So recently, my steering wheel is pulsing while I'm driving. But not all the time. I can hear it too.
First, I thought it was the tires that were becoming unbalanced, like a wheel weight fell off, or my tire was going flat. But my tire didn't go flat so that rules that out. The pulsation sound comes and goes at highway speeds, rather than being constant. And it is not linear, i.e. faster speed = more shudder, slower speed = less shudder. I was driving around 55 MPH and the shuddering started to increase, and then as I was going faster, it went away. Then it never returned for the rest of my drive which was over 40 miles.
So I don't think it's my brake discs either since I replaced them a year ago because the symptoms above would indicate it's not. I've had unbalanced tires and warped brake discs. Since it comes and goes instead of being there constantly, I'm thinking it is the wheel bearings that are going, i.e. they roll smoothly on sides of the bearing that are round and it start to shudder when the bearing is rolling on out-of-round sections. The car has over 170,000 miles.
First, I thought it was the tires that were becoming unbalanced, like a wheel weight fell off, or my tire was going flat. But my tire didn't go flat so that rules that out. The pulsation sound comes and goes at highway speeds, rather than being constant. And it is not linear, i.e. faster speed = more shudder, slower speed = less shudder. I was driving around 55 MPH and the shuddering started to increase, and then as I was going faster, it went away. Then it never returned for the rest of my drive which was over 40 miles.
So I don't think it's my brake discs either since I replaced them a year ago because the symptoms above would indicate it's not. I've had unbalanced tires and warped brake discs. Since it comes and goes instead of being there constantly, I'm thinking it is the wheel bearings that are going, i.e. they roll smoothly on sides of the bearing that are round and it start to shudder when the bearing is rolling on out-of-round sections. The car has over 170,000 miles.
Last edited: