On the highway , as the car reaches about 80 mph the steering wheel starts to shake. Could it be the wheels lost their balance? I noticed also that one of the front wheels has some play in it when i try to move the wheel up and downwith my hands. (One hand on top other hand on bottom of wheel) The amount of play is prob about 1/16 of inch. Can this cause the wheel to vibrate and cause steering vibration?

 

Yes, get them balanced. They could also be out of round.

 

balance them

 

On this matter, You might have a wheel bearing problem. What I would do first is tighten the axle nut. I have replaced both front wheel bearings already and just recently thought I was going to have to replace one of them again. I had checked for play at one time and when I was about to replace it I noticed I had more play than the last time I checked it. As I was taking it apart to replace the wheel bearing, I was putting the socket into the axle nut and noticed that it was loose. I tightend it with my impact and put everything back together. I checked it and there was no more play. So checked that first otherwise your looking at a wheel bearing going bad. I think the size of the socket you need for the axle nut is 34mm.

 

Where exactly is the axle nut? Can it be reached without taking anything apart?

 

You have to take the wheel off. It's the nut in the center off the rotor. The one with the cotter pin.

 

When the wheel bearing was about to go out on my car, the mechanic jiggled my tire back and forth to show me that it moved when it shouldn't.

I knew something was up because I heard a squeaking noise though. It's more likely that your wheels are not balanced than a bad wheel bearing, I think.

 

To clarify, I never said that the cause of the shimmy in the steering wheel at highway speeds was do to a bad wheel bearing. I was just addressing the second issue he had on his car. I hope that my info is not misleading anyone.

 

Hey is this only happening on the same highway, on the same part of it, try some runs on nicer streets, hit 80 see what happens, i know USE A RADAR DETECTOR so you dont post i got pulled over for trying this, im saying this cause i get this when i go to work and on a certain part of the highway it does that and as soon as i pass that part it stops and i went 80 on side street i didnt do it so im fine, try it if you want, remember not my fault if you get ticket

 

you hafta replace your lower ball joint. that's prolly why there is 1/16 of an inch play. i have the same problem. can you notice some vibration when going over bumps?

 

When going over bumps the wheels kinda have a dendency to steer themselves and the steering starts to feel like i dont have much control over the car unless i hold steering very thight. Maybe it is a lower ball joint, can the joint be changed by itself or i will have to buy the whole lower control arm? The steering overall feels loose so maybe its a combination of things. It would cost way to much to replace every joint.

 

I have a little play in my steering wheel at virtually any speed past 40 or so. Not sure if this is just common with front wheel drive cars, indicative of the need for a wheel balancing or something else.

 

yes, you can replace ball joints without replacing the whole control arm.

 

make sure your cv boots aren't torn. It' probably not your CV joints, but bad cv joints can lead to vibration in steering wheel.

 

Hello everyone, I am a newbie here. I am experiencing a vibration in my steering wheel at 60MPH+ . I have already had the tires balanced but it didn't help. The guy at NTB said I had cupping on my tires, but I checked them out and look fine to me. They aren't that old. The right side of hood shakes when my steering wheel vibrates, so I'm guessing it's something on the front right side causing the problem. Anyone have any similar problems?

 

Same here as well. 2000 se still on stock struts.
tires have been recently ballanced. alignment checks out. Rotated tires and problem still there.
I get the left to right steering wheel shake @ 60.
And also a loose or clunking feeling when goin over iregular roads.
Like when the wheel drops down to make contact w/ the lower road surface it clunks or has a loose feeling.
What do blown sruts feel like or how can I tell?

Thanks in advance. Mike

 

read this thread and all the q's will be answered

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=417399