Steering wheel shakes while driving

Tiny
REALWOMAN4U2015
  • MEMBER
  • 2006 CADILLAC CTS
  • 127,733 MILES
These last few weeks, I have had issues with my steering wheel shaking while driving over forty mph. Went to a shop and they told me my tires were bad, so I purchased new tires and had an alignment done which did not fix the problem I was having.

I took my vehicle to another location to have them look into this further and I was told my wheels on the front were bent which the tire company did not tell me about.
So they moved the bent wheels to the rear until the new ones came in. A few days later I went back to have the new wheels put on and while driving home it was doing the same thing as before.

I went back to the tire company and explained to them what problems I was having. They told me the tires were not balanced and aligned correctly, so they balanced them again. I took my car in today to the place where I had the alignment done and it explained to them what the tire company told me. The mechanic looked into this further and agreed the alignment was not done correctly, so they did it again and told me that it was driving better now.

I started driving home, and the steering wheel is still shaking. Not sure what is causing this to happen. Does anyone have any idea what could be the problem?
Wednesday, July 4th, 2018 AT 9:33 AM

5 Replies

Tiny
AL514
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,632 POSTS
Hello there, sorry to hear about your issue. Is this shaking while you are just driving or does it happen more or less when you are braking to come to a stop?
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Wednesday, July 4th, 2018 AT 12:04 PM
Tiny
REALWOMAN4U2015
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It only shakes when I am driving over forty mph.
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Wednesday, July 4th, 2018 AT 12:56 PM
Tiny
AL514
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,632 POSTS
Did the shop you brought it to inspect all the steering and suspension components? I can see a bent rim or out of balance tire doing this, but with everything done already it sounds like that is where you may want to concentrate your efforts. I would have thought they would have done that before aligning it, but maybe they missed something. Here is a guide below for you to go though a few checks if you're up for it:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/steering-wheel-shakes-when-accelerating-or-braking
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Friday, July 6th, 2018 AT 9:40 AM
Tiny
REALWOMAN4U2015
  • MEMBER
  • 7 POSTS
No, they never checked any of those components. I made an appointment to take it somewhere else to have them look into this further.
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Friday, July 6th, 2018 AT 2:28 PM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,414 POSTS
So the steering wheel shakes the same now as it did before the new tires and alignment? Only above forty mph. Is it a side to side shake like the wheel it trying to rotate in your hands or more of a bounce like the steering wheel is going in/out?
They did all four tires correct? Does it make any noises while turning at low speed, like pops or clicks? Shaking side-side is 90% of the time a bad tire, the rest of the time it can be any item that is trying to stop the tire as it rotates, a bad wheel bearing, bad axle assembly, damaged brake parts or something like a steering rack seal that is failing.
When they moved the "bent" rims to the back, if those were the problem you would have felt the shake leave the steering wheel and start feeling it in the seat as the "bad" rotating mass would now be in the rear.
Let us know what the new shop says. It may help others faced with the same issue.
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Monday, July 9th, 2018 AT 3:29 PM

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