Ever since I got my Bonneville, it’s been plagued by a vibration in the steering wheel at speeds over 65 m.p.h. Running at over 75 m.p.h. was a jarring experience. When the right-front wheel bearing went bad, I thought that perhaps the new one would vanquish the vibration. It was not to be: though the wheel was much quieter, the vibration remained. I thought that the wheels were out of balance, so I had all four dynamically balanced. Did it fix the problem? Unfortunately, no. About the same time, I noticed that one of the front wheel studs was partially broken. I suspected this as the source of the vibration, but did not have (what I thought to be) the correct tools to replace it. And so it stayed.

Today I decided to attack the problem once more. I thought that perhaps one of the wheels was out of round and that rotating the tires would move the vibration, or perhaps even eliminate it. Seeing that Tires Plus had a special for rotations and oil changes, I committed myself. As luck would have it, they stripped one of the wheel studs (!) on the same hub that had the broken stud (They swore they had the clutch set at 80 ft-lbs. Riiiight….). Because of their air wrench faux pas, they offered to replace both faulty wheel studs free of charge. I authorized the work, and soon the work was completed. After checking that each wheel had five lug nuts, that the locking lug key was still present, and that the engine had oil in it, I proceeded to drive briskly along the freeway, northbound.

Let me tell you, it was bliss. Cruising along with traffic at 83 m.p.h., with a buttery-smooth ride, is utopic. I was finally rid of the nasty, steering-wheel jarring, teeth-chattering movement I had parleyed with so long. Doing something so simple and having such a wonderful result is pure ecstasy.