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Steering wheel shaking mystery


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I had my wheels balanced and rotated as a result of having steering wheel shaking while driving straight on the highway. The problem I'm having now is at 75 to 80 miles per hour, on the highway, my car is smooth going straight and smooth turning left. But when I turn right( or bear right) the steering wheel and front end shake terribly. Pulled all wheels off and checked boots, bushings, brakes,ball joints. I am not a mechanic, but couldn't find anything wrong that stood out to me. Any suggestions or is there something else I should be looking at that may be the culprit?
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I had vibrations on my 08 Outback with 100k miles when on the highway. I had multiple wheel balances from different shops. 2x at Firestone and once at pep boys. They couldn’t remedy the problem so I took it to a specialty auto shop and got a road force balance which applies a load on the tire as they spin to more accurately balance the wheels, but The car still shook at 55-70mph.

 

One of the issues about wheel balancing is that they only spin the wheels 30-40mph, which will not mimic high way speeds.

 

Keep in mind I have new bearings, bushings, and axels.

 

One day I replaced my rotors and pads and the vibration magically disappeared. I guess it didn’t matter how many times I got the wheels balanced, it was the unsprung mass that spun with with the wheels.

 

I noticed that the rotors were pretty worn and had some valleys worn into them.

 

I hope this helps!

 

 

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Also check your bearings! That’s usually the culprit, especially if it is biased to one side of the car.

 

If you turn right and it shakes, then it’s the bearing on the left side. It will get worse over time.

 

If all else fails, like in my situation, then check your rotors. My case of wheel shake is super rare since it was vibrating whether or not I applied the brakes. Maybe my calipers were sticky and slightly rubbed against the rotors, I honestly don’t know.

 

 

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I had a mystery shake sporadically at highway speeds, off and on (more severe when on) braking. Turns out a pad's guide tabs & shim had built up so much rust and brake dust, that the pad would stick partially engaged in the bracket. Took em out, filed things down and touched up paint, shake-be-gone.
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I ended up doing front driver side wheel bearing.....still does the 75-80mph shake when turning right.....might go by Town Faire where they originally balanced everything and see what they say before I go grab my ankles at Subaru for a diagno$tic to at least see whats wrong IDK. I was just really hopeful that it was the wheel bearing.
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Sorry I did forget to mention when I had gone to Town Fair, they had done a front wheel alignment and 4 wheel balance. But I am going to check that front passenger caliper, The driver side one was fine when I pulled it off to do the wheel bearing
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Quick update*****

Front lower control arms are the culprit......Subaru quoted me around a thousand for the job which includes an alignment but a friend and I are going to do it ourselves for a fraction of the cost! I want to thank everyone for offering some assistance on this issue

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nice! I also got stop tech rotors and pads and steel braided lines.

 

I also replaced the lower control arms. It ended up being a pain in the ass because one of the bolts had seized and I had to replace the whole hub assembly. I even took it to a professional after not being able to remove the bolt and they couldn’t remove it as well, hence why I replaced the whole hub assembly. Otherwise, it’s an easy fix, but I live in NY, home of the rust.

 

 

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