scary vibration on the hwy

[tonytony]

well my steering wheel shakes violently when cruising on the hwy speed around 85mph, but its fine around 60mph nothing too bad. Also my steering wheel has some play, could the wheels be shifting left to right because of the extra play in the steering wheel? I know it's not my bushings because I was just under there a while ago and they're worn but still in decent condition. Could it be something loose with my steering rack? thanks

[rayz]

check your tie bar bushings. when the car is parked, grab one of the front wheels and try to shake it side to side. if it moves, youre tie rod bushings need to be replaced. or the entire tie rod assembly. id just check all the bushings up front.

[M-technik-3]

Ball joints, tires throw a wheel weight? Brakes bad? many symptoms.

[tonytony]

hmmm actually it does move, and for the loose steering wheel how is that fixed?

[christophbmw]

go balance your tires. one of your wheel weights might of fallen off. thats prob why its so sudden. if that doesnt do the trick then you might have bad tie rods.

[Jon325i]

One thing worth checking are the wheels themselves. More specifically, are any of the wheel weights loose/missing? One way to determine if this is the problem is swap your front wheels & tires with the rear then go for a spin and see what happens. If the steering wheel vibration is gone, go get all your wheels rebalanced.

I had something similar happen to me once a while back. I was worried it was some kind of pricy fix. Turned out to be an out-of-balance wheel. $10 fixed it.

Jon

[tonytony]

I still have my wheel weights, but I'll just take it back to the shop where I got it and get it rebalance and see if that helps any.

[chesster6969]

How many miles on the front steering/suspension components.

I replaced all my front suspension components, plus bushings and tie rod ends, and control arms. The new components have revealed that the steering rack is loose and needs to be replaced.

I had the shaking steering wheel/ shaky tracking on my car when going about 60mph.
Any clunk sounds when turning?

[tonytony]

I have about 98k on it, and the only time it clunks is when I turn into an inclinded driveway.

[chesster6969]

You could have a bunch of loose components then. I sure did. Let it go to far (lipe the PO did) and youll be replacing a lot of things.

Check the Tie Rod ends for looseness and also the control arms like Rayzs suggested.

Your steering wheel shaking will improve once you fix the steering components.

[Saul325is]

Balancing will help, alignment will fix it. Same thing happend to me, you can feel the vibrations in the steering wheel especially.

-Saul