Recently the steering wheel has been jerking back and forth rapidly under acceleration. I have not had an alignment in a while. Could this be the culprit?

 

Doubtful. Sounds more like tie rods or other steering issues. You need to get it on a lift and get it checked very soon though. Also check your steering fluid level.

 

WHile you are under there take a gander at your bushings. My steering wheel would shake badly, thenreplaced the bushings and it was fine.

 

silverBean, which bushings did you replace?

 

All the fronts, but i believe the front pass. sway was the culprit, considering it had pretty much disintegrated! I was shocked when i saw it hanging.

 

I don't think a bad swaybar bushing is going to cause steering wheel shudder under accelleration. A "clunk" when turning is usually the sign/symptom of that.

You need to get under there and check it out, or have somone check it out. Could be bad balljoints, bad tie rods (outers and/or innners), bad tires, play in the intermediate shaft, blown upper strut bearings. I'm certain there is something else I am forgetting.

 

I will crawl under there tonight and try to see if anything is loose or moving when it shouldn't be moving. Hopefully its nothing too serious...

 

True. Shuddering under acceleration should NOT cause steering wheel vibration.

Check your tires for tread separation or bubbles-- Is this a MPH based vibration?

 

Tires would be my guess, had a vibration in the steering wheel most of the time just when getting up to speed, just put my new wheels and tires on, no more vibrations!

 

someone converted your 944 to fwd!!!!

haha just messin'. there are TONS of possibilities. like many have said, you have to get under there and see if anything's out of whack or broken. i'm sure it's something minor. good luck.

 

FWD I hope not, I have enough understeering cars in my life as it is. Don't think it is the tires though, since these are almost brand new. Bought them off someone with about 5K miles on them and had them mounted. I guess its not so much vibration as it is jerking back and forth. Just hoping that the solution isn't to $$$$

 

Hahahaha! That's what I was thinking too!

 

Any chance you went to much wider tires than you had before? It could be tramlining

Also, 5K miles is plenty of time to ruin a set of tires. I drove the inside shoulders off a set of Hoosier RS street tires (when they still made them) because I was too lazy to get an alignment. When I finally replaced them I flatspotted the fronts when I came to a tires smoking dead stop from about 60mph within a few days of having the tires on the car.

 

Hi Ben, mine did the same thing when my ball joint got loose. If it needs replaced, it's a good idea to get an alignment after pulling the control arm and replacing the joint. I can suggest a good local alignment shop if you need one.