This is perplexing --

I have a 02 Camry V6 SE that has an intermittent steering wheel vibration, and has since the car had around 30k miles on it. The car currently has 96k miles on it.

The situation is that the steering wheel will vibrate abruptly for 2 to 4 minutes while travelling at around 66 to 70 miles per hour. After the elapsed time, the steering will smooth out and there won't be a vibration to be had. The problem doesn't exist with tires, wheel balancing, or rotors -- those have all been replaced through the years numerous times. In fact, I just had the current rotors turned to eliminate run out from warpage, and still have the problem. Additionally, I always clean the hubs where it mates to the inside of the rotors and use anti seize so that no rust bonding occurs, so I can confirm that there are no rusty pockets that are causing a run-out situation on the rotors (don't forget, the problem is intermittent -- if it was a rotating mass like the tires or rotors, then it would be occurring all the time without exception).

The tires and wheels have been aligned and there are no signs of tire wear that indicate a worn tie rod or ball joint. I have a consistent 30 psi in all 4 tires. The road surface has little effect on the vibrating wheel. I'll get the vibration on a brand spanking new, mirror smooth asphalt surface, and it will then diminish to nothing.

The only thing I can think of is a problem with the power steering pump where it is cycling erroneosly or that there is a stuck valve in it, or something like that, which is causing the vibration. Anyone have any idea what the cause of this is? Could the serpentine belt be slipping against the pump pulley which is then causing the problem?

I can think of four things you can check:

1) Check the control arm bushings for wear.
2) Check the front struts for wear, leakage, etc.
3) Check the CV joints for wear and boots for tears.
4) If you have two different brands of tire on the left and right side, swap the oddball out if you can. Or swap the tires front to rear. FWD cars don't handle well with different tires on the drive wheels and adds stress to the differential.

There is a TSB for clicking in the steering column in this Camry's generation. If that what bothers you go to...... You will find quite a few threads on that topic.

Sam

Make sure you don't have tranny issues that is sending the vibrations through the drive train. I don't know if a tranny can throw a lite in the dash, but some can be hooked up to a scanner to see if it has problems. Do you keep the differential fluid changed? I'm assuming it's and Automatic and the differential fluid is separate from the tranny fluid like in my '00 4 cyl auto.