I've been running into some bad luck with my car recently. One where i spun out on black ice, thankfully i didn't hit anything or anyone. A few times i hit a pot hole i didn't even see... Usually i'm good at seeing them but the last few pot holes came out of no where! haha Anyway, recently i noticed my steering wheel shaking / vibrating a bit when i hit around 78+ mph. I don't really notice it pulling in any direction on the highway, so i'm not sure if it's just the tires need rebalancing because of the pot holes or my alignment is screwed up from hitting those potholes. I didn't notice any bubbles on the tires so i'm thinking maybe the weight shifted on the tire and i need rebalancing? I'm being very optimistic...

 

when you drive, does the car veer to either direction without you holding the wheel? Yes=Alignment, does it just shake at different MPH? yes= balance

 

should i get all 4 tires rebalanced? i think it's just my front passenger one cause that one was the last one i hit and it was probably the hardest one too...

 

no they can check and see which one is out of balanced for you, and then fix accordingly!

 

if the balance doesn't help you might have bent a wheel with the potholes.

 

Is there a lot of snow stuck in the wheel spokes? Or is this without snow at all? When I get a bunch of snow in my wheels, it throws the balance off and they shake the steering wheel a little bit at higher speeds. After the snow melts, it's back to perfectly smooth.

 

Take her to a wheel shop and have the balance checked. If you bent the barrel on the wheel they will easily be able to see it when they spin balance it. If that all checks out get your alignment checked and see if you managed to bend anything. GL

 

An alignment problem wont cause your wheels to shake..

Either you:
Bent your wheel -> Replace
Knocked off a wheel weight -> Re-balance
Rotors are out of round -> Turn or replace

If you only get this vibration at the higher speeds, chances are your rotors need work.. Many people oversee this to be the cause of the problem.. I had an Audi come into the shop in which I work and he had this same problem. I rebalanced all his wheels with a road force balancer and the vibrations were still there past 75 mph.. I then turned his rotors and it was smooth as silk at 90 mph..

Good luck

 

hmmm i rebalanced the suspect tire i'm going to find a good wheel shop and do the other three as well as check to see if they are bent.

i'll check the rotor last if the above fails. So by turning the rotors you are just smoothing it out or actually flipping them with the rotor on the other side of the car?

 

"Warped" brake rotors would only cause a shimmy if you're _braking_ from high speed.

And, the reason I put "warped" in quotes is because a warped brake rotor is actually extremely rare. The vast majority of what causes shimmy under braking is pad deposits creating high spots on the rotor.

Shaking at high speeds if you're not braking has nothing to do with brake rotors. It can be caused by:

Wheel out of balance
Bent wheel
Something wrong in the suspension (tie rod, wheel bearing, etc.)

 

This is unlikely but check your lug nuts. My left front wheel was about to fall off a couple days after I bought it.

 

+1 on wheel bearing. My VIII had the same problem from a pothole. Actually bent the wheel bearing.

 

Bent wheel...i have this same problem now..My 2 rears are bent...maybe we can buy some stock wheels from someone and get a good deal...pm me if u find out ya wheel is bent.

 

Turn the rotor = Resurfacing on the lathe. If the rotors are really out of round, when you break, you will get vibrations. However, since the rotors spin along with the wheels, if they are really out of round, they will cause shimmy at higher speeds..

 

Thanks I'll go to the wheel shop this weekend.