steering wheel vibrating on 2001 Subaru Impreza outback right after getting 4 sweet new tires. Mostly happens at higher speeds. Should I get the CV joints replaced first ?(they’re due soon but not desperate)
The most likely cause is the new tires. Go back to where to bought the tires and tell them about. What they should do is rebalance the tires. Hopefully they’ll have a Hunter GSP9700 balance machine which is capable of measuring run out and that should tell them which tire(s) is the one causing the vibration. If they find it, they should replace it.
Alignment only causes wear problems - and that sometimes comes out as a vibration, but it takes a long time to develop.
Bad CV joints will also cause vibrations, but those won’t suddenly appear.
Should I get the CV joints replaced first ?(they’re due soon but not desperate)
If your CV joints are due for replacement, I would suggest doing it sooner than later. Why wait? If they are going bad (why do you say they are due?) then it is not going to be long before you need to do it anyway so why risk getting stuck somewhere?
If the vibration wasn’t there before it is almost certainly caused by the new tires. I’d go back to the tire shop and ask them to recheck the balance.
How do you know the CV joints are “due soon?” There is no specified replacement interval for CV joints.
After the purchase of new tires a full, four wheel alignment is a very good idea, but the vibration is not likely caused by incorrect alignment.
Get the tires rebalanced where you bought them. Start easy and (cheaper) then work your way up.
If the change was new tires it is very likely either the tire(s), balance or possibly wheel. Sometimes a bad wheel makes it to the front and causes this.
Have the balance redone, preferably on a road-force balancing machine. If that doesn’t fix it, then probably a tire is defective.
The car has 145,000 miles and the CV boots showed cracks (but note breaks) about 10,000 miles ago. I haven’t looked recently. At high speed cornering (ie aggressive city to highway ramp driving) there has been some vibration for a few months now, I assumed this was the CVs going bad. The rebalancing thing makes perfect sense to me. I’ll do that first. then CV, then align if I need it. You guys/girls rock. Thank you!