Does your car seem to shake, vibrate, drift slightly against your steering, or otherwise move strangely? Does it happen on any road, at different speeds, or with certain turns? There are a lot of steering and traction issues that lead to weird driving experiences, and if you don't want to get ripped off by a mechanic for some way overpriced repair, consider these possible causes and their relatively simple fixes to know what to expect.

Bad Tread Drift

Your vehicle is a marvel of modern machinery. Everything is balanced to cut through the wind as efficiently as possible without dealing with a lot of air resistance, and your tires add to so many parts of an efficient ride. 

Tires are also a common area for driving experience failure, and it's more than just flat tires. When your tires wear down, the uneven treads and lack of rubber can make braking or sudden acceleration a lot harder. It can also make steering a slight problem.

Wear and tear on tires isn't always even. If your area's roads are notoriously bad, or if you have something stuck underneath your car that scrapes away at the rubber, you could have an uneven set of tires that drift slightly to one side.

Replacement is an easy first step, but you need to figure out what's causing the problem to avoid paying for early tire replacements. This can involve removing any plastic undercarriage/splash covers scraping against the tires, checking for auto body damage from an accident that could be just barely scraping at the edge of the tires, or contacting your local government for road repairs.

The Wobble May Be More Than The Tire

When a tire is going flat, or has an innertube that has formed a knot, you need to either fill the tire, have the tire patched professionally, or replace it.

What happens when the wobble doesn't go away after replacement?

Another cause of vibrating, thudding, or wobbling tires is poor rim support. Check the lug for tightness and make sure a professional mechanic with power tools can provide a secure, exact, but not overly tight twist to the tire's main source of security.

Beyond that, have the rims checked for damage. If you've ever had a tire go completely flat to the point of hitting the road/ground, or if your vehicle has been in an accident, there could be a dent that is just sharp enough to cause slow leaks in your tire. It can be so slow that you assume it's nothing more than air loss from temperature changes.

Contact a tire maintenance, repair, and replacement professional to talk about what's going on with your current tires, and to make sure your next repair comes with a long-lasting tire set.