugen wheels. They are on there pretty tight, so I just leave them on when I put my stock wheels back on. I had autox a couple weeks ago and it took about a week before vibration started. My guess is that the lug nuts worked themselves a bit loose. I always torque them down with a torque wrench. Unfortunately, when I checked the wheels yesterday I didn't check the lug nuts with a torque wrench before loosening them. So I will never know if loose nuts was a problem.

Like I said, before I took off the wheels to check them they seemed to be flush and there was no play.

 

how do rotor warp?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BLUE EH3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how do rotor warp?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Rotors can warp in a variety of ways. It usually involves heat and uneven cooling. For example, if you have a severe panic type stop on the highway, or if you drive around a racetrack, the rotors can get very hot. There are things that can then make the rotors not cool evenly. For example, if you leave the parking brake on, that can warp the rear rotors. Or, if you wash the car when the rotors are hot, and splash water on them, they can cool unevenly. Those are just a couple of examples.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxtasy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Rotors can warp in a variety of ways. It usually involves heat and uneven cooling. For example, if you have a severe panic type stop on the highway, or if you drive around a racetrack, the rotors can get very hot. There are things that can then make the rotors not cool evenly. For example, if you leave the parking brake on, that can warp the rear rotors. Or, if you wash the car when the rotors are hot, and splash water on them, they can cool unevenly. Those are just a couple of examples.
</TD></TR></TABLE>


I've never seen a rotor "warp." It's my understanding that that is a myth, and the symptoms of "warped" rotors is due to uneven pad distribution. Hot pads thet are left to cool on the rotor will "stick" a little leaving high marks that progessively get higher creating peaks and valleys on the rotor.