alignment problem or balance problem Options

[Davesceli]

I have a vibration/shimmy in my steering wheel that'll come and go about every 10-20 seconds. Once i hit about 65 it'll shake for a little and then go away and comeback. It also stops when i go around a slight curve.

Is this an alignment issue or balance issue? I assume its a alignment cuz if it were the other it would be vibrating all the time.

[Jamchell]

I have a vibration/shimmy in my steering wheel that'll come and go about every 10-20 seconds. Once i hit about 65 it'll shake for a little and then go away and comeback. It also stops when i go around a slight curve.

Is this an alignment issue or balance issue? I assume its a alignment cuz if it were the other it would be vibrating all the time.

You may have a harmonic balance issue here, does it come and go in waves, as in it waxes and wanes smoothly like a sine wave. Does it also do this on very smooth roads? This is often due to out of round tires and/or rims. sometimes you can partially solve this problem by rotating tires, but I'd go get the balance checked and ask them to check for out of round.

Alignment doesn't often cause vibration unless parts are worn out/damaged and play is excessive. This may be the case though, how many miles on the car and has it ever been wrecked? Toe out can cause shimmy but its a weird type of shimmy that makes it feel like the car wants to go in random directions.

I have a 96gt and I notice the short wheelbase on freeways, on the 15 or parts of the 78 here I get a similar problem with some vibration. My wheels are balanced and the front end is solid though so I consider this to be a non issue from a repair standpoint.