Slight steering wheel shimmy/vibration at speed

rgorke

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'04 V8 with 243K miles...I am getting a slight vibration or shimmy in the steering wheel when I am driving at 65-80 mph. It doesn't seem like a tire balance issue (those were recently balance) or an alignment issue..no pulling or uneven tire wear. The shocks and springs (OEM sport) only have 60k miles on them. Tire pressure is at 32psi.

Any other aspects to check? Could this be control arm bushings really beginning to show their age? It really isn't a major "there is something wrong" feel, more like a "I wish it could be better" issue, which may be very difficult to accomplish with a car having 1/4 million miles.

It could also be just bad roads here in SoCal.

Thoughts?
 
It could also be the tires themselves. You could swap them with the rear ones and see if that changes makes it better or worse.
 
Thanks guys. Yesterday, before I could get to Joe's suggestion I pumped some grease into my front lower control arm bushings. I installed some grease zerks in the bushings of my front LCAs a while back when I had a creek/squeak that I couldn't eliminate. I replaced the sway bar bushings (what a pain that memory is...cutting the stupid brackets off the bar).

That seemed to help a bit with the vibration. This is probably more in the hypersensitivity to little noises, hums, vibrations, etc. that my father instilled in me from an early age.

I'm going to have to "bite the bullet" (another father-ism) and begin replacing the suspension if I want to keep this car on the road over the next several years.
 
I moved the rear wheels to the front and that was a tremendous improvement.

I still need to begin the suspension replacement process but at least it’s riding much more smoothly!
 
'04 V8 with 243K miles...I am getting a slight vibration or shimmy in the steering wheel when I am driving at 65-80 mph. It doesn't seem like a tire balance issue (those were recently balance) or an alignment issue..no pulling or uneven tire wear. The shocks and springs (OEM sport) only have 60k miles on them. Tire pressure is at 32psi.

Any other aspects to check? Could this be control arm bushings really beginning to show their age? It really isn't a major "there is something wrong" feel, more like a "I wish it could be better" issue, which may be very difficult to accomplish with a car having 1/4 million miles.

It could also be just bad roads here in SoCal.

Thoughts?
I had same problem. I replaced all four of the sway bar end links and the problem was solved. Plus the car drove so much better.
 

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