So, i had an oil change and tire rotation last month. I have a fully stock Rubicon Unlimited. The past couple of weeks, I have noticed that when I am going about 60, I get a lot of vibration in my steering wheel. If I take my hands off of the wheel, the vehicle still moves straight, but the wheel will shake left and right. It happens when i am going 55-60, but over 60, it stops. Any ideas?

 

typically, a speed specific issue/shake is balance related. you probably need to have your tires rebalanced.

 

Add to the list of suspects:

Ball joints
Bearings
Tie rod ends
Drag link ends

I'm on my 3rd set (soon to be 4th) set of ball joints, 2nd set of bearings, and will be replacing the tie rod and drag link sometime before summer.

Good luck!



Dawn

 

as mentioned, a speed related vibration in the steering wheel like this is almost always a tire balancing problem.

 

x2 on this one.

 

That's kinda where I was going with it as well. Balancing might be the issue, but usually there is something else really wrong if it's more than just slight vibrations. Eddie is usually more to the point, though haha.

 

Does anyone else have trouble finding a shop to balance aggressive mud tires? I've tried a couple of tire shops and they say they can't be balanced. They put one tire on the machine, said it would take 22 oz of weight and they couldn't put that much on.
BTW - tires are Super Swamper SX Tire 32x11.50-15

Cheers

 

Use The Dyna Balls that go inside the tire, I have heard it auto balance as the tire rotates...

 

x2 I use something similar in mine. Works very well.

 

I think you meant Dynabeads. TORN is using them in 35s and says they work fine.

Back to OP: Check your tires for any signs of unusual wear--especially cupping/scalping. Also, driving without doors can help because a severely cupped tire can be very noisy--use your ears and perhaps a companion to determine which tire it is. Cupping can cause pretty significant vehicle shake, most noticeable in the steering wheel if on the front axle. It can be caused by a bad shock, and sometimes by failing to rotate the tires (depends on the specific tire/vehicle combo).

If you have a tire that is cupped, replace it with your spare, or rotate it to the rear axle and see if the steering wheel shake turns into a seat-of-the-pants shake. Then check all your shock absorbers, and if you haven't been diligent in rotating your tires, make a promise to be so in the future. Meanwhile, if you can live with the shake on the rear axle, keep that tire there and see if you get lucky and can get more miles out of it. I had this happen (bad shock) and ended up replacing my tires (went from 33s to 35s at the same time).