Shakey steering

[Lucrecia_Mar]

Hi there First time question! I was driving in dark, slippy condituions this evening down some pretty windy country lanes (I'm in Cumbria) when I lost control of my car and nearly put it into a hedge. I managed to wrestle back onto the road, but I think I must've damaged something. The car handles fine, but when I drive between 45mph and 65mph, the steering wheel starts shaking violently. Can anyone tell me why this is and if it's an urgent problem? My car is an 'R' reg Vauxhall Corsa with power steering. I'm low on funds at the moment and if I can put off having it fixed, I will! Thanks in advance

[Toureman]

It could be something simple like a buckled wheel that will need renewing or something a lot more dangerous like a bent axle pin or damaged and/or loose steering part.

You must get it inspected now in case something completely collapses and you do something worse than going in a ditch.

[Andyvon]

It sounds like you have a front wheel out of balance. You may have lost one of the balance weights that are tacked to the rim of the wheels. It's worth just going to you local tyre place (Kwik Fit etc) and ask them to check the wheel balance. They'll sort it in a few minutes if that is the problem and it will only cost you a few quid.

[jake-the-peg]

In the mean time change the front left hand wheel ( I assume that's the one that nearly went into the ditch) with the spare in your boot.

If you've never changed a wheel before get someone to help and show you what to do it's not that hard and you never know when you may really badly need to do it.

As Toureman and Andy say there's a good chance the wheel is damaged or lost it's little lead balances and that when you put the spare on the problem will magically vanish

[edd2blue]

could be wishbone bent or wheel aligement