Steering wheel vibration

Hello,
I have had a steering wheel vibration for awhile now. Had my tires balanced, new tires installed and still have the issue. Mainly at highway speeds. I have seen lots of posts about bushings and possibly cv shafts. I checked the front suspension out today and did not see anything major stand out, nothing loose from me being able to move with my hands. Would the rear control arm bushings be the best place to start? Do you have to remove the lower control arm to install those?

Did you have 4 new tires installed and balanced? Steering wheel vibrations are usually front end related, and high speed vibrations are often the tires.

Yes I had all 4 tires replaced and balanced. Still did it on my way home after having the new tires put on.

Try something simple it probably won't make any difference since your car was doing it before the new tires also. Swap the front tires to the rear and rear to the front. See if the vibration changes. You also may want to check you lug nuts making sure they are all tight.

Had the same on my 2010 sedan when it crossed 80K when it went back to VW at 140K nothing serious. The vibration was enough that it'd shake the center console arm rest. Swapped from summer rims to winter rims still had the issues, regardless of what ones were where.

I felt it was CV issues as I would notice it would come and go depending on if i was taking turns on the highway, but it never was fully gone.

Again I didn't bug me enough to start throwing parts at it without verify more.

Just my two cents.

couple of things. My '03 jetta had bad inner joints - would give a whole car vibration diagonally front to back under acceleration. Fixed that then had a shimmy in the front at higher speeds that would come and go with acceleration. Ended up being tire balance, took 2 tries to get it right. Told them the 2nd time "after you zero out the balance, take the tire off, roll it on the ground and then put it back and make sure it's still zero (to make sure it isn't a machine problem). Also had them make sure to use a pin plate to mount the tire on the balancer vs just a centering cone.

Perfect balance, no shimmy now.

I had a similar issue. The noise would vary depending on the speed and road surface. The issue was alignment, as a result of the front struts/ springs being shot. This was at 87K on a 2010 from the North East (Rust city).

Good luck with your diagnosis!

I have noticed that usually above 60-65 mph is where I notice it the most. Also when I go into a turn the vibration will go away and as I start to come back out of the turn and get straight again, it comes back.

Rear lower control arm bushings on the front control arm. Had the same issue on my vehicle until I changed them out. You cannot see the wear on them installed. Only after pulling them and pushing on the center with a large wrench or crowbar will you see the cracks in the rubber.

andydg said:

Rear lower control arm bushings on the front control arm. Had the same issue on my vehicle until I changed them out. You cannot see the wear on them installed. Only after pulling them and pushing on the center with a large wrench or crowbar will you see the cracks in the rubber.

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Can you replace these on the car or do you have to remove the lower control arm?

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/lca-lower-control-arm-rear-bushing-replace/

I put this together.

several folks have done it on the car.

Okay so I installed the rear lower control arm bushings and that did not make any difference. Everything is fine until about 60-70 mph then it starts vibrating and then it kind of goes away again when I reach about 80-85 mph.

Just as a perhaps. I had similar problems, even went underneath to inspect rear control arm bushings. I checked tire pressures as it had been a while. I raised all 4 wheels to 35 psi carefully. I was very surprised by the results. Very much smoother Tires are Michelin MXV4.