Yesterday, my dad and I, replaced the Rack and Pinion, the tie rods, the lower ball joints, and new KYB GR-2 shoks. The Rack and Pinion was in a pretty bad shape. then i took it in for realignment. The problem is that the Steering wheel is still shaking every time I break when going at a fast speed. We check the breaks to make sure that they were smooth and straight which they are. I just had the disks cut and I have ceramic pads on.

Any suggestions as to what is causing my steering wheel to shake?

 

tires might be out of blance

 

Is that something that the guys that did the alignment should be able to tell me?

 

could possibly be your outer tie rod, if they have play it will cause your steering wheel to shake. Or you could have a bad wheel bearing/bent rim/bad control arm or ball joint. But they don't really cause the steering wheel to shake hard, just minimal.

 

if the steering wheel is shaking, youve still got play in your suspension.

play comes from loose balljoints and inner rackend bushings of the steering rack.

what car do you have? was it power steering? where did you get a replacement steering rack? did you adjust the pinion gear? (big lock nut on the steering column side of the rack)

oh and you should measure the runout on your rotors, mounted on the car. if you dont have the tools for this, get a shop to check it. i know you got your rotors cut, but something could be holding them off axis.

 

i would say its your rotors, because its the same problem i had with one of my cars. it shaked alot during hard breaking, and it was the rotors that were warped. but you said you had them cut. maybe they got warped again cause they were to thin after you cut them , tires need balanced,

 

Check the bushings on the radius rods as well. I had a problem a few years ago with them being worn out and the car would shake under braking.

 

I've got a similar situation on a 90 Civic Si.

I get a vibration in the steering wheel between 50 to 65 MPH. I the steering wheel vibrates pretty hard, and I can feel it through the floor board also. However, once the brakes are applied, the vibration nearly disapears.

I figure if it were the wheels and tires, then the vibration would continue while the brakes are applied, until the car drops below 50 MPH since that is where it starts.

 

I would say rotors also. even if you had them cut doesnt mean they are true. the lathe they were machined on could be not true and you would have the same problem. get some new rotors there like 20 bucks a piece at kragen.

 

warped rotors.... i had the same same problem

 

Rotors usually warp because of play in the front suspension bushings or a hub that was warped (overtightening lug nuts) that warps your rotors.
Unless you are tracking the car and overheating the rotors.

 

I'm going with Rotors. Yea it could be suspension but I don't see the odds in favor of that especially if u just replaced basically everything...and if it happens only on braking i'm inclined to say warped rotors are the cause, i've seen some nasty wheel shake on bad rotors before.

 

Make sure you check your upper ball joints too ive owned 2 different EF's and had this problem too this fixed it both times. If your tires are out of ballance even a little or there is a small bulge or somthing on your tire the bad ball joint will greatly amplify it.

 

I would go w/rotors also. Doesn't take much for them to cause shaking.

Normally an unbalanced front tire will shake the steering wheel at different speeds.

Also, typically, if you feel shaking in the floor, its the back wheels. Shaking on the steering wheel is the front wheels.

Could be you have multiple tires that need balancing.