My Honda Civic has been shaking pretty harsh on the highway at some points. If the road is less than perfect, the steering wheel vibrates and I have to grip it real tight just to keep control of the car. When I run over a small bump, the car will bounce and I feel it more so in recent months. I took it to Hibdon's for alignment and balance/rotation last week. I also had them do a test drive, and they said the suspension, shock/struts were fine. Tire treadwear is good in all four (7/32, 8/32, 8/32, 9/32). The shaking/bouncing persists. What is causing this inconvenience?
Although, they reported the shocks and struts as fine. I had a similar issue , but with a rear wheel drive vehicle. It was the shocks. Tires. Possible. Balance or with a bad belt in one of the tires. Maybe consider changing based on age rather than treadwear. Sway bar busings. Have resolved similar issues, but were more noticeable to me on slow speed bumps. Warped rotors. Never experienced, but I have heard these can cause problems.
Probably not warped rotors unless it happens only during braking. Wheel balance should be rechecked. Could also be wear in the suspension. I'd take it to a different shop and have them give you a diagnosis. I wouldn't wait very long since it could be a safety issue.
I had the same problem on my Civic. My tires were balanced incorrectly... . but it seems you just got your tires re-balanced...
This happened to me some time ago, and it was bad treadwear on the tires. New tires=no more shaking. But they said your treadwear was fine, so I would have them recheck the balance.
Vibration felt in the steering wheel on a smooth highway at around 55 or 60 is almost without fail caused by tires. Sometimes a tread separates internally and is not real noticeable at first, something like that. You can rotate the fronts to the back and see if the problem lessens noticeably-that gives you a clue. If the car bounces too much or sways like a boat on the ocean, that is going to be weak struts. Honda puts good struts on the cars, and they are probably going to be good well past 100,000 miles, but they gradually weaken, and can get a dead spot right where the car normally rides, so bumps are more noticeable. The tie rod ends should be checked for excessive play, as well. Most of these weird symptoms are caused by tires, and sometimes they can't be balanced right or have a defect that is hard to find. I just thought of one more thing. If the vibration is felt only while accelerating, and goes away when you let off the gas, you have a bad inner CV joint. This is hard to diagnose on the rack in a shop. This can come and go intermittently, and can be severe, where you think the car is falling apart. One or both front drive axles need replacing if this is the case.
I vote for the tire balance problem as well. It is not that hard to throw a weight off a tire that would cause the vibration to start even though you do not have new tires. A bad rod tie will cause your steering wheel to shake too. This is a serious problem and should be fixed immediately.
Perhaps a bad U-joint. My truck did this, and less than 5K miles later the driveshaft fell off due to u-joint failure.
Hondas have "CV" joints instead of u-joints, but they perform the same junction, and can both cause bad vibrations.
The first time it started happening, I scheduled an appointment the next day for alignment and balance - my worries were valid as the alignment was off, particularly the front wheels. Balancing, I was told, usually does the trick. I will schedule for a balance again, at another place, and have them look at my struts b/c accuratehorn is accurate about
