I've have an annoying vibration through the steering on my WRX since I bought it in June, feels just like a wheel balance problem, comes in at 70 goes at 90. Had the wheels balanced several times, tried different wheels, changed 2 of the tyres etc, but it is still there. I also seem to have a problem with alignment, had the front done 3 times now, each time the garage has found it to be way out (different garages though) and I do seem to have a pull to the left even with zero toe on the back and about 1mm total toe on the front. Are beginning to wonder if my 2 issues are connected - damaged track rod end? steering arm maybe? the car has only done 20k so I don't suspect worn bushes, but I guess a track rod could get damaged with kerbing? any other ideas of what can cause a vibration?

 

I know I guy who had similar trouble - turned out to be a defect in one of the brake discs

 

warped discs can do this

 

But I dont get vibration under braking, would have thought a warped disk would do that?

 

wheel bearing?

may have one of those on my car and I did have vibration even though I'd changed alloys, tyres and had them balanced loads of times.

Stefan

 

Prop Shaft, balance weight's fallen off.
Do you feel the vibration through the car.
If you have had that much trouble with alignment, i would be looking carefully at the front suspension, track control arm (Transvere link)Bush wear. Track rod end's all of these are easliy checked.

 

Had similar on an N reg Xantia diesel, (stop laughing) before the wife did us a favour and wrote it off:

It turned out to be the REAR tyres...........they were oval. Auto-express told me what to look for, and they were right.

Alcazar

 

could also be a buckled rear wheel....last RR day i was on there was a chap that they noticed it was a bit "off"....

 

sounds like transmission..propshaft as mentoined earlier is favourite ,vibration will get worse with speed and not disapear with more speed as wheel balancing does .powerman

 

Thanks for the ideas chaps, to rule out wheel balance once and for all I have found a place in Northampton who has a 'Hunter' machine which from what I have read on the web is the absolute ultimate for wheel balancing, so by Friday I will know if it is something more serious...

 

Could actually be a tyre off.
Try swapping rear wheels to front (assuming they are also balanced correctly)

Andy

 

I had this on an MR2 and I almost got rid of it. For me, everything possible was wrong and I fixed them all one by one, improving it each time.

Unbalanced wheels
Warped discs
alloys not centred properly (centre ring missing)
incorrect/uneven tyre pressure
Worn bearing
alloys not centred properly (centre ring too lose)
poorly fitting alloys

Never got rid of the wobble completely and put that down to the fact that it had been in a pretty major front and rear end impact!

Sounds like you've ruled out most things though. I hate these things that are fairly minor but so difficult to diagnose.