Hi. I have a 97 honda accord SE (4 cyl). Today I went to get my front rotors and pads replaced as my old ones were beyond warped. When I drove it since getting the rotors/pads replaced, I noticed the steering wheel shaking when cruising at normal speeds. Haven't tested it by going over 60mph. I took it back immediately and they took the tires off and checked the rotors/pads and everything appeared fine and when they put the tires back on, they made sure the wheels were installed fine. They told me if that don't work, they will balance the tires
I drove out and noticed some difference but still noticed vibrations during cruising and some (little) when braking as well. I'm going to put air in the tires but wanted to know if anyone knows of any other issue that could've arose during the installation of the new rotors/pads.
Thanks

 

If the tire location changed when they put the tires back on this could happen. An out of balanced tire in the rear would not be noticeable. Do you have directional tires on the vehicle? They have an arrow on the sidewall and you can’t switch them from side to side without problems. Vibration from a tire out of balance should come in at a certain speed and go away if you go faster or slower.

Getting to the brakes is the vibration felt in the steering wheel or brake pedal? Some of inexpensive brake rotors come warped right out of the box.

Did they have to replace wheel bearings?

 

BMW steering is not stiff.

I know how to get quicker streering and more precise steering. Stiffer would require a pully and Im not sure a part is made to accomplish your goal.

 

kris - No I do no have directional tires. I notice the subtle vibrations in the steering wheel and just noticed them by my foot pedal as well. The rotors appeared to be in perfect condition. The braking is soooo much better than how it used to be but now i'm noticing the vibrations when driving casually but randomly and never felt that before.
They did not replace the wheel bearings as they stated that they were in still working condition. I do not notice any issue/noise that would pertain to a bad ball bearing.
I might go back and get the front 2 rims balanced. These are aftermarket rims and I plan on putting my factory rims on in a few weeks as winter is approaching.

Thanks

 

If you want to play games & check stuff out, then swap your wheels around. See whether the shaking seems to move to a new corner; then you can blame the wheels/tires.

Move each one to a rear corner, where you can spin it & look for bent rims.

Rarely, but possible, a belt in a tire might be moving around. That makes it difficult to KEEP balanced since it keeps changing.

Maybe find a shop with a Hunter GSP9000 balancing machine. It balances the tire while pressing it against a roller (instead of spinning in the air without touching anything).

 

Jim - Thanks for your response. I actually came across the Hunter balancing machine recommendations from searching the web about balancing tires. However, it might be difficult to find a shop that will have that but the Honda dealership near me might so I'll give them a call and see. However, I'm going to go back to the shop and have the balance the front tires and go on from there. I'll also try your recommendation on swapping the wheels around.
If there was an issue with the wheel bearings, what should I be listening to or feeling if ther was an issue with them?

 

Everyone says wheel bearings make noise (but not necessarily vibration) and the noise changes substantially when you steer around curves. Gets louder when the bad bearing is on the outside of the turn. Certainly if it behaves like that, I'd suspect the wheel bearing.

However, I've had a bad wheel bearing that really felt like a big knobby mud tire like you'd find on a jeep or something. It really felt like tire vibrations, and it didn't hardly change with steering.

If the wheel bearing is loose, you can check for that by grabbing the top of the tire (with the car on the ground) and shaking it in & out. You can get pretty violent with trying to shake the whole car from the top of the tire. A loose wheel bearing will klunk as you do that.

OTOH, that same clunking might be a loose balljoint on either upper or lower control arms. (Loose balljoint is a possible cause for your troubles too.) If your tires clunk like this, post back & we'll try to decide bearing vs. balljoint.

 

I would take it back to the original shop and ask them to balance ALL OF THE TIRES, NOT JUST THE FRONT ONES. It shouldn't cost much more than $20.

I would be willing to put money on it that you have a tire/wheel out of balance.
My car was doing the exact same thing you described shortly after I first bought it. I got the tires rotated and balanced at a local oil change place for about $25 and problem was solved.

 

I asked on the wheel bearing being replaced as I don’t know if your year Honda has the rotors that to replace them you have pull the wheel bearing on the front.

 

It could be the rotor itself out of balance. I had a Dodge Ram with 4 wheel disc brakes and had a shimmy coming from the back that I could never find or fix. At 75,000 miles when I got new brake rotors, the shimmy disappeared. I know there is no way to balance a rotor (at least I dont think there is) but all it would take is a decent imperfection in the construction to throw it out.