steering wheel shakes at random

[mhorn0817]

got a 04 denali...the steering wheel will randomly shake at highway speeds...i can get the truck to do it most of the time if i go WOT with it...its like the same feeling as braking with really bad warped rotors...but i know thats not the problem, pads and rotors and new and it does not happen while braking. any ideas of waht to check out?

 

[ATL]

does it only do it under a load or acceleration? or will it do it randomly while holding a steady speed?

 

[mhorn0817]

both to be honest

 

[BubZX]

cheapest place to start would be to have the tires balanced.

 

[yates ™]

Tires out of balance, bent wheel, possibly a bad wheel hub.

 

[mhorn0817]

Within the past 6 months tires have been debalanced and the truck has had an alignment so I kinda rule them out...especially since its not all the time. Just at random times. it poped in my head last night that its possible hub and bearings need replaced. I was also searching and read that tie rods. Pitman arm.idler arm go bad on these trucks...the truck just hit 100k last weekend...

 

[ATL]

i had a car that did that under acceleration, it ended up being motor mounts. but that shouldnt happen when holding a steady speed

 

[mhorn0817]

hmmmm who knows what i could be, any other ideas

 

[Vinniety]

I would recommend doing the easiest things first that you might be able to do yourself before spending money. For the things you stated you already did that's great but the wheel alignment wouldn't help a shake that would help more of a pull to the right or left or if the steering wheel is off center. Of course the balance was smart but i had experience in the past when i would have to get high speed balance because the small shops with the little balance machines weren't good enough. Why don't you rotate tires and try it. You never know you might have the wheel balanced but the tire might have a bad spot on it. The balance machine will not see that it will just weight it out evenly even though that bad spot will cause an issue when driving. Of course you cant factor out front end. Jack up front wheel just enough so the front tires are off the ground and grab the wheel at 12 and 6 oclock and try to wiggle it then try at 9 and 3 oclock and see if you have any movements. there should be NONE!! Try that on both sides. good luck!

 

[samclow64]

I had the same issue a few weeks back on my 05 Tahoe, I noticed that you have 20" tires on your ride as well. I found that my Bridgestone tires which have around 20,000 miles had 36 psi of air pressure in each tire so I lowered them down to 32 psi and re-set the TPMS sensors. I then drove it to get the tires warm and came back and checked the tire pressure again which showed 34 psi on three of the wheels and 33 on the other so I adjusted the one wheel up tp 34 psi and re-set the TPMS sensors one more time .

The DIC shows 32 psi when the tires are cold, and usually 2 psi per wheel higher after it is driven a few miles. The difference between the 36 psi and 32 psi tire pressure solved the problem I had with the steering wheel shimmy, 32 psi is what I would suggest setting your tire pressures on and give it a try. The balance on each wheel needs to have the weights placed on the inside, and outside of the rim to get a good balance, if you have custome wheels I would have the stick on weights placed as close to the center of the wheel as possible, if the wheel is still way off balance have the tire shop dismount the tire and spin it a half turn from the valve stem and re-balance it again.