Shaking steering wheel

[swiftly_driven]

I would like to know what causes the steering to shake while braking at high speeds like around 70mph. Also, I want to drop my car about 2 inches. What are the best springs to get and how much will it cost me to buy and install. I have 1988 Honda Accord LX. I will post pics as soon as I am done with my car. I am working on a set of 17" white tuner rims w/ machine lip.

Holla back

[MrBen]

Could be warped rotors, worn ball joints.

[pimp86LX]

my wheel shimmmy's while braking and slightly while driving, but under accelleration it does not. I have to replace cv-shafts, and balljoints.

[shepherd79]

if the steering only shakes when you brake, your rotors warped.
if your steering wheel shakes when you drive, you need to get your tires ballanced.

[3rdGenFanatic]

Okay, I can help out here. I've been through three sets of rotors and pads thinking the problem was the brakes. You can replace the rotors and pads just to be safe but the problem is your C/V joints. The pads and rotors will cost you $65 for a standard set. I'm not sure about the C/V joints but you'll want to get axles as well while you're at it and do the whole deal so you won't have to fool with it for a long time! Remember, these are older cars so they're going to need a little TLC to get back up to peak efficency. So, my suggestion is to get new rotors and pads and see if that helps. If it still does it, then get new C/Vs and axels. I've heard aftermarket axels cost around 30-60 dollars.

[pimp86LX]

ok if you have the front wheel jacked up and you wiggle side to side and it has play what is that a sumptom of? it has play side to side but not up and down...HELP I don't want to just start replaceing things. I have a feeling its shafts but hopefully not balljoints

[3rdGenFanatic]

Power steering.

[POS carb]

there are a lot of things that can cause it, as you can see above
CV joints can cause that but one symptom that appears sometimes is that for a particular "vibration speed" your car will shake but then stop shaking immediately after taking your foot off the accelerator, even if you are still at the vibration speed

braking yes but you can ususally tell its a warped rotor because while you slow down you kind of pulsate to a stop

balljoints yea but these are hard to diagnose, they're usually good, worn, or broke in half. If you can't remember the last time they were changed or they have really cracked boots, change them.

Also check Radius rod bushings, you too Pimp86lx. these cause the wheel to actually toe out on acceleration and toe in on deceleration when they go bad and this leads to the car wandering on the road, torque steer, and actually wheel hop believe it or not

[pimp86LX]

hmm interesting. so in my case, it shakes all the time except when i accelerate. This could be radius rod bushings messing with the Toe? Could you give a pic? and how do i check if these are bad?

[Brettmans5]

i would bet its brakes....mine does the same sorta thing, and i took the front wheels off and used my runout gauge and saw that my front rotors were way out.

[98hp]

I had the same problem as swiftly. Mine turned out to be a bad tierod. When trouble shooting always start with the more obvious, though. Stock brakes on 3G's are known to warp easy. And if you're having constant warping probs, check you're proportioning valve.

[Justin86]

I had the same problem and when I got new pads and rotors it was fine.