Steering Wobble

[willbur]

Greetings All-
wife's DD 2004 Toyota matrix/corolla (128K easy miles) developed a slow steering wheel wobble over the weekend. About 2"each way at 30 mph. I drove it too and got the same result. However, after these 2 events it went away and has not come back. I got it up on my floor jack, grabbed each wheel at 9-3 and 12 and 6 o clock and shook as hard as I could. No discernable play. Put a long pry bar under each wheel and pried up and down. Again, no discernable play in the ball joint. Had her move the steering wheel back and forth and felt no play in the tie rods. No clunks, pops or other noises.
So...any ideas what is causing this on again and off again steering wheel wobble?

 

[anndel]

Rotors could be warped. Check the thickness and disc runout.

 

[willbur]

Originally Posted by anndel
Rotors could be warped. Check the thickness and disc runout.


Thank you- forgot to mention wobble stops when braking. Brakes are smooth.

 

[anpconnors]

Hi, just went thru this with wife's van. Mechanic cleared the suspension & brake parts and said it was one or both tires. Had them balanced and it smoothed it out, but could still sense a wobble. Ended up getting two new tires, wobble gone.

 

[SatinSilver]

2005 Matrix here with 150k that had a steering wheel wobble on the hwy a few years ago. Rotated the tires and the wobble was gone. The tires had about 60k on them so replaced them soon after that.

 

[mk378]

Look at the front tires both inside and outside for bulges or gaps (broken cord). Go very slow on a flat surface, any side to side motion is a tire that is not straight.

 

[Propflux01]

You could rotate those to the back to see if wobble goes away. If it does, replace all 4, because (assuming bought at same time) the rest prolly not far behind.

 

[JamesBond]

I had a low speed wobble to the steering wheel on an 05 Accord. New tires were the cure. The old tires were worn but had no obvious defects or problems when visually inspected.

 

[Danh]

F-35s usually fly with small, added appendages that essentially destroy the plane's stealthiness. These are on the plane's exterior and cannot be jettisoned by the pilot.

This is typical of stealth aircraft and is done for obvious reasons: to keep track of them in flight and to deny an adversary an opportunity to assess their true low-observability characteristics in peacetime. So the dedection theory is not quite as simple as having a rogue pilot hitting a button and becoming invisible.

 

[kschachn]

But does the steering wobble?

Originally Posted by Danh
F-35s usually fly with small, added appendages that essentially destroy the plane's stealthiness. These are on the plane's exterior and cannot be jettisoned by the pilot.

This is typical of stealth aircraft and is done for obvious reasons: to keep track of them in flight and to deny an adversary an opportunity to assess their true low-observability characteristics in peacetime. So the dedection theory is not quite as simple as having a rogue pilot hitting a button and becoming invisible.

 

[willbur]

Originally Posted by Danh
F-35s usually fly with small, added appendages that essentially destroy the plane's stealthiness. These are on the plane's exterior and cannot be jettisoned by the pilot.

This is typical of stealth aircraft and is done for obvious reasons: to keep track of them in flight and to deny an adversary an opportunity to assess their true low-observability characteristics in peacetime. So the dedection theory is not quite as simple as having a rogue pilot hitting a button and becoming invisible.


Wha? Wrong forum?

To your point- the appendages are Lynberg (sp?) Lens. Make the $$$ealth wonder planes visible. This in addition to wing tanks.

 

[philipp10]

Just solved a wobble on my kids Pontiac Vibe. It was a left front bent rim. The rim was so bent it caused the tire to bulge out, causing the wobble. So I would look for a bent rim or bulge in the tire from broke belt. Wife hit a pot hole lately? We had some absolute monster potholes here in early March and my kid is an inexperienced driver and probably hit one.

 

[geeman789]

And wheels usually bend on the inside ... no spokes supporting the barrel. Hard to see sometimes !

 

[willbur]

Originally Posted by philipp10
Just solved a wobble on my kids Pontiac Vibe. It was a left front bent rim. The rim was so bent it caused the tire to bulge out, causing the wobble. So I would look for a bent rim or bulge in the tire from broke belt. Wife hit a pot hole lately? We had some absolute monster potholes here in early March and my kid is an inexperienced driver and probably hit one.


Thank you- Wheels are true. Wobble came and went. A bent wheel would stay bent and keep the wobble. Only clue I have is that braking stopped the wobble. This indicates braking loaded the suspension and took up clearance in the components. However, my testing showed no looseness. Maybe a tire belt is shifting around during driving. Is this possible? These are top line Michelins with about 30K on them.

 

[mclasser]

Like others said, it's likely a rim/tire issue. I had a low speed wobble that went away after replacing the tires.

 

[Dinoburner]

Had same on Equinox and like others here was tire problem/ This during wty and dealer replaced both front tires.