Yes, I did do research into this, so please acknowledge that before continuing or replying. Thank you.

I picked up an 03 evo 8 a few weeks ago in need of a little work. When I initially drove it home, the steering wheel would vibrate somewhat violently at highway speed (65mph+). Since I purchased it, I have done the following to remedy the situation:

1) Replaced both front outer tie rod ends. The driver's side one was shot.
2) Replaced all four shock/spring combo's with new(er) OEM setups with about 15k miles on them as opposed to the 70k mile ones that were on the car
3) Re-balanced all four wheels
4) Got a four wheel alignment. The toe was 1.22 FL, and -0.23 FR, but is now 0.01. The RL was adjusted to -0.25 and they noted it was the max it could be adjusted to, camber set to -1.0. The RR toe was set to 0.05 and camber to -0.9.

I can't figure out why they couldn't adjust the RL toe any more than -0.25...

But the only other thing I can think of is that either a tire is out of round, or a rim has some imperfection that makes it not completely round. The shaking is definitely not as bad, but at 70mph+, it does shake. The rate at which it shakes is not consistent, sometimes will be worse than other times. It may also be helpful to mention that the car tends to "wander" on the highway a bit.

Any help is appreciated guys!

 

have the car ever been in accident? Have u try on different set wheel/tire yet? Any cars over 5 years old will shake no matter what. It all depend on the driving of previous owners.

 

I have slight wheel shake that comes and goes once in a while. I think it has to do with the brakes or rotors cause if i get on the brakes pretty hard its seems to change the shaking or eliminate it for some time. Might be worth checking out.

 

This is very common with worn tires, you might be right that they are out of round. If you know someone else with some wheels and tires to try swapping them out and see what happens

 

Worn out tires.

 

The tread on the tires are good, but that doesn't mean the tires are in good shape. I was thinking of getting a new set of rims/tires from Tirerack and have them mount and balance for free. My stock rims are a bit beat up.

On the other hand, I know the rear rotors are warped. The front rotors were just turned as I bought the car. I have new pads all around and new rear rotors ready to be put on. I'm wondering if that will do anything too.

Also, the car was in a small "fender bender" in the driver's side rear but the frame doesn't appear to have been straightened out at all back there and all of the suspension pieces look untouched.

 

i turn my front rotors and it still shake, so i replaced a new one, shake gone.

 

did it only shake while braking? or during highway driving? the car shakes when I use the brakes, but I know that's because the rotors are warped.

 

I have the same problem with my 2003 OZ except i have new rims and tires. With me it seems to be heat related. When it was cold outside I had no problem doing 70 and up but when got hot the shaking starts. Sometimes at night it doesn't even do it

 

Id guess a warped rotor or accident didnt help. I had a truck that never drove the same after it was stolen. Dropped in on the rotors and it just never could get straight or stop hwy shake.

 

the same corner where the toe cannot be brought in to spec ... that's where I'd start.

 

like i told on other thread, car that have been in accident or abused by previous owner most of the time will shake. It all depend on how the car was driven. Like hitting curb, bump, etc.

 

Start what? Looking for something off or wrong? I'm wondering if the toe could have been adjusted more with some shims. But either way, it is less than 0.5 degrees off, so I can't imagine it should make much of a difference.

I understand that stuff like this will change the suspension geometry. My question is what things can/should be done to fix this. I'm not willing to just accept a vibrating steering wheel. I am willing to accept that the fix may not be cheap.

But I guess I'll start with replacing the brakes and tires and see how it goes. The guy that balanced the wheels said he got them "closer", but maybe they were difficult to balance for some reason.

 

Nine times out of 10 a vibration on the highway is caused from bad wheel balance or a damaged tire. Even with good tread depth a tire can be bad by having a slipped belt, cupping, flat spotted or damaged side wall. Any one of those issues will cause vibration. New tires and a high speed dynamic balance, NO STATIC BALANCING, will probably cure the problem.

 

Thanks for the useful information. Could you elaborate on the high speed vs static balancing? Also I see you are in NJ, can you recommend a place?