I bought my Fiesta about a month ago, used, 2009 new shape fiesta zetec. Quite happy with it so far. A week or so ago I noticed that the Steering wheel was starting to shake when hitting 70mph and then eased up above 75mph.

I got this checked out by a mechanic and he told me he was 99% sure that the wheels needed rebalancing. Car was in the garage on monday for its rebalance which turned into an expensive fix because they couldnt get the locking nuts off so had to chisel them and order new ones.

Anyway The shaky steering has been resolved and steering in general feels smoother but I've noticed that the car in general is still shaky when approaching 60-70mph but it doesn't feed through to the steering wheel. I notice this quite a bit when accellerating at that speed or accelerating up a hill.

Does anyone thing that the wheels havent been balanced properly or if it could be something else?

Also I noticed that the steering when at low speeds seems creaky when turning left, is this normal? It's always been that way but doesnt have an effect as far as im aware.

Get your wheels checked again but see if there buckled, it's quite a common problem with the mk7 Fez

Do you feel the shaking / vibrations in the seat? I've heard that means the rear wheels might need balancing - did they check those too? Although you say you notice this while accelerating at 60-70, if you let your foot off does the vibrating stop? If so then it's not the wheels.

It's also possible that there is something not right in one of the suspension components. I had this in a Sierra which vibrated at 70mph which was very annoying. I never did fix it and balancing and tracking didn't work. It had been in a minor shunt and it was in the suspension itself which must have been some kind of harmonic frequency at a certain speed. You could drive in and out of the vibration but at dead 70 it would shake.

You could drive in and out of the vibration but at dead 70 it would shake.

It's so annoying when that happens, my first car was like that. At least 2 of the alloys were so badly buckled from a previous owner that they couldn't be fully repaired, so it had incurable wheel wobble at guess which speed? 70 <_<

Thanks guys I'll have to get it checked out. The car showed ad clean in hpi checks but I think it has been in a collision. I had to get the rear right bumper mount replaced as it had snapped and the paperwork for the car shows a rear smashed for light replacement. If the wheel is buckled, depending on how badly, is it an expensive fix?

Maybe first try swapping front to rear. You may find that it goes away. Obviously check the wheels are still safe. If there is obvious damage rather than just slight misalignment then the only real thing is replacement. But first try swapping them to the rear. They are just trolley wheels and it may not show as much. If the vibration is the same then it's the suspension.

If the wheel is buckled, depending on how badly, is it an expensive fix?

I had this done on my first car, can't remember the cost but definitely cheaper than new wheels (although it didn't fix it entirely cos the wheels where that bad). There isn't just one way to fix it either, some repairers do it by heating up the rim to help reshape it, I think the one I went do doesn't bother and just bashes it back into shape lol.

I have alloy wheels, will that make a difference?

This cost me £90 including new paint.

I have alloy wheels, will that make a difference?

Only alloys can be repaired I would think, there would be no point repairing steel wheels because they're so cheap to replace.

Well I'm gonna take it back to the garage on Monday and tell them to check it again, something doesn't feel right

Car has been back into the garage today, wheels are perfectly fine. They recon that it's the start of a Drive Shaft problem as it mainly happens when the car is accelerating / under load but its very minor at the moment, they tried to identify it but got to wait for it to worsen a little bit to know for definite