First off, thanks. I know there are several shaking threads and most seem to point to tires and shocks.
The issue is that on rough pavement which is pretty much every road I am on for the hour plus commute to work, the steering wheel shakes. from side to side.

First the dealer told me I needed to balance my tires, so I paid them to do it. $$ Problem still existed.

Went to Les Schwab and they sold me new tires, problem still existed. Dealer said they were too agressive of a tread pattern and they would not help me. Back to Les Schwab and they replaced the Toyo tires with the same thing but in a more street oriented tire, I think they are called 'all terrains' but I would need to go check to be sure. Problem still exists.

Replaced all four sides with Billstien HD's. Problem got worse. Nissan says shocks and strtus are too stiff and they can't help me.

Back to Les Schwab where they are happy to sell me 4 new KYB's. Problem still exists.

I am TIRED of wasting the last few months on my weekends off waiting for this car to be ready when it's yet to really be 'ready.'

Is this the rear control arm bushing thing? Something else? Please help. I hate my car and have hated for the year I have owned it. Supposedly it was a "Certified" vehicle. I felt it a bit on the test drive but overlooked it as being excited about getting the new vehicle. Stupid of me I know. It has only gotten worse to the point where I just hate this car. I'm in it too deep w/ the money I can't sell it but if I could change the violent shaking from the steering wheel I might actually come to like this thing. Please, please help point me in the right direction.

I do not think this is the 'death sway' as it goes straight when I accelerate or decellerate.

It does feel extremely flightly over bumps, as if something is lose or not really making contact with the road surface.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance, I am at my wits end and neither the dealership or two different local shops can figure this out. At this point all I'm doing is burning money I do not have. I need a solution.

Does it do this shaking at all speeds? Is it constant when the road is rough? It doesn't do it at all on smooth roads??

Has anyone looked at tie-rods/control arms and the bushings? Has anyone aligned it? This is not typically a symptom of an alignment but that's usually one way to find suspension problems.

I'm sorry, that's important info I forgot to include.

Has been aligned after each strut/shock swap.

Dealer claims the tie rods are in specification. Actually they insist that they are because I was convinced otherwise.

Also, it starts about 45 and gets worse as the speeds climb.

weak_link wrote:Also, it starts about 45 and gets worse as the speeds climb.

Need more info. Skinny asked something that I think is totally relevant: does this happen only on rough roads, or does it also happen on smooth roads? And could you expand a bit on what exactly is happening? Walk us through the problem, from starting the car>driving it>shutting it off.

For example, mine has always tended to hop around a bit when going over little bumps in the road, but that has always been suspension related. I've never had the steering wheel physically shake from side to side, but I have had the vehicle go from side to side while going over bumpy roads (paved bumpy roads I might add).

Thanks for taking the time to help me figure this out.

Get in car, start drive to work. 40 mph road with tar snakes everywhere produces a feeling through the steeringwheel as if it wants to turn left/right/left/right but tolerable. By the time I make it to my twisty, rough, country road the speeds have elevated to 45-65 depending on who's clogging up the road. At this point on the rough road, the wheel rocks back and forth quite a bit. It's like a kid pretending to drive, rotating the wheel left/right/left/right/left right very rapidly. It's not a huge swing left/rigth but you sure can feel it. If it take my hands off the wheel it looks like it it out of control. Even with both hands on the weel it is visible from the passengers seat. My coworkes can clearly see the wheel dacing in my hands when on the freeway, especially over the many expansion joints we have here in the San Francisco Bay Area. When I hit ripples in the road or the suspension gets light on the decompression stroke the front wheels feel light or that they are barely tracking the road.

Problem rarely happens on fresh, smooth pavement. What else am I missing to help you guys? I want to give you as much detailed info as possible but want to make sure I'm giving feedback that is actually helpful.

Certainly sounds like some sort of steering rack issue to me. My typical commute is out some rather rough twisty roads and that is where i'm very impressed with the performance of this vehicle. When my alignment gets out...I get some suspension jump over certain kinds of bumps...but the steering is rock solid and the wheel doesn't move at all outside of those occasional impacts. In fact...I could complain that the steering is a little too tight because if you accidently jerk the wheel at high speed...even just an inch...there's almost no slack in the steering and it will change directions real fast on you. If I were to move the wheel back and forth like a kid learning to drive...I would be weaving from one side to the other. Maybe I'll shoot a little vid on my way home and you can compare. If it's not just a straight vibrations...I think it has to be in steering somewhere.

weak_link wrote:At this point on the rough road, the wheel rocks back and forth quite a bit.

Okay, I'm at a loss then. Even in 4x4 over extremely rough terrain, I never have any steering feedback like you mentioned. Quite the opposite. All I can guess is that something is definitely going on in the front end, but I just don't have a good idea on what it might be.

So to help with boredom from my 40 minute commute through no-mans land (with no cell coverge for a solid 10 minutes), I've put together a minute or so of my drive. Beautiful roads and scenery (and occasional 200# deer)...but mainly so you can see how the steering wheel responds to various roads. I tried to keep the steering wheel in focus but also let you see road imperfections. This was a good time to try these because the road crews have been putting in culverts along this section of road so there are some nasty bits.

http://youtu.be/hvVZ5wOjMEc

0-15 sec: Shows how the vehicle reacts to steering inputs at around 70mph on one of the rare straight stretches of my drive. You can see the vehicle sway around a bit as it moves with little input. Jerking the wheel (say to avoid a 200# deer) would be a disaster.

16-40 sec: Downhill "S" curve with a fresh culvert replacement at the end. Notice the orange cones on the left! 60-70mph

40-60 sec: Another "S" curve with downhill and uphill and a rough culvert replacement at the end. 60-70mph

60-70 sec: A whooper of a bump...this was new construction today that was unfinished...it had steel plates covering the hole. Harsh impact at speed. 60-70mph

71-finish: Another S curve with a nasty culvert replacement right in the turn. 55mph

I don't see much movement of the steering wheel during any of this. Even the harsh impacts you can barely see the wheel move. This road will be a lot more fun once they finish construction and pave it again. Car and Driver usually does their Corvette test drives here and a lot of car clubs like to visit. Not terribly uncommon in the summer to pass a row of Ferrari's or Porshe's having a little fun. Hope you enjoyed the ride.

Just wanted to update you guys on this thread.

Took it to a shop who specializes in trucks and hot rods.

The good news is that he took it for a test drive and could very much feel what I was talking about. The bad news is that he can't figure out what's going on. He did say that the ball joints and tie rods were not just 'in spec' as the dealer told me, but actually good.

His thought was that the KYB's are valved wrong for this truck. That's what they said about the Bilstiens when I changed to the kyb's. The suggestion was to go back to bone stock. That would be the 3rd set of shocks and struts for this vehicle. I REALLY do not want to do that but will if it means the problem will go away.

Is it possible the springs are already shot at 65k? I just can't believe that both the Bilstiens and KYB's are bad for this vehicle. Sure it's possible they did not get the valving right but sheesh, you'd think there would be a ton of info on the web if that was the case.

Officially stumped.

Has anyone looked at the steering rack? It really seems like something in that part of the system to me. Springs shouldn't cause that symptom.

weak_link wrote:The bad news is that he can't figure out what's going on.

That makes all of us. Have you tried googling the symptom & researching a bit?

Is it possible the springs are already shot at 65k?

Doubtful. I can't even imagine what it would take to make the already bad stock springs "shot." Trust me, the springs will not cause your steering problems. When a shock goes, there is a bit of steering feedback, but only because one wheel is now hopping around freely without any resistance. A crappy/weakened spring is a bit different, but also should produce little steering feedback (aside from feedback in one direction only, depending on where the bad part is located).

I just can't believe that both the Bilstiens and KYB's are bad for this vehicle. Sure it's possible they did not get the valving right but sheesh, you'd think there would be a ton of info on the web if that was the case.

I know this is a longshot, but is there anyway you could possibly take a video of the problem? Maybe have someone in the 2nd row shoot it so that it shows both the steering wheel movement & the view out the windshield.

I know the same business can be different from place to place, but I have had only bad experiences at the Les Schwab near my office. Took it in for an alignment & they only did 2 wheels because they had no idea it had IS on all 4 corners. Then I had new rear shocks installed, only because they were the only company in town that had them in stock. Well, they installed them without the inner metal bolt sleeve, so of course they loosened up while out in the Utah backcountry & rattled around annoyingly loud. Took it back in, they installed the sleeves. However, this time they didn't tighten the bolts completely, so I had more rattling. They also left a very nice 18mm or so wrench in my engine compartment. Moral of the story, at least for me, is to avoid asking for any sound advice from Les Schwab.

Officially stumped.[/quote]

First off...I am new to this site and a just purchased my 2008 SE V8 with 65K miles. Love the vehicle but I have what appears to be the EXACT SAME ISSUE with my steering/suspension.

It feels loose at highway speeds and I experience the same vibrations/looseness if I hit any bumps at higher speeds. I also can feel and see the steering wheel "shutter" side to side during those hits at higher speeds. Visible in your video at 1:06 seconds.

I plan on replacing the tires this week as they are cupped and very noisy. I hope this will make it ride a lot better but after reading your posts and seemingly endless attempts to correct this problem it sounds like tires alone will not fix much (accept the noise). I plan on having the entire suspension inspected as well to see if my mechanic can find anything out of order.

Bottom line...I am very interested in any new developments on your end since you seem to be much further along in the diagnosis of this issue.

Thanks!!


Edit...I just realized that the original poster did not submit the video. My bad. However, I do notice a small shimmy in steering wheel at the 1:06 mark. Not sure how that translates to our problem. If I can I will take video of my steering today or tomorrow and post.

I'm the one that posted the video to show my steering wheel doesn't move significantly unless it's a very harsh bump at speed (at the 1:06 mark for example). These do have a issue with "jumping" over certain bumps particularly if the alignment is out. Mine will do some crazy moves when the alignment is out but right now (and when I made the video) it hasn't had any issues with what I call "suspension hop". Basically it feels like the truck just jumps over a bit when you hit big bumps or expansion joints. Make sure they do a 4-wheel alignment because my understanding of the issue has to do with how the rear/front alignment gets out of sync. Either way, when I've noticed the hopping an alignment seems to fix 90% of it every time.

Thanks for input. 4 new tires and a 4 wheel alignment is gonna happen sometime this week. I just need to make a tire choice! I will report back on any improvement. Hopefully, this will eliminate the problem.