what is wrong with my car? when im on the high way and step on the breaks the steering wheel shakes.?

Question

its not like it shakes to the point where my car is out of control, but just a little back back and forth.. what causes this?

Answer 1

it sounds to me like you have a brake rotor very worn and out of balance.

Answer 2

Most likely cause is a warped brake rotor, if the car has front disk brakes. Another, but less likely cause is bad wheel bearings or ball joints. Since you described the shake as minor in nature, I would suspect the rotors are warped. Do not have them "turned" or refaced by your mechanic. This is costly and not used much any more since new rotors are very cheap. Replacing the old rotors with new ones should only cost around $25-$35 for parts and one hour labor to replace them. Get estimates first!

Answer 3

What you are experiencing is brake rotor warpage. Your brake rotors are warping slightly and when you hit the brakes, the pads travel over an uneven surface, causing the vibration. This is normal wear and tear--there is really no way to prevent it from happening. The biggest case is freeway driving: the rotors cool off because you don't use the brakes for long distances, then when you do, they heat up very fast and then cool down again and these temp extremes cause them to warp. Sometimes the pads themselves cause the rotors to warp--as I said there is really no way to prevent this except to replace your rotors every time you change the oil which is not really economically feasibe for most people. If it really bothers you, have your mechanic turn the rotors if they are within spec, or replace them.
I hope this helps.
Bob

Answer 4

The cause of this could be any one of a number of things. The first thing I would look at though if it happens only while braking is the condition of your front brakes, especially the rotors if you have front disc brakes which most cars do. After that I would look at the condition of your steering and suspension components. How many mies are on the odometer? When was the last time you had the front brakes inspected?

Answer 5

The most likely cause is warped rotors caused by uneven and/or over-torque of lug nuts.. If you recently had a shop visit where your front tires were removed and reinstalled for any reason, it a sure bet. A lot of shops use impact wrenches and "torque sticks" to save time. They also run higher air pressure than the 90 psi that the sticks are spec'ed for... Hence over-torque. The good news is there is a very cheap fix for the problem in most cases: If you have a jack and a lug wrench and feel comfortable doing it, loosen and re-torque the lugs by hand. Or better yet... take it back to the shop that did the work and make THEM re-torque the lugs by hand. If they mention torque sticks, demand to see the pressure gauge(s) on their air compressor. Good luck!

Answer 6

Have you had the barrings in your wheels checked lately, or your car balanced? Usually its because the car needs to be balanced again in most cases I've seen. Try that. If not, check to make sure your breaks are tight. Also I've seen a lot of cases where the car needed to be realigned and the alignment was off, as well as the brakes not locking down tight enough in combination with the alignment being out of balance cause that issue.

Answer 7

Could be the front brake rotors are warped. When you press the brake pedal the caliper starts to squeeze the rotor but when they are warped they will feel like they grab and let go several times making the steering shake.

Answer 8

you have lateral run out or LRO. Basically your rotor are warped. If your rotors can be cut then that should take care of it. But in some cases a space plate is used because the hub is warped and not the rotor. But because it happens on the high way you should be safe with getting the rotors cut.

Answer 9

A lot of good answers. Some funny ones too! Another cause could be, if your car has one, a rack and pinion unit coming loose. Don't wait too much longer to find the cause. Not only do you have your own health and well being to think of, but the other guy on the road too.

Answer 10

Its probably the alignment that needs to get fixed mine does the same thing really bad too and I just got that done in 2005 in April now I have to do it again because I had to get my wheel barrings fixed back in November and I have been driving around with a bad alignment so my guess is its the alignment needs to be fixed...

Answer 11

Simple. Warped brake rotors on the front wheels will cause this. I had this exact problem on my car.

Fix is to either replace brake rotors if they are seriously warped, or sometimes the brake shop can simply turn them (reverse them) if the warpage isn't too serious. In my case I needed full replacement.

Best to you.