TROUBLESHOOTING FRONT TIRE VIBRATION

[Norswede]

TROUBLESHOOTING:

Hey all, my '07 Yaris hatchback has 170,000 miles on it and is in pretty good shape. I have babied it with regular oil changes and taken care of basic maintenance as it arises. People are routinely shocked when I tell em how old my car is when they see it. 😀

However, we have an issue brewing that I need some help troubleshooting. Back in the summer of '23 we noticed during a vacation trip that there was a shake in the steering wheel (seemingly coming from the wheels/tires) at high rates of speed (60 mph+). If you drape your hand on the steering wheel, the shaking telegraphs thru the steering wheel and your hand looks like it has a mild Parkinsons type tremor.

We were thinking it was bearings and took it into our local mechanic who drove the car on the freeway with hubby in the car. He says it's not the bearings because there's no failed bearing noise and that if it were the bearings he and hubby wouldn't have been able to talk it would be so loud.

He suggested it could be the tires which makes sense--they were VERY old. So we swapped out the old tires for snow tires and the shaking is much improved but not entirely gone; I noticed it a bit on the freeway today. It just feels like there's a vibration coming from the front wheel area and--I hope this will be a HUGE clue for those in the know--the shaking and a non-bearing noise grew MUCH more noticeable when I was navigating a curve at between 30-40 mph and then all but disappeared again on a straightaway.

Please help!