Steering vibration - bushings? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

i've noticed if I go too fast, I get some slight vibration in my steering wheel. I have had the car aligned and I still notice it. It's NOT that bad, it's very minor. If I keep speeds below 70 mph or so I don't even notice it, but as speeds get to 80-85 I start to notice a wobble/shake in the steering wheel. it could be alignment., although I sort of wonder if given that my car is 10 years old...could it be that bushings/ steering system is just worn...and it's just natural that the steering will not feel as solid/tight as my 2006 Acura RL...... with only 35k miles..... If I have to change out the entire suspension, control arms, and spend thousands of dollars it is sooooooooooo not worth changing. If it could be just some bushings, and a couple hundred dollar set of bushings and couple hundred bucks in labor to install woudl take care of it... i'd be in... given that this is a Boxster..I sort of suspet that ANYTHING is not a "couple hundred bucks".... i have beenlucky to have a few repairs that were "only" a couple hundred bucks..but I realize and accept that not much on this car is cheap to fix... but i was curious...for minor steering wheel shimmy at higher speeds..what is the most common culprit and what is the recommended fix.. is it bushings or is that likely NOT it? i had it aligned 3000 miles ago...so I kinda doubt it's ana lignment..and my tires were replaced at the same time..so i only have 3k miles on my Pirelli PZero N3s. maybe the alignemnt guy did a crappy job? it woudl be cheap to go do a super duper alignment / balancing guy and see if that does it...

The most common cause for vibration at speed is tire balance. Sometimes a wheel just throws a weight. Have your front tires rechecked. If it only happens under braking it could be dirt in the pads or warped/cheapie rotors. If steering bushings are worn out you should feel a little play and imprecision in the steering at all times.

Some other cause of front wheel wobble are incorrectly torqued wheels , as there are times that tire places will put the lugs back on with torque tubes which work like ******************** and bad wheel bearings. I would re-torque the tires first and see what that does. Ed

I had a similar problem with new Michelins. It turned out that one of the tires was not perfectly round. They would have noticed this if they balanced it on a high speed balancer like a Hunter.

$1 says you just need to take it in for an alignment and balance on a computerized Hunter 9700. Did you get a balance/alignment on a nice machine with a computer printout last time? Or... cheapie?

Interesting post, I noticed the exact same on my Boxster between 80 and 90 last week and I also had a little bit of play in the steering wheel, just a small bit but enough for me to notice. I took it in for 4 wheel alignment yesterday and after they had messed about with it the play in the steering wheel is completely gone, it doesn't pull to the left as much (still does it a tiny bit though) and I have yet to test out the steering vibration issue. The only other possible cause is my rear wheels are down to around 3 mm now.

I had the same issues. 75 mph shake and stopping at about 90-100. Fought with this problem for 3 yrs. balanced on hunter runout reading new rims no improvement. Finally what fixed it was when I replaced rotors and bearings. now no shaking. there was no noise, no play from bearings. The rotors had 60k miles on them , and no shake when braking. just FYI.

you know - I don't know! it was a small tire shop that was near my house..I had them install my PZeros and do an alignment and balance job. it's entirely possible they didn't use the latest greatest machine. it's been a year since i did it, so I will find a shop that has that machine you mentioned and get another alignment and wheel balance. maybe that will take care of it! it woudl be great if it did!!! my car is in the body shop getting a small fender bender fixed, AND I'm getting my center console painted..can't wait to get my car back. I will ahbe been w/out my car for ALMOST TWO MONTHS. I got hit 12/23. i waited unti after new years to get the estimate as I had company over the holidays, then I had to deal with insurance, then the body shop had wait - VERY high demand place....then parts were late..blah blah blah. i'm dying to go for a drive! i'm going to really hit them ahard for "loss of use".. that is still "pending"... it was NOT my fault. i know they will want to NOT pay me for every day I was w/out my car..but they will hard pressed to get out of all of it.... for kicks, I looekd up boxster rentals online and the chepaaest you can find one is $200/day. hmm...odds are thehy wont' pay me $200/day for loss of use..

When you take it in for the road force balance make sure and tell them that you think one of the tires may be out of round. When it happened to me the 1st shop was just too lazy too find out why the wheel wouldn't balance at 86MPH. It's easier for them to say screw it and hope you won't notice than walk back and get you a good tire.