My '88 Regency has suddenly started to have a vibration and steering wheel shimmy while driving. It doesn't seem to pull to one side any more than it already did, just slightly to the right. I'm trying to figure out what this could be. I'm on a pretty tight budget right now so I need to isolate the problem before I just start spending money fixing things and hoping I'm right. Any idea what this is most likely to be or any steps I can take to help diagnose the problem? Thanks.

 

Try rotating the tires, it could be a tire out of balance or bent wheel. If things chnage then move the wheels as they were one at a time to narrow down which one is the problem, if nothing changes then we need to check further, however I think you will find the problem. You can do it yourself and no effect on the budget. Have a good one. Geo

 

I had an Olds that had that type of problem. Does it get worse when you lightly apply the brakes? If so you may have a warped brake rotor.

 

No, I've had warped rotors before, it's not that. I'm going to check the tires tomorrow. Thanks.

 

If you have a good spare you could put it on in place of one of the front tires and then the other one to see if it goes away. Any chance it's more noticeable when accelerating? Last time I had a bad CV, that's when it was noticeable. If you already had a pulling to the right and it's gotten worse you may have either a bad ball joint or tie-rod end. You may be able to check these when you jack up to swap tires, but you need to have the car well-supported when it's jacked up and you start wiggling parts around to see what's loose.

 

On a car 20 years old, do not cheapen out with your life and others at stake. Front end parts can snap off from neglect/lack of grease, or rust/winter salt, at some key mounting location under the car that holds the front end steering to the car frame/unibody. It is good idea once in a while, if nothing else, to pay for oil change/grease job to get car up on lift to have it carefully evaluated, for the sake of you and others coming toward you down the highway. Never mess with cars that for some unknown reason have steering that starts to pull to one side, or even have it where you use to hold the wheel at 9/3, and now without any known reason, to make car go straight, you now have to hold it at 10/4, for example.