Steering wheel and car shaking! is this alignment? helppppp if u could

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Aviation

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Hello folks. Lately ive noticed my car has a little shake to it and i want it gone!

when i let go of my steering wheel, i notice it shaking back and forth left to right, really annoying and it never did this before

also, it feels like there is a slight amount of play in the wheel, maybe 1/4" or so, but this could just be mental, not sure. And my car is pulling way to the left

is this an alignment issue? should a normal alignment take care of this?

or could it be something else?

any insight? thanks in advance.
 
Could be:
* Alignment
* Tire wear
* Warped Rotor

When's the last time you rotated your tires? How's the tire wear?
When's the last time you have an alignment? You run over/into anything?
 
i think it is out of alignment, it pulls to the left when i let go of the wheel...

i do believe i need new brakes and rotors...ive been meaning to get them for a little while now

havent checked my tire wear, and havent had the tires rotated
 
what's the mileage on the tires?? Could be that you are out of alignment, that cause un-even tire wear, and causing the car to favor "drifting" to the tire wear..

Suggested alignemnt is once every 6 months or AT LEAST once a year. but if you have any changes to suspension (i.e. - springs) then it should be at least 2x a year.
 
Pulling is probably alignment. Shake could be tire balance, the little balance weights fall off every now and then.

Does it get worse/better when you hit the brakes?

Does the shake get worse up to a particular speed, but then get better as you go faster?
 
your car pulls to the LEFT?!?!:eek: don't ever fall asleep on accident...
 
At certain speeds its hardly noticable...at others its worse

i cant remember if its worse or better when i brake...ill come back in this thread after i drive home

so if i get new breaks, rotors....tire rotation and balance and an aligment...it should go away?
 
All those things should be done on a regular basis regardless of how much your car is shaking/out of alignment.
 
Get the tires balanced and have an allignment done.
If the shaking still doesn't go away you might have a broken belt in one of the tires. Which would mean new tires on the front at least.
 
Move the front wheels to the back, take it for a ride and see if it gets better. A broken belt/tire out of balance feels MUCH STRONGER on the front than on the back.

I don't imagine this would make it go away if it is one of those, but it would help you isolate the problem with just a few minutes of work.
 
Aviation said:
Yeah NickAnderson...cuz that answers my question so well!

and really gives me insight to my problem, wow

if you are going to make a comment like that, that isnt helpful at all...stay out of this thread.
Click to expand...

Chill out there sir, I was just stating you should do those things on a regular basis. In no way was I intending to not help you. To me it sounded like you probably didn't do any of the things listed regularly(which if done can help you avoid these problems). I don't know what made you think I was being un-helpful but you are entitled to your own opinion. Your questions were already answered a post or 2 before I even said that.
 
I think its your alignment. When my friends car was pulling to the left really bad, it was an alignment problem. Paid about a 100 bucks for the labor and got it riding nice. As far as the shaking, I wouldn't know.
 
Well im going to start with new brakes and rotors since i need brakes anyway. Then after that im gonna take her in for a balance, alignment and perhaps rotation and hopefully shell be smooth as silk again!
 
helping out

The car's pulling to the left is most probably 1) steering alignment problem 2) tire on left might be under-inflated OR right tire is over-inflated.

The shake in the steering wheel would indicate that there is a tire, either one or both in front, that is out of balance. As stated earlier, the tire weights do come off from time to time.

As to your inquiry about the brake rotors, you know when a rotor is warped whenever you use your brakes. If ever you are traveling and hit your brakes and notice a rather prominent vibration of the front end, then your rotors are warped. The vibrating becomes a voilent shaking the faster you are traveling. It's spooky.

Save yourself some trouble and have everything checked and fixed in one visit.
 
When I First Bought My Ls The Steering Wheel Would Shake And Vibrate Hard Around 60 Mph And The Car Would Pull To The Left Around 80mph. My Mechanic Told Me That My Rear Left Side Lower Control Arm Was Loose And Was Gonna Fall Off, That My Stabilizer Bar And The Bushings Where Bad,& That The Sway Bar End Links Needed To Be Changed. After We Replaced That Stuff The Car Was Fine
 
Driveshaft could be out of balance . . . but could be alignment as well.
 
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