Tahoesilvers4

My car is a 2004 2.7 with 63,000 miles.

I have search the net and the forums finding the exact same issue.

My steering wheel at times will shake quite a bit. What's odd is that it is intermittent. And only at speeds above 40 but there's no rhyme or reason as to when it will shake. It makes no difference if I am in neutral applying power using the brakes etc. It's sort of has a mind of its own.

The problem did start when I put the current set of tires on it. However an intermittent problem does not make sense if it were a balance issue. Seems like it should be on the same sets of road and smooth on the same set generally as well.

The tires are the ones that were with the car when I bought it about six months ago I took them off during the winter. And they are a very cheap set of tires.

Is it possible that these tires on certain roads just cause a bad vibration?

It seems to me that balance and or alignment would be present at all times at higher speeds especially.

My current situation is I could be driving 90 and totally smooth 50 totally smooth than a mile later the wheel will vibrate

thejulex

Vibrations are usually caused by:

1) unbalanced/damaged tires/wheels
2) worn control arms
3) worn CV axles
4) worn wheel bearings (but that is usually accompanied by noise).


Given the sporadic and unpredictable nature of you shakes, look at control arms first. Any arm with cracked bushing will allow for uncontrolled movement that will result in wheel shakes.

G0to60

Have you checked your front control arms and/or front CV joints?

Mine had a similar shaking that was a combination of a worn PS axle and cracked control arm bushings. Granted mine had ~155k miles when this happened so yours seems a little young for those problems but it's worth a look.

Here is what one of the upper control arms looked like:


Here is what the old axle looked like:

Tahoesilvers4

Wheel/tires don't make sense given how random it is.

Would/could these others be so sporadic? For instance. Yesterday of course after I write this I get one moment of shake at 40mph. Then perfect for the next 20 miles...

G0to60

Yep, mine was sporadic above 45mph or so. It would shake for a couple of miles and then go away for several more.

Tahoesilvers4

And replacing the axel was the fix?

G0to60

Replacing the axle and replacing all 8 front control arms. That fixed the shake.

Tahoesilvers4

Was your issue totally at random??

thejulex

you were already told by few people what your issues is.

Dive under the car and look at your bushings and give axles a yank sideways too. If there is any movement/slop sideways, your axles and also suspect (they move along the shaft by design though).

G0to60

Look up at post #5 where I said that it was. Just get under your car and check it out. It's as easy as taking off one of the wheels and looking around. I even gave you pictures of what to look for.