Today as I was making my commute it was really noticable that my steering wheel was shaking, so much so that sometimes it even felt as if I could lose control. My alignment is bad due to the fact that I haven't got one since I messed with my suspension, but it was never this noticable. On the way back, I rolled my window to see if I could hear anything and I heard a slight rattling sound coming from my front left wheel. What is going on?

 

could be bad axle/bad motor mounts/out of balance tire.

 

I just got that axle replaced not so long ago, could it be an alignment?

 

Could have worn out tires, possibly due to bad alignment or age....
Could have bad ball joints, bushings or bearings.
Could have warped discs.
Could just have something loose or a bent wheel....
A wheel could have lost its balancing weight...

A simple check would be, leaving your car in park or in gear with engine off and with the ebrake up, locking the steering column, lifting that tire off the ground and seeing if you can move it around. Check to see if there is any play in some components. Individually check each wheel. Should be relatively easy to check if you have a bad ball joint or bearing etc... Also try this with the transmission in neutral and spin each wheel to make sure it is spinning freely. Then pull your wheels off and do a visual inspection.

My car was doing this mainly due to a bad upper ball joint and then again (though not as noticeable) due to slightly warped discs....

 

Sounds like a tire with a bad belt. Have the suspension and tires checked out completely. A worn ball joint or tie rod end will cause excessive tire wear, but not vibration. A bad axle CV joint will cause either clicking on turns(outer joint) or vibration accelerating/decelerating(inner joint). A worn part will click if the tire is out of round causing it to vibrate the ball in the socket.

 

The tires are basically brand new, 5,000 miles on them. They were originally on stock blades then stretched to 15x8s.

 

Tires are subject to damage, do check them for roundness and balance. Could have thrown a weight.

 

False

 

High speed vibration can come from excessive negative caster. High speed vibration can come from out of balance/out of round wheel/tire assembly. A loose ball joint or tie rod end won't cause vibration, but will allow an out of balance tire to vibrate excessively by not restraining it. I'm an ASE Master Tech with 40 years+ experience including Honda, Toyota, GM, Ford and Hyundai factory training as well as numerous Bridgestone/Firestone courses.

 

Failed ball joints can effect camber/caster/toe, can't they?

 

Yes, but it will cause a toe setting that causes the opposing tires to fight each other thereby damping vibration. The resulting out of spec toe setting causes excessive tire wear. The uneven tire wear causes the tire to go out of balance, possibly the side load even causes belt damage and an out of balance and out of round condition which can then be felt as a vibration. Ultimately it's the rotating mass that vibrates. You can't argue with physics.

 

Crawl down by the pedals and remove the plastic steering column cover, sometimes the bolts holding the U-joints in the steering column can loosen and rattle.

Check ball joints, wheel bearings, tie rods, steering rack bushings, excessive play in the rack itself. Also get an alignment.

 

Update: It isn't the balance.

 

Okay well did you check for bad ball joints/bushings/tie rods/anything loose etc or take it to an alignment shop yet?

 

Haven't found an alignment shop that's willing to align my car because it's so low. The tire wear is weird, rough on the inside and smooth on the outside. But not like normal camber wear..

 

Probably toe wear. Toe wear destroys tires faster than camber wear. If you slammed your car without getting an allignment, not only will your camber be negative, but your toe can get thrown off too.

 

Find a shop that will align your car or bring it up to a more reasonable height and then find a shop that will align your car.
This shouldn't be that hard. I bought a lifetime alignment from Firestone ($180), so anytime I make an adjustment or change a part I can drop it off for a free touch up (it has already paid for itself).
My car is lowered a bit, (but nothing ridiculous) and they don't care. They even have a low profile ramp to drive up and everything.
If you find a good shop, they should be able to align your car or point to a problem area that needs fixing before alignment is possible.

 

Oh I forgot they do alignments, they get my car on their ramp no problem. Thanks! I'll keep y'all posted.