steering vibrations

o.k., I know I ask alot of questions but my car is a p.o.s., everytime I fix one thing, something else screws up, anyways, when I start going about 50-55 mph my steering wheel starts to shake real bad, the faster I go the worse it gets. Is it the steering wheel or something else? Damn, I'm gonna spend more money fixing my damn car than what I paid for it. I hope someone can help me. thanks.

I would say try balancing your tires, if you haven't already.

Yes, definetly balance your tires, and if that doesnt help, have your alignment checked, as well as bearings upper and lower control arms, inner and outer tie rod ends, and bent wheels. It could be a number of things, but check some of your obvious, most inexpensive ones first. Take care...

yup ... your alignment also might be off.

How can I tell if the alignment is off? when I let go of the wheel my car goes straight, I hope if I balance my tires that will work, damn, that alot of options though.....wish me luck!

I think you need to balance your tires too, if they are not that old do that but if they are maybe buy new ones. That's what happened to me too last month. And I replace mines and the problem is gone.

O.K., Thanks for the help guys, I think I'll invest in some rims and see what happens from there, I'll just drive slow for a few weeks. oh yeah, is a heat shield necassary to have? mines loose and I wanna know if I can just take it off? Thanks again for the help.

If the tires are worn funny then your alignment is off. That same thing was happening to me and an alignment fixed it.

did you happen to hit a curb recently or anything like that cause if you did it could have damaged a bushing but definately do the balancing and allignment first but here is another idea prolly not likely though, another unlikely thing that happened to me was i hit a really big bump in the read durrning some constructon kinda the effect of hitting a pothole at high speed and it broke the steel belt in my radials and they wouldn't stop just some off the wall ideas. hope they help but i dunno.

oh yeah, is a heat shield necassary to have? mines loose and I wanna know if I can just take it off?

Yes & no, depends which one it is. Im guessing that its your lower cat. heat shield, buy a $0.25 hose clamp large enough to fit around cat/heat shields & tighten.

If you let go of the steering wheel and your car goes straight that does not always mean your alignment is acurate. Try the wheel balance like they all said.

thanks thanks and more thanks:bigthumb:

Originally posted by frozen_Joth
... is a heat shield necassary to have? mines loose and I wanna know if I can just take it off? Thanks again for the help.

If you are talking about the one on the exhaust manifold, I took mines off because of rattling on my Prelude, but when it rains lots of steam comes off of my hood because its a little hotter than with the sheild on it.