Front end shaking wildly
 

Okay, periodically my car's front end shakes, and the steering wheel moves back and forth. It seems to happen more at around 60mph, but never under 40mph. About a week ago one of the power steering hoses came off the hard line spilling fluid all over the exhaust. I fixed that and re-filled the tank, worked out all the bubbles ect. and the steering works fine now, but could this have caused a problem with the steering rack? I thought it might be my warped rotors, so I had them turned and replaced the pads, but it didn't seem to help the problem. I haven't ruled out an un-balanced tire, but I don't think that could cause this bad of a vibration. I also checked my front tire pressure and they're within 1 psi of each other. This has me totally stumped.

Blown belt in the tire maybe? Loose tie rod end? Loose ball joint? Get the front wheels off the ground and check for play in the suspension. Hopefully it's nothing major:o

I'll have to do that tomorrow, and I'll check for bad bearings as well.

Check to see if the rims are bent.

- Bent wheel
- Unbalanced wheel
- Bent flange :rolleyes:

front diff on its way out? Does it feel like a rotational effect (the steering wheel moves back and forth on a regular rhythm)?
-Bill

It feels like braking downhill with warped front rotors, only while driving normally under no braking. The steering wheel turns slightly back and forth very quickly and the front end shakes.

Surely the problem must relate to, and be confined to, a front tyre or wheel being out of true as such. Either could be out in diameter or sideways run out, and the tyre in respect of structure.

This could of course result from a hub not running true due to a bearing or axle fault, or the wheels not being fitted true. But these issues are very unlikely and should be obvious.

I vote for the broken belt in a tire.
Jack it up and spin the tires by hand. You should be able to see the bulge.

And bump the pressure up to say 50+ PSI to make any possible fault more obvious. ;)

The only thing with a slipped belt is that it is usually most noticeable at very low speeds (say, slowing cruising through the shopping mall parking lot) -- gives a "rolling waves" sort of feel to the car.
-Bill

Lol, you might find it quite "explosively" :lol:
Reminds me of a inner sidewall bulge that blew on me about 100yrs ago.
Never saw it or felt it, never even knew what blew until I took the tire off :rolleyes: