Any advice about shuddering at the wheel

[mtntoyota]

Hello all, I just created a profile on TN today, although I've visited the threads for quite some time. I have a question that I was hoping somebody could help me out with. I have a 2001 Toyota Camry LE 4 cylinder that has 140,000 miles on it. It is a great car, and drives great, but when car gets going about 68-70 miles per hour, the steering wheel starts to shake, and makes my hands go numb even! I have kept it in great shape, but not sure what the problem is? I have brand new tires on it, and i just had new struts put on the back, and the car realigned. Thanks in advance to any help I can get.

[Blackhawk3D]

Could be something to do with the power steering or wheel balance, bad bearing etc. sorry I can't be any more help then that.

[Unco]

get the front wheels balanced. tell the shop that you want them 'balanced to zero'. some places are lazy and won't balance them to zero. an experienced balancer will balance a wheel to zero in one or two spins, but if they have a newbie operating the balancer, it may take him more goes at it and that's when they just leave the wheel slightly unbalanced, because otherwise it would take them too long for what they charge.

if you go to a tyre place and explain the problem and tell them you want them balanced to zero then they have to do it properly... even though it should have been done properly in the first place.

maybe take it to the place that put the new tyres on and tell them that the wheel is shaking. they might be able to re-balance them for nothing.

[Dave's]

Balance problems in my experience occur in about a 10 mile range. 42-52, 68-78 etc. (more or less.) If it gets worse the faster you go it's probably something else. Keep in mind this is just my many years of experience and I make NO claims this is always the case, just something you might try. Another problem I've run into is fairly new tires which just wouldn't balance. Eventually they admitted that brand was having problems with internal belts breaking. We worked out a deal where I paid a small amount for the use and they replaced the tires with another brand. (But 1st they tried to tell me not to drive over 90MPH. )