Steering wheel shakes at highway speeds on left curves only

[2012 Legacy H6]

I just noticed that while I was driving on the highway this weekend, as I began to veer left at a curve, my steering wheel now has a moderate shake and a simultaneous subtle shake on the right front wheel. It doesn't happen every single time I make a left curve, however. 

 

Tie rod ends are OEM and only a couple years old as I had them replaced after experiencing a more pronounced shaking at the time.

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited June 10 by 2012 Legacy H6

[creep_nu]

kinda hard to diagnose without having the vehicle in front of you but i'd check ball joints and wheel bearings...my shake in the front end went away after changing ball joints

[Scubaboo]

I'd also have a look at the lower control arm bushings.

[DrD123]

Had something similar on my 12 - would shake on sweeping turns on the highway, as well as when slowly changing lanes, actually - ended up being the forward bushing on my lower control arm (drivers side) being pretty completely failed.  Replaced the control arms and it was all fixed.

[2012 Legacy H6]

Interesting.. the front control arm bushings were changed twice since 2020 by the dealer.

[peril]

the thingys (technical term) are 

inners, outers, sway bars, control arms and struts.  (other possiblities are bearing / drive shaft )

I would check alignment - then outers / inner tie rods, then ball joint, then shocks, then control arms, then bearing

my 2013 outback had a wierd one where once shock started to loosen on it's own and was acting wierd on turns (clunking, banging, etc) to the right.

[DrD123]

18 hours ago, 2012 Legacy H6 said:

Interesting.. the front control arm bushings were changed twice since 2020 by the dealer.

I don't have a press, so changing the bushings wasn't really an option - the rear pancake bushings were torn as well, but the front left wheel was where the play was for me (at first thought it was the bearing based on wheel movement, but got under the car and noticed it was the front bushing location that was moving, not the bearing, so just bought two new control arms (went OEM at the time) and swapped them out.

[Scubaboo]

On 6/11/2024 at 12:49 AM, 2012 Legacy H6 said:

Interesting.. the front control arm bushings were changed twice since 2020 by the dealer.

That seems suspect.  Any particular reason why?

The forward position bushing is kind of hard to inspect visually unlike the rear position pancake bushing, but you can probably check if its good with a prybar.

As mentioned the strut can loosen on the mount, and the strut mount bearing can be shot too.  Having a helper turn the wheel left to right while you put your hand on the mount you can sometimes feel a small vibration if the mounts are failing.