cars steering wheel shakes bad when over 60 mph, help?

[aznpnoyracer]

like title says, it shakes at curtain speed but it doesnt do it when I hit the brakes so I dont think its the rotors. also, I removed my powersteering when I did my swap, but that was couple years ago and I dont think thats the problem, when I drive on the freeway, sometimes it feels like the car is pulling me to side to side like my steering has play. anyone have this problem? also, I just took of my driver side front and used the rear and I replaced the rear one with regular steelie wheel since I have bad camber problem but my car is only lowere by 2" at the most. if it is my rotors, how can I tell if bad or do you think its drive shafts?

[SMseagren83]

so ur using old tires?

sounds like u have bad tires or the tires need to be balanced. if it was ur brakes it would do it when applied.

tire issue. that is all.

[mozzandherb]

tire issue. that is all.

x2, definetely sounds like your tires

[prNonVtec4u]

sounds to me like either tires, inner tie rods, or rack & pinion problems... put the car up on jacks and shake the wheels in/out from left/right corners to see if there's any play(there shouldn't be at all) and while up you check over the tires for obvious lumps or imperfections

[Losiracer2]

a tire could be separated, that means the rubber is coming off of the steel belts its wrapped around in which case would cause a lump or bulge as someone said before. This is pretty dangerous if you see one of these, since the tread is about to rip apart from the tire itself. just run your hand around the circumference of the tire or look for anything that looks suspicious when you spin the tire.

[Otto]

Sounds like the problem mine has. Mechanic narrowed it down to the rack (everything outside it was checked several times, including the tires/wheels and steering column). But he didn't examine the rear with the same detail.

Here's my observations, does any of it sound familiar aznpnoyracer :
An increase in tire pressure helps a little bit.
Its not an oscillation. It varies with the road surface and wheel position.
If I try to correct for it, the car with jump to pulling in the opposite direction. So I look like a drunk driver if I'm not very delicate with it.

The toe of the rear right tire has been out a couple times I had an alignment done, so I'm wondering if if its moving a bit, which would cause some steering and explain way the front end checks out OK.

[aznpnoyracer]

thanks for the reply fellas, Ill try all yall sugestions, very helpfull peeps. thanks!

[JohnD1079]

This is my order of suggestions. tires, balance, alignement, and axles. i does this to me. at 60-65 it shakes, i speed p it goes away and then at like 70-75 it comes back i speed up and goes away. I heard its axle. I will be changing mine, but not soon enough, to tell you if it fixed my problem.
Rack n Pinion sound possible, i mean it does control the movement of your tires so its associated.

[cb7FoME]

that happened to my dads civic...we just go a tire rotation and the shake went away

[starchland]

Sounds like the problem mine has. Mechanic narrowed it down to the rack (everything outside it was checked several times, including the tires/wheels and steering column). But he didn't examine the rear with the same detail.

Here's my observations, does any of it sound familiar aznpnoyracer :
An increase in tire pressure helps a little bit.
Its not an oscillation. It varies with the road surface and wheel position.
If I try to correct for it, the car with jump to pulling in the opposite direction. So I look like a drunk driver if I'm not very delicate with it.

The toe of the rear right tire has been out a couple times I had an alignment done, so I'm wondering if if its moving a bit, which would cause some steering and explain way the front end checks out OK.

i got that shake too, great observations. im thinkin mine is either axle, or rack related. or hubcenric rings

[Otto]

Well its seems that a part my mechanic installed may be bad...so he's going to check them Monday unless I get to it over the weekend. I still need to go over the rear end though. Hoping its nice tomorrow to do it.