What causes steering wheel vibration in a car at over 60mph?

Answer 1

There are multiple reasons for that. The simplest one is poorly balanced tires, then it can be ball joints, or tie rods (inner or/and outer). Also it can be front wheel bearings and it can be the steering column itself.

Bearings are easy to diagnose. If you put your car on jacks and try apply pressure toward the car on the top of the tire, and with another hand pull the wheel toward you, and doing it a periodic manner you notice there is a room. You need to change the bearing.

With ball joints usually it's harder. What you can do is to check if its boots are not damaged. If otherwise you have to change.

To diagnose everything else you can get a repair manual for your car.

Steering vibration is almost always caused by the tires/wheels. Either your wheels are out of balance or one or both of your tires is defective. There could be a broken belt in the tire that is causing the vibration. If you don't want to take your vehicle to a tire store right away, you can check by reversing tires front to back. If your problem is with the tires, the problem should go away after reversing the tires. However, I don't recommend you do nothing about the problem. Last summer one of the front tires of my pickup had a bad belt, which caused the tire vibrate and within a few miles, the tire tread separated and fell off. Had I been driving at a fast speed, I would have most certainly lost control of the vehicle. The prudent thing to do is take it to a reputable tire store. I recommend you take it to a Goodyear-owned service center. By reversing the tires first, you will know if it is a bad tire/wheel and nothing else. That will give you peace of mind when the mechanic tells you what your problem is.

A worn ball joint will usually cause the vehicle to steer hard to one side. Worn tie rods will cause vibrations. If the car has less than 30,000 miles, front suspension is not likely the cause unless a part has failed due to a manufacturing flaw. Wheel bearings should last 75,000 -- 100,000 miles. Replacing wheel bearings can cost several hundred dollars per wheel. If a mechanic tells you you need to replace wheel bearings, get a second opinion before having one or more replaced. A dishonest mechanic will balance your tire(s) to fix the problem, then replace your bearings to steal your money. The bottom line here is if you wait too long, you could cause further damage to your vehicle or cause the tires to wear out prematurely. Let a mechanic help you.