We recently had a customer come in telling us that her car has “steering wheel vibrations” at highway speeds and it has gotten worse over time. We asked her if the problem was consistent and she said it was intermittent at first but then becoming more common. First thing we checked was the dashboard for warning lights. We saw that the ABS and Traction control lights were on. That helped us deduce that something might be wrong with a wheel bearing as the wheel speed sensor that is built into the wheel bearing hub assembly. If a wheel speed sensor is damaged then the ABS and Traction Control lights will illuminate.
Normally we would take the car for a test drive to confirm the customer’s complaints, but since failing wheel bearings can cause the wheels to literally fly off at highway speeds we decided to jack the car up and manually check each wheel bearing. With the wheels in the air we rock each wheel at 12 O’clock and 6 O’clock and they felt okay, but when we checked them at 9 O’clock and 3 O’clock we found A LOT of play on the wheel bearing. Almost felt like a loose tooth. This informed us that the car wasn’t safe to even test drive before changing the wheel bearing hub assembly.
Vibrations in your steering wheel can be caused by out of balance wheels, warped break rotors, or bad ball joints. But it is best to get it diagnosed ASAP especially if you feel it is getting worse the more you drive or you suddenly get ABS and Traction control lights on in your dashboard.
If you have any questions, about an issue your car is experiencing, always feel free to reach out and Contact Us @ Tolima’s Auto Center.
