I have 92' Civic DX with 115k miles that has an intermittent steering wheel shimmy/shake. The local tire place (Les Schwab) can't figure it out because it didn't do it when they test drove it. I'm stumped.

- Steering wheel shimmy/shake only when coasting or braking
- Car tracks perfectly straight even though the steering wheel is shaking
- Makes hard knocking sound that gets loader the faster I coast
- Problem stops immediately if I give it some gas
- Happens when going straight and turning
- Occurs when going down hill (coasting or braking)
- Intermittent/random

Anyone have any idea what it could be? It almost feels like something in the steering column is loose because the wheel will shake but the car tracks straight. Brakes are good, alignment is good, tires are good, wheels are balanced.

 

does it do it within a cetain mile per hour range,your tires can be alittle out of ballance shimmy say betweem 45 to 55 mph,but below and over they ride fine.it would be intermittent,almost like you lost a wieght of 1 rim.

 

No, it doesn't do it at a specific speed or range, but it's only when coasting. It's only done it 3 times in the last month and I couldn't make it happen today when driving to work (did it on the drive home yesterday). The first time it happened I was going about 20-25, second time was around 55-60, and the third time I was doing about 40.

Going to work I drive from 25-60 (in town and highway) and I will go a week or two without an issue then out of the blue the shimmy and knocking noise will happen.

 

When is the last time your wheels were removed?

Do you have the tool to tighten them? Sounds like a loose wheel. I did the same thing, car would shim/shutter during braking and decel, but would go away for accel.

Just a guess.

 

Last time they were off is when I rotated the tires about 4k miles ago. I did check to make sure all of the lugs were on tight and they are. Since I am about due for another rotation, I could do that and see if it helps at all (though I may not know for a week or two)

 

Meh, I doubt the rotation is making that steering issue. If you did the rotation and put the wheels on then I am sure it is fine. I have seen many many many shops just use an impact gun on all the nuts and not check them over before saying the car is ready to be driven away.

 

Have you check your wheel bearing and see if any play ??

 

I haven't...not even sure how I would do that lol

What's the best way to go about checking the bearings?

 

So I've been doing a lot of searching and reading about others with similar symptoms/problems that I'm having. A consistent response is 'wheel bearings are bad' so I looked up how to tell if they are and this is what I've done:

Jacked the car up and shook each of the front wheels. There was little play (at most a 1/4") but it would make a 'knocking' sound. Then I put the car in neutral and spun the wheels. They didn't spin very free and required a decent amount of effort to make them move and there was some noise but definitely not a loud grinding. With this description, can anyone tell if I may have bad wheel bearings?

 

There shoud be no wobble or play in the wheels(*), nor noise when you turn them by hand. The next step is to take the wheel off, it would be good to also take the brake rotor off, and check if the play is in the hub bearing or somewhere else.

(*) maybe some front to back because you're moving the steering, but when you hold the tire by the top and bottom and try to wobble it that way, it should be solid.