My steering wheel "vibrates" off and on at different speeds. First around 57mph then again at 67mph. When the wheel isn't shaking, there seems to be a strange vibration on the foot well.

I'm thinking wheel out of balance or a tire issue that is causing a wheel balance problem as it didn't do this when I had my 15's, just the 16"Panasports. My wife used them on her track day but she didn't hit anything or feel the vibration in the car or steering wheel. The wheel doesn't move much, just a few millimeters in each direction but is very annoying and I'm thinking potentially dangerous. To clarify, the wheel actually turns, both left and right, just a few millimeters, this is not just road feel. Any other idea's about what could cause this issue? What should I do other than get the wheels remounted and balanced?

 

Switch the front wheels to the back first, if that moves the vibration to the rear, then get them rebalanced. If not, then it might be something in the drive shafts or hubs.

 

I had similar symptoms when the front control arm bushings went bad at 40Kmiles. Reproducibly, the same thing happened at 83Kmiles (Just got them replaced today with Powerflex bushings). When it happens, the steering wheel feels "loose", it vibrates at certain speeds and when you tap the brakes, the wheel moves left to right few millimeters, few times...

Can it be the control arm bushings? Have you replaced those ever? How many miles do you have on the car?

Cheers!

 

Nabeshin- I will try the tire rotation and try them on my wifes S as well.

Volki- The bushings crossed my mind as well. My car has just over 60K and I think that only one bushing has been replaced. I had a unfortunate bout with oversteer that sent me and the car into a ditch a while back. I'll have to check the service record on that.