Bearings and struts do not cause a wobble. This has to be caused by something that is rotating. There could be two tires with broken belts. This is especially common with Uniroyal tires, and it commonly occurs with Goodyear tires that are near the end of their tread life. I run everyone elses worn-out tires on my daily driver minivan, and they develop broken belts three or four times a year.
If you are not going to have the tires inspected at a tire shop, the better approach would be to switch all four, front to rear, then see if you feel the wobble in the seat. Other causes of shaking in the front are a bent wheel, a bent hub, and a worn inner CV joint. The bent wheel is easy to identify by running the engine, in gear, with the front wheels raised off the ground. Less common, and if this happens right after doing some other work, such as a brake job, is rust or scale that breaks off the rotor, then gets trapped between the hub and rotor or between the rotor and wheel. If the debris is behind the rotor, you might also feel the shaking in the brake pedal, especially at higher speeds.
Bent hubs are not at all common, and only result from a hard crash. The wheel and strut will bend long before the hub will.
Worn spots inside the inner CV joint's housing will cause a hard steering wheel shimmy three times per wheel revolution. The clue there is it only occurs during acceleration or load, and usually is not felt over about 35 mph. This often shows up for the first time right after the engine mount that positions the engine left-to-right is replaced. That changes the area within the housings the rollers run on, and they can go in and out of the worn areas. This is extremely difficult to identify and to figure out which side is causing the binding. I can describe how to do it if necessary. Most people just replace the half shafts because identifying the culprit and repairing it takes a lot of time. Replacement housings cost more than what most new half shafts cost today.
Friday, November 2nd, 2018 AT 1:14 PM
