Steering wheel vibrates at 100km/62 mph

[colonelwai]

Hi to all, I bought a secondhand 1.6 EcoBoost 2011 S-Max. The car already went 3 times back to the garage because of a vibrating steering wheel. Vibrating is not vibrating heavlily, but it's annoying. The garage already have done:

1. Align the car
2. Balancing the tyres
3. Replace the tyres (strange enough they put smaller tyres on  it; 215/50/17 instead of 225/50/17)

But the car still vibrates. Anyone ever encounter this problem? The steering ball joint was replaced last year, could a faulty replacement creates vibration?

 

[Hearsepilot]

What are your wheel bearings like?

 

[colonelwai]

On 9/27/2021 at 12:48 AM, Hearsepilot said:

What are your wheel bearings like?

 

I think they are okay; there's no strange sound coming from, but I will ask the garage!

[unofix]

When you apply light pressure to the brake pedal do you feel any slight vibration or a slight judder of the brakes ?

One or both of the front discs maybe very slightly warped causing vibration at speed. Ask the garage to check the discs for 'run-out' using a dti

[Mr Nobody]

I'm not sure if your engine version of S-Max has an inboard OSF drive shaft support bearing but, mine does and I had the same problem. The support material between the bearing and the bracket casing had deteriorated to the point where the shaft was allowed to gyrate at certian speeds (as you said around the 60mph area) causing this annoying vibration! You may also feel a juddering at lower speeds when accelerating hard in a gear higher than you would normally be in for a harder acceleration.  Hope this helps in your diagnosis.

[colonelwai]

It was the alignment! I bought the S-max at a Volkswagen- dealer (yeah, I know). They have align the car twice, so when I complained they send the car to a Ford-dealer. It seems that the S-Max needs special equipment to align; generic aliging-tools seems not working for my car.