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Steering Wheel Vibration: My Car Shakes While I’m Driving

by Eddie Carrara

I have been turning wrenches in the automotive business since 1986. My title is an ASE-Certified Master Technician, my mission is to help you understand the machine you drive every day and help save you some money along the way. If you find this site helpful, please comment and share the information.

Here are some reasons your steering wheel is shaking and what you can do about it! This wheel is full of sand and rocks, you may this this picture is extreme but I see this type of problem often! 

Source: Eddie Carrara

Shaky Steering Wheel?

Your car shakes while driving down the highway, the steering wheel vibration is driving you crazy, and without you even realizing it, it's causing you to feel tired. It can be quite exhausting holding onto a steering wheel that’s shaking.

Do You Need an Alignment? Probably Not!

I hear this from customers all the time; they pull into the garage and say, I need to have an alignment on my car because my steering wheel shakes when I drive on the highway."

The truth is an alignment has nothing to do with your car shaking or your steering wheel vibrating. If you tell your mechanic you need an alignment and they don't ask why, find a new mechanic. A good mechanic will always ask why you need work done on your car so they can get enough information to decide how to fix the problem on the first visit.

Alignment, Balance: Two Different Things

Mechanics use these words to refer to different operations, though sometimes you get them both done at once.

Alignment

Alignments only realign the tires so they are all pointing in the proper direction while driving down the road. If a car’s tires need alignment, it may pull one way or the other instead of straight when you let go of the steering wheel, or the tires may wear unevenly (deeper on the inside than the outside or vice versa).

Alignment is something you might do routinely every year or so. It won't stop a steering wheel vibration, but it's good preventative maintenance, especially if you often drive on potholed, cracked, or dirt roads.

Balance

If a car's tires need balancing, on the other hand, it may shake at freeway speed, or the tires may wear in a cupped or scalloped pattern. Balancing a tire means making sure the weight of the tire-and-wheel unit is balanced all around the axle, with every section having equal weight.

The first step in balancing a tire is to match the heaviest part of the rim (usually the valve stem) to the lightest part of the rim (a yellow dot painted by the manufacturer on the tire's sidewall). Then the mechanic places the tire and rim on a balance machine, which positions plastic or metal weights as needed on the outer part of the rim to fine-tune the balance.

Balancing is something you might do routinely whenever you rotate the tires, every six months or 6,000–7,500 miles. Sometimes tire stores will offer you lifetime tire balancing and rotation. I highly recommend this service. Checking the tires routinely to see if they are wearing oddly will make them last longer and cost you less in the long run.

A pothole may affect your tire's balance or its alignment

Tires Out of Balance

The most common reason your tires shake or your steering wheel vibrates is simple: Your tires are out of balance. Tires take a beating when they hit potholes, bridge expansion joints, and curbs. Hitting any one of these objects could knock off a wheel weight, dent a rim, or cause a bubble in the sidewall of the tire, causing it to be out of balance. If you lose a wheel weight, it's an easy fix; you just need to have your tire balanced at the local garage.

Balancing should cost around $15 to $20 a tire. Of course, denting a rim or damaging a tire could end up costing you more, because you might have to replace the tire instead of just balancing it.

Pothole Damage: Can These Tires Be Saved?

If you hit a pothole at high speed you could dent the rim and damage the tire. 

Source: Eddie Carrara

Foreign Objects, Snow, and Ice Can Make a Steering Wheel Shake

Another common cause of steering wheel vibration or car shake is having something lodged in a tire, like a large bolt, or any metal object you may have picked up from the road's surface (I have seen even wrenches and screwdrivers impaling a tire).

If you live in an area that has snow, plowing through a snowbank could cause snow and ice to become trapped in the rim or wheel and cause a serious steering wheel vibration. Luckily, this is easy to fix: Just rinse out the snow and ice with a garden hose or pressure washer.

Tires abnormally worn can cause an extremely bad vibration accompanied by a noise like a worn wheel bearing. This can happen slowly over time without the customer even knowing about it. 

Source : Eddie Carrara

If you drive through a snow bank and have a horrible vibration soon after, check your wheels for packed snow and ice.

Source : Eddie Carrara

Low Tire Pressure Can Cause Your Car to Shake

In addition to being a common cause of steering wheel vibration or car shake, low tire pressure can cause the following problems:

• poor fuel mileage
• abnormal tire wear
• vibrations
• blowouts
• tire-edge wear
• chopping or scalloping

And the list goes on. A quick check of your tire pressures can save you money in the long run, in many ways.

In cold weather, tire pressures drop. When the temperatures outside drop below 30˚F, I recommend raising the tire pressure about 3 psi above where you would normally keep it.

Bald Tires Cause Very Bad Vibrations

If your tires are so worn that the ridges on the tread are smoothed out or steel fibers are showing through the rubber anywhere, change your tires immediately. Bald tires will definitely cause your steering wheel to vibrate and your car to shake. Furthermore, if you continue driving on bald tires, they are likely to blow out, and having a tire blow out at highway speeds is extremely dangerous, especially if it's a front tire.

Don't be afraid to look at your tires to see if bald tires are causing your problems. You need to physically look at each tire. Turning the steering wheel to one side will give you a better view of the tread surface on your front tires. You will need to get on your hands and knees to check your rear tires closely.

This tire is bald down to the steel cords which is very dangerous! 

Source: Eddie Carrara

When you let that tire that was bald go too far! 

Source: Eddie Carrara

Other Vibrations That Could Be Confused With Tire Vibration

Vibrations in your car don't always come from tire problems. In the first video, there is not only bad shaking from an unbalanced tire but also a wheel-bearing noise that is louder when the steering wheel is turned to one side. In the second, the car shakes hard when the brakes are applied; the problem is with the brake rotors.

If you have a question or comment, just ask. 

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