Slight steering wheel wobble at lower speeds?

[jasonck08]

I just had my back 2 tires replaced (older tires were junk).

After they were replaced I seem to recall that the car drove pretty smoothly. A few days later it seemed that my steering wheel started to wobble a little at lower speeds. Highway it wasn't noticable.

I did a visual inspection of all tires and couldn't find anything unusual like buldges (that I've seen with some of my other older crappy tires).

Not sure if maybe its a balancing issue? The tire shop didn't put any balancing weights on my back to tires. Is this always needed? It's been 3-4 weeks, I've just neglected to do anything about it. Should I take it back to the tire shop and have them look at it?

What could it be... a balancing issue with the back tires? Thats all thats changed recently....

[Mike Gerber]

"Should I take it back to the tire shop and have them look at it?"

Yes. That would be what I would do. First, just to be on th safe side, check that the lugnuts have been torqued properly. It wouldn't be the first time someone at a shop forgot to tighten them.

Mike

[hairball]

You rarely EVER have to balance your back tires/wheels. Sometimes not even the fronts! But the last several sets of tires I got from the tire shop I love so much never balanced the rears until I had them rotated, then they balance the two from the rear before they put them on the front.

I doubt your lug nuts are loose enough to cause wobble or you would probably be able to spin them with your fingers.

What I would say is they OVER-tightened your FRONT lug nuts! They may have just torqued them just to be safe, even if they didn't replace the front tires. Some shops do this as not only a courtesy, but for liability issues. Over-torquing lug nuts is quite common and you WILL feel it in your steering if the fronts are too tight. It can literally warp your rotors, even brand new ones.

A fine example: Back in 1997 I bought a Granada with a slight wobble in the steering around town but not on the freeway but just thought it was bad tires. But one day it snowed and I wanted to put snow tires on. Low and behold... the lug nuts on ALL 4 wheels were so tight I could NOT get them off no matter what I tried. I even put a bumper jack over a 2-foot breaker bar... and broke the breaker bar where it went into the socket!!! I then went to my buddy's house. We tried an air impact gun. No luck. We actually had to use a torch and heat them up to almost red, THEN they finally came off with a impact gun. It took us over an hour to get the lug nuts off all the rims!!! So, I got all my tires changed while I was there (my friend has a tire machine) and guess what? My steering wheel shake was gone! And ALL it took was removing and correctly retorqing the lug nuts!

A month later I ran into the gal I got the car from and asked her who in the f*&% put her tires on that car. Her reply? "My boyfriend works at the Truck Stop and he did them at work"!!! Holy freakin cow! Semi lug nuts can be torqued up to several hundred lbs, usually enough to snap a car wheel stud right off!!! (Oh, he must have turned his air gun "down" a click or two!)

[hairball]

SORRY if some of my answers are a bit long-winded sometimes, but I like to speak by example if I can. It often helps others understand where you come up with some of the silly stuff they have never heard of.

[jasonck08]

Thanks for the response, I'll check how tight they are prior to going to the shop.

What are the torque specifications? About 70-80 ftlbs?

[hairball]

Yeah, right about there. Closer to 80, which is what my tire shop always does mine at.

[jasonck08]

I checked the lug nuts and they were probably over tightened as they were VERY hard to budge. I loosened them up a bit to what I thought was about 80ft lbs. No difference.

The car seems to veer to the left quite a bit at lower speeds, but is reasonably straight at higher speeds....

Also one thing I noticed was the body of the car seems about 1" lower to the tire on the left side (drivers side) than the right side. Tires have the same amount of tred.

I know my suspension is way overdue for new struts. Could a suspension issue cause the car to lean one inch towards one side and cause the steering wheel to wobble?

Also, it does look like the rear tires are balanced (the balancing weights are at the inside of the car, instead of the outside like my other tires.)

[Mike Gerber]

The actual torque spec is 76 ft lbs. 80 is fine.

"I know my suspension is way overdue for new struts. Could a suspension issue cause the car to lean one inch towards one side and cause the steering wheel to wobble?"

Yes on the struts (actually the springs) causing the car to lean, but probably no on the wobble; although stranger things have happened.

Mike

[hairball]

Originally Posted by Mike Gerber

The actual torque spec is 76 ft lbs. 80 is fine.

I guess it depends on who you ask! Seriously.

My wheel receipts shows the shop put them at 80 ft lbs.
My Haynes Manual says 75 ft lbs.
My Chilton Manual says 137 ft lbs. (THAT can't be right!)
My Owner's Manual say 76 ft lbs. (As Mike pointed out above.)

This is so weird. If the tire store can't torque my wheels to the correct spec, maybe I should have a little talk with them.

BUT, 80 really doesn't seem too tight when I use a 4-way and it certainly doesn't seem like it's tight enough when I use a torque wrench at 80.

NOW you have ME stumped. I'll go with the 76 for my 90 Camry DX from now on. Thanks for the tip! Guess I should have looked it up a long time ago! I learn something new every day here on TN!

[zppeacock]

As a technicians point of view, I torque all my lugs steal or alum at 100ftlbs. I have never had A issue with wobbles or warping rotors and have had zero cars come back for those issues.

I would have a shop rebalance all 4 tires and go from them.

[Doctor J]

wobble of the steering Only low speed can have a following reasons in addition to discussed;
1) bent anmd out of round rims (not tires)
2) worn innner tie-rod ends in steering
if hte low speed wobble is co-exsisting with brake pedal pulsationwhile braking at high speed, the rotors can be warped due to uneven torque of the lugnuts