steering wheel shake at speed

[Lotus Bear]

I own a 2006 Lotus Elise with 24K miles.  For awhile (2-3yrs), I have a slight but noticeable shaking of my steering wheel when my speed is over 80mph, this happened even before I finally replaced my tires last month (new tires A048 along with complete aligmnent).  Any ideas what could be causing the shaking?  As background, old tires wore evenly. Car does not "drift" and hold the line its on. 

[Bibs]

If you're sure it's not the balancing that is out, have you checked to see if the wheels are true, they may have a small buckle? Either that or it could be a worn bush causing the shaking?

[Lotus Bear]

Thanks Bibs, tires are new - month old - look good & balanced.  old tires looked fine except for tread wear (they were the original tires)

[Lotus Bear]

Also, have not checked the bushing

[mikehhhhhhh]

I had a similar issue with my M3 where wheels an tyres were replaced, car was aligned and the final fix came when I replaced some bushes and replaced the hub.

I'd be looking at bushes and checking hub runout (check mating surfaces between hub and disc are clean, too!)

[bryno]

I had had a bit of vibration on my 048's at speeds around 80, was told by many people these tyres are notoriously hard to balance right, I had mine done twice with no improvement and a third time back at the Hethel factory workshop, still not perfect.

When I put another set of wheels and different tyres, they are perfect, so I've just put it down to the 048's and live with it.

[ImolaRed]

My 048´s are vibrating too, factory balance wasn´t good, after rebalancing it is better, but...