# Wheel vibration that defies logic



## cooltd825 (Mar 16, 2011)

I should probably open with two disclaimers: 1, I'm not a mechanic. 2, I'm brand new to this forum.

I drive a 2001 Altima GXE Limited Edition (power locks, baby!) with 161,000 miles on it. My father bought it new and drove it until two years ago, when it was inherited by me to commute to school. About five years ago, we both noticed a very slight vibration in the steering wheel, but it wasn't severe and tire wear was completely regular. He disregarded it, but would always mention it when we took the oil to be changed at the local mechanic. They never found anything wrong (we're talking around six different auto shops). 

Last summer, however, the shake started getting much more severe, and when I hit around 67 mph the shaking is severe enough to spill full beverages in the cupholders. Now something new popped up, and there is a corresponding squeak with the vibration. The vibration felt constantly in the steering wheel can also be felt in the brakes, especially when having to decelerate from high speeds. It's also stronger when turning left Here's what confuses me...

-It's not the wheels... I run summer alloys with high performance tires, and in the winter the stock rims with snow tires. Same vibration for both.
-The rotors are a year old, and were given a clean bill of health by the mechanic, and there's plenty of brake pad left.
-He also looked at the front suspension, and didn't see anything wrong.
-As mentioned earlier, tire wear has been completely normal for the life of this car, so I'm hesitant to say the alignment is bad.

At this point, I'm just curious. I'd love for this car to drive 250,000+ in another 4 years, but it's not worth going through and replacing every single part that might be causing the problem. Thanks!


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

The facts that there's "plenty of brake pad left" doesn't mean anything. It just means there's plenty of brake pad left. Doesn't mean your rotors aren't warped causing the vibration you're feeling when hitting the brakes. The only "real" way to tell is to put a dial gauge on them. Looking at them won't tell you squat. And just because they're a year old doesn't mean squat either. They could've been warped from the factory, or from the first press of the brakes, or from sticky calipers, or from a hundred other causes.
That squeak you're hearing is probably due to something working loose, or could be from a shot wheel bearing.

"six different shops" sounds like "6 different idiots" to me. Any halfway decent mechanically inclined person should be able to put it up on a rack, give everything a good shake down and likely pinpoint the problem, or at least rule out a number of items.

But as you said, this car has 161,000 miles on it. Stuff wears out. Some faster than others. My '97 Sentra went 180K miles before I swapped out every suspension component on it. No individual part was worn out completely, but everything as a whole was worn enough to cause it to be 'worn out as a whole' and just be sloppy all over. Then again, I put on new struts and halfshafts in my '88 Sprint about every 3 years. So, age isn't a definitive wear indicator either.

Have the struts ever been changed?
How about the tie rod ends?
Any clicking in tight turns?
Any clunking when getting on or off the gas on the highway?
Have you rotated the tires from front to rear to see if the vibration changes at all? Could be that the problem is wearing tires, so the problem always seems to be there because you've sorta worn a pattern in your tires.

The only logic I can see that this problem defies is how "6 shops" could possibly miss this problem and those "6 shops" are still in business...
Define "local mechanic" and "6 different auto shops"...if you don't mind. I think I've got better names for those clowns...


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## cooltd825 (Mar 16, 2011)

Thanks for the swift reply. 

I suppose I should clarify: The mechanics who have checked it out have all given bogus answers. Four "mom and pop" repair shops, and two Nissan dealers. I said they didn't find anything wrong with it because they didn't find what's actually wrong. They just balance my tires, resurface the rotors, etc... and then tell me they "fixed" it. 

The most recent guy I took it to did take a look at the tie-rods and struts at my request, and he didn't see anything wrong with them. He thought the shake was due to a bent wheel rim, which I shortly disproved by rotating the tires a few weeks later (and eventually putting my winter rims on, identical problem). 

This shake is all the time, and it's not particularly more violent when braking as opposed to accelerating. It's more prominent while braking because I can hear the noise in addition to feel it, but the intensity remains the same - speed dependent. I would also like to reiterate that the rotors are most likely not the issue, since the shaking remained the day we replaced the rotors last year.


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## Faja (Aug 31, 2009)

I'm just gonna toss this out there since six trained shops couldn't find anything wrong. Could the vibration be actually coming from the steering rack itself??


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## cooltd825 (Mar 16, 2011)

The steering column is a few degrees off center, toward the left. I did hit a raccoon a few months ago, quite large at a pretty high speed, but this shake very much predates the collision. There isn't a significant pull to either side of the road, though, and the tire wear has been quite regular (mentioned that earlier).


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## acx4 (Dec 30, 2015)

I had the same issue, no mechanic could figure it out, it was mostly the Sway bar links were worn, and the control arms bushings were worn.
If you replace the sway bar links on both ends, and control arms on both sides that may fix the issue. It did for me after replacing transmission, both tires, rims, both Axles, tire balance, etc....


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