Also be aware that almost all half shafts replaced out-of-warranty are rebuilt units. Normally they're perfectly fine, but sometimes the people doing the inspections on the returned "cores" overlook a very elusive cause of shaking in the steering wheel under moderate acceleration, as you described. That is caused by worn spots inside the inner CV joint housing. As the three large rollers run in and out of those worn areas, they bind and refuse to move to allow the joint to swivel and change length as it goes around. By binding when under load, instead of changing length, the shaft pushes on the spindle, which is attached to the steering linkage. It's actually tugging and pushing on the steering linkage, so you feel it in the steering wheel.
One clue which can take some experience to observe, is with a binding CV joint, the steering wheel shimmy usually occurs three times per wheel revolution, while a broken tire belt causes one shimmy per wheel revolution. Also, you can see the steering wheel wobble from a broken tire belt at real low speeds, such as when driving through a parking lot. You won't feel anything from a worn inner CV joint unless the engine is under load, and that usually gets much worse when turning sharply at the same time, as in when accelerating out of a parking lot, onto the road.
The best clue is when the shaking starts right after a rebuilt half shaft is installed. The supplier won't argue about replacing the shaft with a different one.
Saturday, November 2nd, 2019 AT 2:22 PM