Why does my steering wheel shake at 80mph?

This really bugs me. I have a 98 3000gt SL and the steering wheel starts shakes at 80mph. What can it be? It's definitley not the allignment.

When I first had my SL it would shake at high speeds. I had my wheels balanced with differnt weights and it rides like a champ now. Other than that I dont know.

My SL used to shake at high speeds when I first had it. I had my wheels balanced with differnt weights and now it drives like a champ. Other than that I dont know.

sorry, I thought the first one didnt go through

mine used to shake like a mother past 75. then i got an alignment an new tires. it could be that ur tires need to be re-balanced. cuz my car didnt shake til i lowered it an it was eating up the tires.

Your alignment is screwed up. Just an FYI. :biggrin:

aznboyga - its funny you said that because i just posted about that aswell a couple days ago. I was told the same as you, and in a week or so i am getting new tires and and a balance, and maybe an alignment, and if any of these fix the shaking ill post bak to tell you.

LOL, it will be!!

After any suspension modification you will throw out the tracking of the car and should really have it re-alligned each time.

As for balancing unfortunately due to the punishment of the road surface and the fat ass of the gt's it is possible to unbalance the wheels or rattle the weights of. This will cause the judder felt through the steering wheel. Only take about 2mins to rebalance a wheel though so real easy!

thanks everyone. I'll check into rebalancing the tires. If that doesn't work, I'll go to the ppl that did the allignment and see if its still off or check if they didn't do it right the first time around. Wakeboard, thanks and I'll be interested in hearing what happens.

When you get the wheels balanced, see if they will use stick-on weights. They won't shake off, and they won't hurt your wheels.

You can only use stick on weights on alloys anything else will damage them, only steels can take the clip ons

I've gotten all 4 new tires, wheels balanced and did a 4 wheel allignment. Still the shaking remains. I can't figure it out. :banghead: Does it have to do w/ the steering column? I guess I'm probably going to have to live with it cuz I don't have much more money to put into more repairs. :banghead:

Damn sorry to hear that. I could have sworn that would be an alignment problem.

actually mine is doing the same right now. i'll post up when i figure out the problem

try have the run out checked on all your wheels

Could be wheel bearings, or warped rotors too.

It call also be the ball joint on the lower control arm.

I have the same shake and I had the tires balanced and the wheels aligned but it still shook at high speeds.

About a year later the right steering tierod had enough and the shop finally managed to detect that the ball joint in the right lower control arm had given out. I had to change the entire lower control arm (this was before 3sxperformance sold the ball joint by itself) but after that was done the shaking finally went away.

I was talking with the mechanic and evidently on high performance cars with wide tires you can detect worn parts before they can tell it's out of spec with alignment.

Funny, I've got a 99 SL, and it shakes too, I replaced ALL tires, and balanced ALL the wheels, and it still keeps shaking, a little less but still shakes, I was going to do an alignment, but the car doesn't pull or nothing, theirs got to be some weakness to these cars. Anyway, I'll have my friend check for me, if I get anyprogress, I'll post.

I've gotten all 4 new tires, wheels balanced and did a 4 wheel allignment. Still the shaking remains. I can't figure it out. :banghead: Does it have to do w/ the steering column? I guess I'm probably going to have to live with it cuz I don't have much more money to put into more repairs. :banghead:


hey buddy i understand ur pain,going through the same shit.thinking of selling it,drowned too much money in thsi piece of crap.mine shakes between 55 and 75:iceslolan

You can only use stick on weights on alloys anything else will damage them, only steels can take the clip ons
Umm wrong. I had the clip on ones on stock 2g SL wheels and also on some chromes I got. They are only on the backside of the chromes but they set up the balance machine to be able to get it close putting them that way.

Also could be struts, wheel bearing(s), ball joint(s), bent rim(s). You need to inspect the suspension.

aznboyga - got good news, i finally got the new tires on, balance, and alignment, and the shaking is totally gone, it just glides now! orig equip is 245/45/17 but i got 235/45/17 yokohama avid h4's ( dont ask my dad thinks its better as far as "hydroplaning") but anyways the difference is huge.

So not only did you get narrower tires but shorter too?? Your dad sounds like my dad and doesnt understand tire sizing.

jack the corner off the ground and see if you can shake the wheel. if so your bearings might be going bad.