The steering wheel on my Odyssey shakes at odd times. It doesn’t happen all the time, just within a speed range, for example between 20-40mph or 55-70mph, then it levels off. The dealer mechanic said it’s the wheel balance and despite tire pressure checks, balancing and rotation continues. Another mechanic told me they were bearings, although it doesn’t make a loud noise. What could it be? Sometimes it shakes so much that it’s hard to hold the wheel. Any thoughts?
If it’s shaking that hard it’s dangerous. If the dealer can’t, or won’t, fix it, take it to an independent alignment shop.
SOMEONE will be able to diagnose and repair the cause of the shake.
Have you tried moving the front tires to the back to see if anything changes?
Although it shakes, it still stays on course. It doesn’t effect the steering. That’s what’s puzzling.
Don’t let the “stays on course” fool you. I had a slight vibration pop up in a car once - only came through the steering wheel and only at 60-70 mph. It wasn’t a particularly bad shake. The amplitude of the shake was really a fraction of a millimeter, and if you grabbed the wheel it damped out and you didn’t feel the vibration - it was only really noticeable if you took your hands off the wheel / drove with just a finger or two on the wheel (NOTE: I do not advocate driving this way, but I periodically check my cars for odd vibrations and tracking and noticed it then).
When I checked the suspension, the ball joints, which were fine just a month prior, were noticeably loose. That’s a serious safety problem that warranted immediate correction, and the repair wasn’t that expensive.
The entire time, the car tracked beautifully straight and handled well.
Having it stay on course does not mean that its not dangerous.
I had this happen and it was the belts inside the tire separated. The only way to see it is lift the cover on the wheel balancer and the tech can see the tread moving back and forth. These were new tires and they had to swap them out.