Why is my steering shaking when I get to 65mph or higher on the freeway? My tires and rims are brand new and they been balanced. Does anyone else have this problem?

Setup: 97 civic hatchback cx. No power steering, No AC, I have a motor swap and Skunk2 full coilover suspensions with Camber kits on front and back.

 

i heard with manual steering cant drive over 80mph cuz start shaking. check for loose suspension parts and rotate the tire front to rear. if that don't work recheck tire balance & alignment

 

wheel shaking is usually wheel balancing issue. have the wheels re-balanced.

other things you can check are bushings, alignment, tie rod, steering rack adjustment screw

i can give you a few examples


after i got my gsr blades, i had my old tires swapped onto the blades at a crappy gas station, when my car exceeded 70mph, my steering wheel began to shake and the car felt like it was floating. my friend rebalanced it at his work place and now my car is stable up to 90mph and the shaking starts to be apparent again.

My dad's sienna, the wheel started shaking horribly at 25mph, my dad bought new tires and had it balanced at the same place and the shaking is gone.

 

If the tires are balanced then it's possible you may have bent suspension components or it could be a problem with the axle. I think it's also possible that you need new tie rod ends.

 

well my axels are brand new, my rims and tires are brand new, and I dont think I need new tie rod ends.. but that could be the problem right? because I did like 4 motor swaps already on my car and you usually have to bang that part in order to take off the axels.

 

Start by having all four wheels balanced.

 

Not to hijack your thread but I have the same issue with my steering; only my car does it under 30mph and in specific RPM ranges. My first instinct was to re-balance my tires. Anyone have any other idea? I have only owned the car for 2 days so I haven’t gotten it up on a lift just yet.

 

tie-rods would only make your car shake ONLY when you hit bumps and would act as a ripple effect after that "load change".

so if your cruising and your steering wheel shakes rapidly you would be looking at wheel balacing or wrong offset of the wheels. what wheels did you get? some stick on weights could fly off within the first 10 miles of driving if they are aftermarket wheels.

as for the other guys rpm specific shaking.. i would assume halfshaft's

 

A few years ago I had a "reputable" tire place install, balance and align new tires on my car. And they JACKED it all to hell. It was so bad that the steering wheel was wobbling back and forth even at 25 mph. I had to take it back twice and finally have the old-schooler who wasn't high as a kite do it. After he re-worked it, it was fine.

You may want to take it back and have them re-do it. I have little faith in those places these days.

 

I had an issue similar to this around '06 with my EF. It turned out that the inner boot was torn while replacing my suspension and axles somehow.

 

well its not shaking bad.. but its shaking.. my tires are 205/15/50 and they are falken ziex with rota gt3 15" offset I forget

 

maybe I can replace the steering boots? I remember they were only like $2 each and I think one of mines was torn

 

its ur wheel bearings most likely, i had the same problem

 

when you have an older vehicle, suspension problems are inevitable. grab a flashlight and check your shocks and anything with rubber ( Trailing arm bushings, boots, ball joints, etc.) that might yield useful info.
If you suspect tie rod ends, pick up the front and put your hands at 3 and 9 oclock on the tire. Wiggle it back and forth. If it's bad you'll know right away.
Wheel bearings would have a very distinct noise that would change in pitch as you swerve back and forth. wawawawawawaaawwwaaaa

 

and wheel bearings dont shake the wheel back and forth. wheel bearings have a distinctive feel and sound. kind of like marbles in a can rotating really fast with no lubrication. now imagine driving on those marbles within the can.. im sure you would feel that and some people "might" call this a vibration but your steering wheel would not shake, and it wouldnt shake at just 65 area. wheel bearings tend to be lower speed 30 mph on and they get louder and louder and louder like a jet car.

you can do a simple test to rule out some parts of wheel balancing (where i think the issue lies). rotate your tires front to back. a bad wheel balancing issue in front will shake the steering wheel. a bad balancing issue in rear would shake the "seat" more so. since the rear tire is farther away from you , it is harder to feel the vibration. so take your front tires and rotate them to the rear.

as for that 2 dollar "bellow boot" on your inner tie-rod... dont worry about it for this vibration issue. that bellow boot does not cause any shaking. its only purpose is to keep dirt and grease/salt/dust from entering your rack and pinion which would damage your rack and pinion seals resulting in a power steering fluid leak which would require a new rack and pinion. i dont mean to scare you saying those boots being torn will result in a new rack tomorrow!!! but if they were completly gone i would replace them pronto. if there is a slight rip on one of the chords i wouldnt worry about it.

 

okay I will rotate them tomorrow and see what happens thanks

 

I had this same problem. The steering wheel would start shaking above 65 mph. What fixed it for me was balancing and tire rotation. Both were done at the same time so I don't know which fixed it exactly although I the mechanic doing the balancing showed me how the tires were wiggling side to side so they had to be balanced anyway. The rotation might have helped because the tire was slightly worn on the inside.

 

Check ur ball joints(lower).

 

should they be really stiff? or slightly loose?

 

To check them, jack up the front and take a pry bar under the tire and lift up. they should be tight. If they wiggle, they are bad. If the boots on them are torn they should also be replaced