wobble in the steering wheel

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7055

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I have a 2006 Ford Five Hundred, front wheel drive with the duratec. It was an old business vehicle and has 213,000 miles on it. It used to vibrate on the highway so I had the tires balanced and now it's gone, but ever since I had that done, there is now a wobble in the steering wheel at lower speeds ( like 30 mph ). If I take my hands of the wheel it will wobble left then right like 3/4 inch in either direction.
 
You don't think it could be that they didn't put the lug nuts on properly and one of the wheels is wobbling do you? And how could it be a bad tire? Please explain
 
Originally Posted By: 7055
You don't think it could be that they didn't put the lug nuts on properly and one of the wheels is wobbling do you? And how could it be a bad tire? Please explain
It could be a wheel wobbling but my first guess would be a bad tire like others have mentioned. A tire can go bad several ways. A belt could separate, or could be be compromised and separate from picking up a nail or something, you could scrape a curb causing a bulge in the sidewall, it could dovelop dry cracks causing the sidewall or tread to bulge.... Chances are that you have a treat separating. Swap the drivers side tires front to back and vice versa and see if the steering wobble goes away. If not do the same with the passenger side and see what happens.
 
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...and stay off the highway/ avoid driving until this is resolved. If it is a tread or belt separation the tire could fail with no additional warning. I have seen tires with compromised liners that had bulges the size of a large orange. Amos
 
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Bent rim, if that's your video. When they rebalanced them they probably rotated them without you knowing it.
 
Yes that's my video, but how do you figure it's the rim and not the tire?
 
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You have a "high spot" and a "low spot" and the tire wore to compensate.
 
Why dont u just out the rim on the car and spin the wheel and see how it looks. U will spot a bent rim or broken belt easily
 
Originally Posted By: RH+G
Why dont u just out the rim on the car and spin the wheel and see how it looks. U will spot a bent rim or broken belt easily
Isn't that what I did in the video? If you mean take the tire of the rim, I don't have the tools for that because I don't own a Jiffy Lube. I don't know how to tell for sure if it is the tire or rim. The problem here is do I need to just buy a couple new tires and have them mounted and balanced or do I need to buy a new rim too... I don't neccessarily have the money to spend 300 + bucks on getting some new tires mounted and then oh no... It hasn't solved the problem... I'm in college I can't afford that
 
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Originally Posted By: ltslimjim
Couldn't taking the tires/wheels to get balanced reveal a damaged rim?
It absolutely would. Ask to see the whole thing spinning on the balancer. Conversely, you could put it back on your FWD car, set the ebrake with that one tire off the ground, and carefully idle it in drive with the steering wheel cocked all the way so you can see it better. The best solution might be a junkyard rim plus tire, all balanced and ready to roll. Especially if your other tires are all half worn.
 
But even if it was off balance and you could see that, couldn't it still be an internal problem in the tire and not neccessarily the rim itself? Is there a way I can tell for sure without paying somebody to take the tire off the rim? I did some looking around at pick n pulls but it is to late a model car to be able to find a wheel for. Cheapest I found was $150 for new.
 
It can be in balance but out-of-round. I think that's your problem. A tire tech who knows anything about anything would see it wobbling on the spin balancer, though. A road force balance (rare) would show the tire/wheel hopelessly messed up.
 
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