Buick - Century :: 2003 - Steering Wheel Shaking Horribly?
Sep 27, 2011
I have a 2003 Buick century custom, 45,000 miles. I just got it 3 months ago, so don't have any maintenance records. Recently, the steering wheel has started to shake/shimmy while driving. It shakes left-right about 1/4-1/2 inch when I let go of it. The car also pulls to the right quite a bit. The steering wheel doesn't seem to shake at all at stops, only while in motion. My dad and I are going to look under the hood at whatever we can tomorrow, so where to start checking for issues!!! I am have been able to fix things before on my own and my dad has rigged his pickup to run partially on hydrogen from water, so gets 75 mpg city from an old 1990 beater that's falling apart physically, so we should be able to fix this if we can figure out what it is. So somewhere to start is what I'm looking for now.
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I had my ABS and Traction Control system checked a few times for buzzing sounds and ABS warning light coming on occasionally. My mechanic assured my all the speed sensors and connections were good. I recently noticed there was uneven tire wear on the right front tire. Could a severe misalignment of the front wheels cause the ABS warning light to come on?
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I have a 2003 Buick Century 3.1L. The airbag light goes on randomly. I realize that it is supposed to go on momentarily after I start the engine. Sometimes the light will stay lit for one or more drives and sometimes it will stay off for one or more drives. I have checked the fuse; it is good. I have tried smacking the airbag on the steering and the dash...the light remains lit. I have seen a bundle of wires on the back side of the fuse box and am not sure whether I should try to trace the fuse wire back to both locations or what to do next. Is there some trick of the trade like a reset button and what do you think I should try next?
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I have a 2003 Buick Century in automatic with overdrive. During the past week I experienced a hum and slight vibration at speeds over 20 mph. (The faster I drive the higher the hum.) I checked the transmission fluid. It was brown and pink but did not smell burned. I have not changed the trans fluid in 2 years. I sent it to my transmission guy for an oil change. He said that the 1st gear clutch was having some problem and there was no 4th gear. He suggested another transmission...
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2003 Buick Century draining fully charged battery overnight. Have tried almost everything and cant figure it out. The high blower is not working either and I am wondering if a short in that can cause the battery to drain? Changed fuses, alternator, searched for shorts, an so on. Cannot find location of the blower.
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I have 2003 Buick Century. I started having problems with the car after coming to a stop, accelerating - the car starts to go hesitates, then jerks a bit to go. This does not happen every time after a stop but when it does the service engine soon light comes on. Initially I got the P0401 code (I think) and took it in to a mechanic. They could not find anything wrong with the car but did clean out the EGR valve, that didn't work, they worked on my transmission and replaced other parts, still no success.
I took the car to another mechanic who replaced the EGR valve and several other small parts. I still had the problem but this time the error code was P0420. I took it back again and replaced the spark plugs, O/2 sensor, catalytic converter. That hasn't fixed the problem. The mechanic said that they have taken my car for several test drives and the car has not demonstrated the problem. The error message still reads P0420 even after all of the parts have been replaced. The 2nd mechanic has washed his hands of my problem.
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My 2003 Buick Century heater works fine while accelerating but as soon as I release the gas the air begins to cool, swiftly. I have had the radiator flushed and the coolant topped off but the problem persists.
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My wife's car, a 2003 Buick Century, has died a couple times on her while driving. Each time has been while she was in the midst of a left turn, so I think that is relevant. Today it is a humid, raining off/on kind of day, but she says that she thinks the last time it did it was a dry day. When it dies, she pulls over, puts it in park, and restarts the car, it runs normal, no problems. She said she has turned the ignition switch off, and then starts the car, and has not tried just turning forward to start, however her daughter said that when it died on her, she could not turn it to start - she had to turn it off then back on and it started fine.
Her daughter said that she had it die once while sitting at a traffic light, so I may be off base thinking that it is related to a left turn. The car has about 155K miles on it, and the only engine work that has been done on it other than maintenance is that the catalytic converter was replaced a few years back, when it was plugged up.
On this same car, I have to spray brake cleaner on the ABS sensors (front) about every 3-4 weeks, when the ABS light and the TRAC Off lights come on. Is there some way to keep them from becoming fouled?
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My car has shaken from the start but I thought it was because it was a small car that was a great price so this is how it ran. Today it started shaking so badly up through the steering wheel that I was afraid to drive it. Still am. I got the tire pressure checked, the wheel balancing checked - all ok. Took it into the dealership (car is still under warrantee) and they think it's likely the drive train/drive shaft.
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I just noticed today that when I let of the gas my steering wheel will shake a little bit and when I let off the brake after I come to a stop light my steering wheel would shake. Why the could be happening. Could it be from a bad axle, alignment, something wrong with the brakes, bent wheel, balancing, or something.
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I have had the O.Z.s balanced about # more times since. The front end is fine, new bearings, new control arm bushings. I have the necessary parts (aftermarket conical bolts and hubcentric rings). There are no noticeable bends or dents in the rims and it's starting to get annoying..so, should I get rid of them or maybe there is something that I'm missing here. Could the wheels just be bad.
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I now have 14500 miles on my R and took it to the dealer Monday because the brakes are shaking the steering wheel again. After I had my R for 3 months and a little over 2000 miles it was taken in with this problem and the dealer turned the rotors. Everything was fine for about 3 more months and now had 5000 miles the brakes started to shake and grind real bad. I took it in again and this time the rotors were replaced. It was good till a month ago and they started to screach when I stopped and shake the steering wheel when I touched the brakes. So this is the 3rd time I have had brake problems and 2nd time the rotors need to be replaced. They can't tell me why this is happening. I was asked if I do a lot of hard driving, and I told them that I average almost 25 mpg and you don't get that driving super hard. I drive 76 miles round trip to work and all but 4 miles is highway with only 3 stop signs so it is easy to average that. I don't know how long the warranty will keep covering rotors if they can't find the cause. I love my R but I am not going to pay $700 - 800 or more for new rotors every 8000 miles.
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My car steering wheel is hard to turn now and i don't know why it's doing this.
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Vibrating at 50-55mph, also at 75+, was reduced considerably when forward transmission mount was replaced. Still shimmies and feel little in the steering wheel. Have replaced tie rod ends, back struts and tires. Need to figure out what I am missing.
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I have had a wobbly wheel since I can remember, it starts at about 55. I have replaced the front tires, struts and mounts, new rotors, brakes and I cant seem to figure it out. The front end is tight and the cv axle boot is still intact and I have never seen one go out without ripping the boot. If I lift the car up the front left tire hops a bit so thats the culprit but I cant seem to narrow it down anymore. I think its the cv axle but it seems weird considering the boot isn't torn.
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I had a problem with my steering wheel shaking at various speeds. Eventually I found a bad inner tie rod and replaced it. The shaking is gone, but whenever I get over 70 mph there is still a very small vibration. I had all 4 wheels aligned after changing the tie rod. Tires are brand new, less than a week old. The mechanic checked my ball joints while doing the alignment and said they were good. Could my struts be causing the vibration? They need replaced, not sure if the previous owner ever replaced them and the car has 225,000 miles.
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I am currently running 8mm ECS spacers in the front and 17.5mm ECS spacers in the rear. My Summer set up is still stock BBS RC's, but my winter wheels are Lenso's.
Last winter was my first winter running with the Lenso's and had no issues. This past weekend I swapped out the BBS's for the Lenso's, and now I am feeling vibration above 60MPH. I felt no vibration with the BBS's. I just took them in to get balanced (maybe a weight fell off-idk), and they were within 1/4 of 100% balanced. They then thought it may be the spacers I'm running so they cleaned them up, but said that it didn't work.
My alignment is also spot on-so that's not an issue either. I am at a loss as to what would make me feel that vibration after just changing out the wheels.
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I'm almost at a lose here. I have a 01 1.8t golf and at 60 the steering wheel shakes and at 80+ i feel it in the whole car. I've already replaced both axles, wheel bearings, tie rods, ball joints, new coilovers, new wheels and tires, and passenger side control arm. There's not much more I can replace besides hubs and driver control arm or do u think it could be defective parts like one of the new axles.
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My 1.8t gli is giving me this issue, when braking (specially hard) my steering wheel shakes side to side, my rotors got changed less than 20,000 miles ago (all of them) and they seem fine right now.
Could this be my Tie Rod ends? The car has 110,000 miles on it, and i know some bushings if not all need to be changed, which I am gonna be installing when i put on the Raxles i just got.
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I've got 2 identical 01 models with 150-200k miles that are having issues with the steering wheel chattering and shaking occasionally, like a pump is gravitating or something. I've only noticed it at low/no speed when turning the wheel. It shakes for a second or two, then quits. No fault lights on, and no codes pulled with mini vci...
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I have a 05 gli w/ 65k miles. I got new plugs gaped correctly and new coils. When I'm idling at 7-800rpm my steering wheel shakes a little and when I flip on the ac it's even more noticeable. So much the rear view mirror shakes just a tad. What do yall think it could be cause it's not that bad but I'm anal about my cars and I want it to be perfect.
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