At 60 mph the steer wheel will start shaking something is going on in front suspension or drive train. This happened occasionally until yesterday when it was quite severe. Shaking went away on brief deceleration back on acceleration. Of and on gas off gas on. At 40 mph its gone. Thanks, Roger

Go to discount tire and have them check balance, if it gets worse with speed this would be my first guess. Especially if there aren’t any new noises associated with the vibration 

swap tires front to back

inspect suspension and steering parts

look for frozen brake caliper

i like frozen caliper many thanks will update with my findings

When I had my 92 legacy it was doing the same thing and it ended up being the tie rods.

as comatosellama suggested, speed dependent vibrations/shaking are most often caused by a tire out of balance, sometimes a damaged tire - Start there.

As texan suggested, swapping tires from front to back for a quick, inexpensive test.. if the vibration is still present, bet less noticeable in the steering, that would suggest it IS a tire out of balance and/or damaged. get them checked

If swapping the tires has no effect on the vibration/shaking, then yes, you need to dig deeper.

potential issues: ball joints, tie rod ends, wheel bearing, CV joint (axle), maybe a frozen brake caliper.. also check struts & springs..

also take a look at the lower control arm mounting points. the rear most mount bushing tends to be a problem area

Frozen caliper is easy to diagnose.  One rotor will be hot, sometimes smoking.  Use an infrared thermometer to check rotor temp.  

I have this problem also, off and on for a while, on a 2002 H6 3.0 outback sedan, 320k miles.  At 60 mph, the steering wheel shakes, enough that I don't want my wife driving the car.  Drives fine other than the shaking.  Mine is a bit different than what you describe.  It appears when letting off the gas, worse on hilly roads just at the transition from flat to downhill.  Over time, I have tried changing CV axles, front struts and bearings, inner and outer tie rod ends, ball joints, new power steering pump, new tires all around.  These all have helped make the problem less or go away but it comes back, not as severe but I don't think I have addressed the central issue yet.  As it seems to be related to the position of the car on the road and whether power is applied or not, I have suspected a suspension/mounting related problem.  

I would lean toward the lower control arm as heartless describes.  

A shaking steering wheel at 60 to 65 mph is due to front tires being out of balance.

After checking the balance of the tyres and not finding any issues,  have the inside of the tyre checked for any foreign material in there. This can also cause weird vibration issues. 

Mother than that I concur on the above mentioned areas to check

Cheers

Bennie

Glad to see the original post. I came onto the forums tonight to ask about this same issue. I drive a 2005 Subi Outback H6, 206K. Very recently it got new tires, mounted and balanced. Pep Boys did the work, and I would not be surprised to find out the tires are out of balance. I did have an alignment right after all four tires were replaced (500 miles ago), they noted one setting slightly out of spec, but the Subi dealer was not alarmed. The car drives really great until about 65 mph, then it has a vibration in the steering wheel - it moves back and forth about 1/8 of an inch, but very quickly. It does even out again about 75-80 mph. While the steering wheel is vibrating I can touch the shifter or dashboard and there is NO vibration.

The steering rack was replaced within short memory, and the lower control arms 6 years ago, and the tie rods were done perhaps 3 years ago. The shocks and struts are from Dec 2015, Not sure about CV joints, but there is no other indication they might be bad. The annual mileage is well below average, so none of this has huge mileage. My gut feeling was bad ball joints, mainly based on checking off what has been done in last few years. I will check the balance, and move tires forward and back to test as suggested. I will check for the frozen caliber - I had not thought of that.

When the lower control arms were replaced, would that have included new ball joints?

Any other thoughts ? Thanks, Craig

Just because the control arms were replaced, it doesn’t mean the ball joints were. Although it would make sense to replace these items while everything was apart. 

Cheers

Bennie

8 hours ago, craigmcd said:

Glad to see the original post. I came onto the forums tonight to ask about this same issue. I drive a 2005 Subi Outback H6, 206K. Very recently it got new tires, mounted and balanced. Pep Boys did the work, and I would not be surprised to find out the tires are out of balance. I did have an alignment right after all four tires were replaced (500 miles ago), they noted one setting slightly out of spec, but the Subi dealer was not alarmed. The car drives really great until about 65 mph, then it has a vibration in the steering wheel - it moves back and forth about 1/8 of an inch, but very quickly. It does even out again about 75-80 mph. While the steering wheel is vibrating I can touch the shifter or dashboard and there is NO vibration.

The steering rack was replaced within short memory, and the lower control arms 6 years ago, and the tie rods were done perhaps 3 years ago. The shocks and struts are from Dec 2015, Not sure about CV joints, but there is no other indication they might be bad. The annual mileage is well below average, so none of this has huge mileage. My gut feeling was bad ball joints, mainly based on checking off what has been done in last few years. I will check the balance, and move tires forward and back to test as suggested. I will check for the frozen caliber - I had not thought of that.

When the lower control arms were replaced, would that have included new ball joints?

Any other thoughts ? Thanks, Craig

If you have the receipts from when the work was done, it should tell you what, exactly, was replaced.

But your description of the symptoms really suggests an out of balance tire to me. potholes, accidental curb bumps, these can throw a tire out pretty quickly. the stick on weights also  sometimes fall off... definitely worth swapping the tires around to see if anything changes.

 

 

Tire balance.

 

Thanks all - I am working on the car today, and doing a highway drive tonight, so I will let you know. C

What happened?

My car has stopped shaking. Waiting for it to happen again. If it ain't broke.... Seriously, I have not had the time to check calipers. Will report when I do. Thanks for all the replies!

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by dadpups

Just able to get back. Last Friday I brought the car into our local military installation, where I am able to use the auto craft garage. They taught me how to use the computer wheel balancer, and I went through each tire. It turns out one of the front tires has a slightly bent wheel, and there was a lot of weight on there to compensate. The tire was out of balance anyway. We took off all the weight and started over, but in the end it still took a lot both inner and outer. Two other tires were balanced okay, and the fourth needed some work. I moved the bent rim to the rear. At the magic 65 to 75mph, the car drove a lot better - with no vibration. I checked everything else, including the ball joints and all is good. Thanks for the input everyone, I appreciate it.

I was gonna suggest a bent wheel. I have a 96 legacy wagon that had the same issue

 

16 hours ago, craigmcd said:

Just able to get back. Last Friday I brought the car into our local military installation, where I am able to use the auto craft garage. They taught me how to use the computer wheel balancer, and I went through each tire. It turns out one of the front tires has a slightly bent wheel, and there was a lot of weight on there to compensate. The tire was out of balance anyway. We took off all the weight and started over, but in the end it still took a lot both inner and outer. Two other tires were balanced okay, and the fourth needed some work. I moved the bent rim to the rear. At the magic 65 to 75mph, the car drove a lot better - with no vibration. I checked everything else, including the ball joints and all is good. Thanks for the input everyone, I appreciate it.

hit up local junkyards, or car-part.com and pick up a different wheel to get that bent one off of there.

Thanks heartless, that is what I had in mind. It would be fun to put on a nice new set of wheels, but this older car is just not worth it. I have this on my 'to do' list.

many bigger metro areas have alloy rim repair/reconditioning companies. They did an awesome job on my kid's rim once in the past. Check around body shops.

Thanks Texan, I was not aware of that kind of service. I live in between Baltimore and Philadelphia, so good possiblities (plus a bunch of junk yards)