Hi all, I'm having a hard time locating a front end vibration / steering wheel vibration with my car. This car has 225k miles on it, please read below:

Problem: moderate to severe front end / steering wheel vibration at speeds 60+ I'm also hearing almost what sounds like a whining/whirring/low pitched "wooooo" noise before the vibration gets bad.

This all started about 150 miles after I replaced my front pads because they were metal to metal... did not happen immediately.

Whats been replaced in the last 15k miles:

-All upper/lower ball joints tie rod ends and sway bar links: basically all the rubber up front. Car was re-aligned afterwards. (15k miles ago)

-Both front wheel bearings (8k miles ago)

-Master brake cylinder (10k miles ago)

-Brakes: front rotors, pads and calipers. <--- These within the past week, as I was trying to nail down the problem, thinking its gotta be a pad slightly rubbing/binding against the rotor. Rotors are NOT warped, when keeping car at speeds below 60, applying brakes, no vibrations.

what else could this be? I am really stumped

thanks for your help.

 

Tires are out of balance. That should have been first on the list.

 

I would not think thats it because the vibration goes away after 5-8 minutes driving 60+ basically, its intermittent. I should have said that in my inital post. I will get them re-balanced just to be sure.

Also, when I'm driving long distances, long open interstate, and don't apply the brakes there's no problem. I can do 70-80, no vibration. It's only after I apply the brakes the problem persists. It will vibrate for 5-8 minutes again then slowly go away. Its very strange

edit: just thinking, i've never had the CV joints/axles replaced. could this be the source? and just by coincedence, happened when I was replacing the brakes?

 

It still is probably the tires out of balance it can make it do strange things like that. When mine were out of balance it would be intermittent like that.

 

How did you bed in your brake pads?
Either there is lateral runout on the rotors, or there is an uneven build up of pad material causing brake judder.

The “Warped” Brake Disc and Other Myths of the Braking System

 

thanks all for the help. It was the CV joints/axles. Replaced them, now smooth as glass.