Front end shake--what causes?

[RallyJon]

OTHER than wheel balance.

I had a bad vibration through the steering wheel. I noticed that the tabs on the balljoint lockplate had scraped off the wheel weights. So I took the front wheels and had them road-force balanced by a good local shop.

Problem is, there's still a pronounced shake from the front end at >60mph. Any idea what could cause this besides wheel balance?

[JP911]

Warped rotor, flat-spotted tire, bent wheel, failed shock seem like logical explanations. On the more dangerous/less-likely side: a bolt coming loose somewhere in the suspension, bad ball joint, bent A-arm, loose steering linkage, bad bearing.

[IROC]

Unless the tires are new or nearly new, I would suspect the tires. They can be in balance, but wear patterns can cause vibrations. I had a set of fronts (A032s) that after many track miles *appeared* to be worn perfectly even and would balance just fine, but vibrated horribly.

Mike

[jtratza]

I vote tire. I recently had a front tire develop a bubble that took a couple of days to find since it was on the inside of the tire. The shake was noticed at any speed. Thinking further back I had another tire separate belts or something to that effect that caused a slight shimmy.