Steering wheel vibration at highway speeds

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outoforder
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:11 am
Location: Columbia, MD

Steering wheel vibration at highway speeds

Postby outoforder » Fri May 07, 2021 7:26 am

‘05 160K. I’m the original owner and never experienced this before—steering wheel vibrates starting at about 60 MPH. Nothing extreme but definitely noticeable. coincidentally my SES light came on at the same time but that’s been on for over half the life of this pathy LOL. What are the likely culprits?


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ShipFixer
Posts: 769
Joined: Sun May 24, 2009 9:52 am
Location: San Diego, CA

Re: Steering wheel vibration at highway speeds

Postby ShipFixer » Fri May 07, 2021 9:46 am

outoforder wrote:
Fri May 07, 2021 7:26 am
‘05 160K. I’m the original owner and never experienced this before—steering wheel vibrates starting at about 60 MPH. Nothing extreme but definitely noticeable. coincidentally my SES light came on at the same time but that’s been on for over half the life of this pathy LOL. What are the likely culprits?
There's the usual, which is wheel balance, tie rods, ball joints, etc. which can cause some wobbles. If you have uneven tire wear, that might be an indicator. I would start by at least checking the wheels by jacking up each corner, and seeing if there is free play when you grab the wheel at three and nine o'clock, then six and twelve.

But I'll throw one more set at you which is pretty common for vibration around 60 mph. Bad U joints, or in my case, a bent front drive shaft (it turns even in 2WD). My front drive shaft was bent around 28,000 miles in some kind of weird manufacturing defect, so...maybe.

Since you're in Columbia, depending on how far you are willing to go for a good shop, Passport Nissan in Alexandria is exceptional!

outoforder
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:11 am
Location: Columbia, MD

Re: Steering wheel vibration at highway speeds

Postby outoforder » Fri May 07, 2021 10:45 am

Thanks —I have a pretty good independent mechanic near me that has kept this thing going so far. I’ll have him check it out next service.

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palmerwmd
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Posts: 2343
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2017 4:45 am
Location: Mid Atlantic

Re: Steering wheel vibration at highway speeds

Postby palmerwmd » Fri May 07, 2021 1:31 pm

ShipFixer wrote:
Fri May 07, 2021 9:46 am
outoforder wrote:
Fri May 07, 2021 7:26 am
‘05 160K. I’m the original owner and never experienced this before—steering wheel vibrates starting at about 60 MPH. Nothing extreme but definitely noticeable. coincidentally my SES light came on at the same time but that’s been on for over half the life of this pathy LOL. What are the likely culprits?
Since you're in Columbia, depending on how far you are willing to go for a good shop, Passport Nissan in Alexandria is exceptional!
Yes Passport Nissan in Alexandria has a good very service shop.
There is also Hill's garage in Baltimore which are independent Nissan experts.


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