This summer I replaced the inner and outer tie rod ends on a 97 Nissan Altima, had a bent wheel replaced, and had an alignment done. Everything worked smoothly for the last 5,000 or so miles. I had my tires rotated and balanced recently which created a new problem, a shaky steering wheel most noticeable at slow speeds. I’ve had a similar problem before and had it fixed by balancing the tires. I took it back in to have them rebalanced, thinking they may have forgotten to do it the first time. They rebalanced them and the problem has not changed at all. Any ideas?
Put the tires back in their orginal positions. If the shaking goes away look at the tires for belt seperation in one of the tires.
Tester
What Tester said^^. Also depending on how long you’ve been driving on those tires you may even be able to see an un-even tread ware already if it is that noticable of a shake.
Yes, except the tires might not have a separation. What they might have is irregular wear - which is caused by mis-alignment and aggravated by insufficient rotation and insufficient inflation pressure.
Remember when you had the alignment done? If you didn’t replace the tires then, the damage may have already been there and you just didn’t know it.