Steering Wheel Shake

Suspension, brake, and hydraulic/electric steering discussion.
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Mooseman
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by Mooseman »

May sound a bit old timey but try to find a shop that does on-car wheel balancing. They would spin the wheels on the car with a mechanism attached to the wheel that give the amount of imbalance and where. This would balance the entire assembly together (tires, wheels, rotors). The front are doable this way but the rears, because of the LS diff, isn't but that's not where the problem is.
2011 Caprice PPV, former RCMP test vehicle, never put into service
Build Thread: http://www.newcaprice.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2419
E142631
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by E142631 »

Update the car now has a new steering rack being the last piece of the puzzle everything in the front end is brand new now. This did not solve the issue....The car is at the alignment shop and they are keeping it for a few days to try and figure out what is going on. They told me they did a re balance of the front wheels and an alignment the car drove perfectly for them.....they let it sit till next morning and bam same problem steering wheel shake above 55mph which is the same issue I had, some days the car will shake some days it doesn't no idea why. I'm lost now so we will see what they find. To my knowledge this car has never been wrecked.
CrashTestDummy
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by CrashTestDummy »

Sounds like your tires might be flat-spotting in the overnight sit, and you're sensing that. Could be a combination of a broken cord in the carcass and the weight of the car sitting on that spot overnight to exascerbate that feeling. I'd expect the only way to fix that would be to try a different brand of tires.

WHAT are the alignment settings the shop is using on your car?
Gene Beaird,
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E142631
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by E142631 »

So the alignment shop basically gave up and told me they couldn't figure it out. They even swapped a known good set of tires and wheels on the car and still had vibration above 55mph.

Camber LEFT 0.1 RIGHT 0.0
Caster 6.0 5.9
Toe 0.05 0.06
SAI 11.9 12.2
Included 12.1 12.2
Angle

Cross Camber 0.2
Cross Caster 0.0
Cross SAI -0.03
Total Toe 0.11



I hope I listed those right.
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storm9c1
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by storm9c1 »

I've been quiet on here for a while. But today I jumped on here to see about any new tire recommendations... and saw this posting.

Short story:
Just wanted to add that I'm a "me too"... and I've had this problem since 0 miles, which may add an interesting twist on this journey.

My 2011 9C3 only has 8K miles on it since new. I drive it less than 1000 miles per year. It never sees bad weather.

But my tires are original. DOT code is late 2010 (10 years old). And that's too old in my book for safety (I had a blow-out last year on my truck with 10-year old tires). I have a friend who had a blowout in a minty '95 Caprice that also had a blowout this year with 10-year old tires. Destroyed his fender. My tires are starting to develop that brown hue that signals EOL for them. I learned not to chance these things.

Anyways, I'll be following this thread because I always assumed the tires were the cause of my shake. I'll be getting new tires soon and I'll be upset if new tires don't fix the shake in my steering wheel.


Longer story:
This post caught my attention because I've owned the car since 0 miles (a Criswell car, 1 of 13, later becoming 1 of 3, as some of the old timers may know). It had a slight steering wheel shake above 50 MPH since day one. It always seemed to come and go, probably because most of my time is spent on local roads under 50 MPH. I should have had it diagnosed under warranty, but didn't. I bought the car new out of state. And my local dealer always seemed confused about my car because they didn't ever sell any Caprices. I was always treated like a freak there... guys would come out and scratch their heads, staring at my car. At first, this was cool. But the more I took my car there (ie: to fix paint flaws and other minor warranty service), the more I was concerned. I was given a run-around since day one about the paint flaws, so I had to take the car back to Criswell to have those fixed (which was ridiculous). I'm trying to keep the car mint and I'm always funny about anybody touching it. I do my own oil changes and general upkeep (and others that know me know I have a serious garage with lifts, etc, and have been wrenching on old B-Bodies for 20 years). In the end, yes, call me dumb for never having it looked at under warranty. But it is what it is. Life moves fast. And when you have 9 cars to maintain (and have fun with!), it moves even faster.
Tom (AKA: Storm)
2011 Caprice 9C3: L77, 8K miles, first-owner, purchased July 2011.
1995 Caprice 9C1: LT1, 178K miles, summer car.
1995 Impala SS: LT1, 21K miles.
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E142631
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by E142631 »

I hate to break it to ya but I put 2 different brands of tires on my car as well as 2 brand new factory wheels with no success. Only thing I haven't had done is a road force balance. I have a buddy who has a G8 had the same issue since day one.
JUNKYARD_JACK
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by JUNKYARD_JACK »

Damn, my new to me caprice does this same thing lol. I thought it might be a bent wheel or something out of balance. Guess I'll have to dive into it to see what's up.
JUNKYARD_JACK
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by JUNKYARD_JACK »

So after getting new wheels for my car to replace the bent steelies I still had a vibration in my steering wheel. I then put two new front tires on my car, I did all this work and I balanced them so I know it was done correctly. Also at this time I put new front rotors on the car and I always had a vibration while driving and while braking but they felt different and I knew I had to get the driving vibration solved before I could get the braking vibration solved. I figured new wheels/tire/rotors would do the trick. Vibration now is as bad as it ever was and on top of that I'm seeing excessive brake dust on my left front wheel (and admittedly my left front caliper was hard to push in) I believe that I have a caliper that is sticking and its causing excessive drag, heating my rotors up and causing the vibration. I think reading on the G8 forums a few guys said that new calipers and rotors are what fixed their vibration issues, anyone else have any similar experiences?

Truthfully I feel like this was fault LOL because if I had really taken apart my calipers and cleaned and greased everything this might not have ever happened but now I am looking at turning my new rotors already and I am considering upgrading my calipers at this time as well but we'll see because I don't really feel like sinking more money in at this time.
bstoner
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by bstoner »

CrashTestDummy wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:03 am
E142631 wrote: Fri Jun 12, 2020 7:15 pm Sorry I forgot to mention the Rotors and pads are brand new and runout has been verified to be in spec. No excessive shaking while braking in fact when brakes applied around 60mph the vibration slows down. I cleaned all mating surfaces today and installed the new rims and tires seemed to help some but didn't totally eliminate the issue. Wheels balanced perfectly as well.....I'm lost ! Thanks for your help ! Also does anyone notice these cars like to pull you around the road depending on the road surface and how curved or flat it is?
Yes!

Have you verified you have no broken belts in the tires? How are the front wheel hubs? If you had (a) bent wheel(s), I'd check that the hubs are in good shape. If they've been replaced, still verify. The ball-bearing style replaceable hubs are notorious for not lasting long. What are the alignment settings?
Yes x2.... My wife doesn't notice it but I feel it. The car is sensitive to road crown. I have new rims, new pads/rotors, cleaned all mating surfaces, new tires, road force balanced, and 2 alignments. Nothing made a difference. I think it is the inherent setup of the electric rack. I don't like it personally. I prefer hydraulic. Gives a better feedback feel in my opinion. (Thinking about all the minute (my-noot) corrections you subconsciously make to keep the vehicle straight). However I don't get a vibration, shimmy, or shake.
2014 Caprice PPV, 6.0L, BTR Stage 2 Cam, 3.45, 3" exhaust, Rotofab intake, Chris Henry tuned, future LSA....
JUNKYARD_JACK
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Re: Steering Wheel Shake

Post by JUNKYARD_JACK »

So I have been fighting with the what seems to be pretty common steering wheel shake. It's driving me crazy. I have some perfect Camaro LS wheels on my car, I know they are not the issue. I have two new tires on my car and I know that all four are good, I balanced them myself. I was a tech for 11 years in a dealership setting, I have had a lot of training. Not to toot my own horn but most of the time I think I know what I am doing. That's why this is driving me crazy, I was like "oh yeah that's for sure in my front tires, no biggie" then I put new fronts on and it doesn't change. Rotated the tires and no change, installed new rotors and no change. Installed another set of new rotors with new AC Delco pads, still no change. Practically everything that rotates has been changed out so I'm now certain that this is in my suspension. WHICH is sorta obvious because I have a hellacious clunk in my driver front and I have A LOT of side to side deflection in my driver front tire. Has anyone has any success with replacing suspension parts and making the vibration go away at highway speeds(55-65)? I think I have an issue with my radius arms. I will either replace them or replace the bushings next in this saga.
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