bad vibration in steering wheel & brakes

[Marianne]

Here is the scenario: Intermittently (every few weeks, sometimes more frequently, sometimes less) while highway driving 65-70 mph, start to feel slight vibration in steering wheel. It progressively gets worse, and after about 3 or 4 minutes, the steering wheel is literally shaking so badly that I have to pull off the road and stop the car. This is not an easy task, as when I brake, the shaking feels worse and it almost seems as if the car will not stop. Once it stops, it is OK for the remainder of the ride home. Once I believe I smelled a burning smell. My husband seems to think it is a caliper sticking. It has been back to the dealer (two different ones in fact) several times and since it is so intermittent, and they have not been able to duplicate the problem, they can do nothing for me they say. The rotors have already warped twice and been replaced. They say if it were a sticking caliper, the rotor would have been blue, which it was not. Any ideas? This is a potentially very dangerous situation as I can't always get to the right lane to pull off the road, and the car is difficult to control with the steering wheel shaking in my hands! It has happened about 9 or 10 times since I have owned the car (which is only about 18 months).

[Velocity]

It really sounds like to me that your cv boot/axles are torn. Check your front axles and see if grease is leaking out of it. If so you can buy a rebuilt one (just as good as new) have it installed and you should be good.

[tbster]

hmmmmmmmmm i had the same problem wit my dodge carvan, and all i did was get new tires and it fixed the problem, but it does start to shake still at round 160 and wont stop till you pass under 60 km/h

[TypeZer0]

i had a similar problem as well, the alignment was off but that was taken care of teh same time i got new tires so its all good now, i can hit 90 wihtout the nasty vibrations i got when i pass 75

[97&02camryleI4]

Maybe try re-balancing your tires if you haven't done so. An alignment wouldn't hurt either.

[Gen3caMLos]

I have heard of people having that problem when getting their tire rotated incorrectly. I think your alignment might be really off. Have you had your tires rotated, hit some nasty bumps, gone off a curb, or stuff like that. Some times if you hit something just right, you screw up your alignment.

I agree you might want to have your cv joints inspected, A damage cv joint can make driving (particularly at higher speeds) unpleasant.

Good luck, at let us know how it turns out.