Steering wheel shakes

[jcb100]

Having a problem with front end. Steering wheel shakes a little at about 65. Gets worse at 75 and 90 shakes real bad. Had front end align done and nothing abnormal. Just put on new tires and balanced and still doing it..anybody help me here...it's not much fun to drive when the thing shakes

[TAF]

From what I've experienced...steering wheel shakes at specific speeds as you have described most ALWAYS are the result of improper balance. Keep in mind that most places (including the dealer's) balance equipment only do it with the tire at a equivelent speed of 45-50 MPH. Find a place that has "high-speed strobe balancing". We have a place here in Atlanta that does it up to 130 MPH.

Check this thread http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7014&highlight=butler+tire
www.butlertire.com (http://www.butlertire.com/)

[rookie1]

I agree , has to be balance if it's speed specific unless there's a defect in one or more of the tires like a belt shifting or something. It's not alignment related.

[CRUZTAKER]

I agree as well.

It's definately a balance causing steering wheel shimmy shake.

If the tires are new, and the service agent continues to balance the tires to no avail....there is an internal issue with the tire manufacture. This is NOT uncommon. Most folks never know. Even with high end tires.

If the wheel requires a substantial amount of weight to balance, ie. over 2oz., there is a problem. Most places won't agree with this, but any place that does what is known as a 'road force' balance will. This highly accurate high speed balancer will 'fail' the wheel, and they will not try to balance it. The balancer recording needs to be jotted down, and returned to the tire supplier with the tire for exchange.

Tire rack is real good about this. I once had 3 of 4 Michelin high performance tires for my Lincoln LS fail by requiring FAR more than 2oz to balance. They gladly cross shipped new tires to the installer.

[Thomas C Potter]

I do not believe that ROAD FORCE balancing rotates the tire/wheel any fatser, it's the force of the roller and the ability to measure the rim's runout that are the huge differences. It's the only way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!. The technician can rotate the tire on the rim to optimize the assembly. You will likely need a print-out from the road force machine, at least I did when dealing with the Tire Rack, and once they had that, no problem. A good tire should have no more than 10-12 lbs of 'force' to be considered good, but it is difficult to find what each manufacturer states as their limit. I pay 28$ for road force balance at a good shop, BMW charges $50, and then the bastards do not like to work on a lowly Mercury's wheels! Snobs.

TP

[tmac1337]

I had the same problem when I picked my car up brand new. The car had 27 miles on it. I immediatley brought it back. The dealership did a high speed balance. No more problem to date 5k later.