I have had a slight wobble in the steering wheel for quite sometime now (enough that i have to keep a tight grip on the wheel) so I put it up on the lift to check everything out. Wheel bearings, ball joints, steering linkage, all feel tight and struts/mounts are new as of last year and still appear to be in good shape. Had the tires rotated and balanced last month. What else could it be?

 

Severly worn struts?
Shifted belt in the tire(s)?
Bad inner/outer tie rod(s)?
Bent rim?

To name a few...

 

Hey, forgive me if I say something stupid, but I bought my 02 6 speed a few months ago and experienced this problem. After bringing it to my buddies shop and having it balanced, the problem persisted.

Another friend of mine was able to set me up with another set of tires (pretty worn out, had maybe 3/32nd tread left and found that one of my rims were bent. I could tell they all had some road rash, but wasn't able to see that they were bent. He replaced that rim for me with an 01 SE rim and now, without that extremely bad rim and slightly better tires, the car was no longer vibrating and the steering wheel wasn't vibrating. So my advice is, check if the rim is bent?

Hope this helps

 

not to hijack the thread...but sometimes i have vibrations in my steering wheel when i get above 60mph...new sway bar links and bushings month ago..tires new and balanced month ago as well.. maybe wheel bearings?

 

Wheel bearings will make your car sound similar to a Cessna airplane while you're driving down the road if they're on the way out.

All you have to do is jack the car up and try wiggling the wheels back and forth. If there's play, then it's possible it's a wheel bearing.

Again, I'd check the tie rods. A bad tie rod can mean bad news if it's not found and fixed ASAP.

 

thanks man im gonna check that out tomorrow when my car's on the lift

 

If all suspension and steering parts check out. I would vote tires.

Rims are less commonly bent, but tires often develop bad belts, and cause particularly a low speed wobble which you never see relating to balance.

Check the tires for uneven wear.... My ex's car had a low speed (and high) wobble, and the tires were basically worn like ovals (exaggeration) but you get the picture.

 

Following up on what CraigSE said, tires do have the ability to actually "warp" shape. Aside from uneven wear or shifted belts, it's also possible for tires to take on an ever so slight oblong shape, or get knots in them (more common on big truck tires), from sitting or being abused/improperly mounted.

 

How does that look with that 01 rim with three 02/03 rims as they have the center piece and thicker spokes, ours are thinner and no center piece lugs exposed?