Due to my stupidity, I now have a shaky steering wheel at 60mph.

I was doing a tire rotation on a 2005 Cobalt LS and one of the lug nuts on the right rear hub got stuck spinning. I could not get it off to save my life. Being an idiot, I used a hacksaw and Big F'ing Hammer combination to completely bend and break off the stud, to get the wheel off. I also hit the rim a few times on accident. I replaced the broken stud, bought a new rim, balanced, and finished my tire rotation. I thought this would fix the shake issue, but it is still there. What else near the passenger rear drum could I have messed up with the sledge hammer? Could I have done some serious damage to the axle?

I am losing sleep just reliving myself swinging that BFH. I knew I was probably going to regret it, but I was pissed. Any ideas what I could have messed up?
Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Is the vibration coming from the front or rear?

 

Unless you dented the drum, there really isn't any other rotating part back there. Its a hub design in the back, no axles. Do a front to back tire rotation and see if the vibration moves, could be an out of round tire

 

It's possible ur shaky steering is because ur new rim is nice and clean and ur rim on the other side that is not new is caked full of snow or dirt. Before jumping to conclutions, make sure both rims are nice and clean and go for a drive to see if that fixes it

 

I haven't felt it since I replaced the new tire, but my wife said it still shakes. I will have to drive it to see, but she said the steering wheel was shaking. Does this isolate the front axle? The new rim was rotated up to the drivers side front hub (basic FWD tire rotation)

I will have to drive it today to check. I think it might be the rear hub assembly is bent.

 

If the steering wheel is shaking its the front end. Could be wheel bearing, brake rotor, intermediate shaft, tires not mounted on the hub centered

 

Was the new wheel balanced correctly ? Maybe have all 4 rebalanced

 

Bent hub.. need new spindle.

 

I finally got around to driving the car. Before I took it on the highway I checked the tire pressure. The front left new rim was at 40psi, the other 3 were at 35. Let it down to 35 and took it on the highway. Got it to 65 with no shaking, but due to rush hour traffic I couldn't go any faster. I think that might have been what caused the wheel to shake when my wife drove it...So those professionals who balanced my tire didn't feel like checking the other tires' pressure. They just pumped it up to 40psi and put it on.

I don't feel as stupid anymore...thanks for all the suggestions.

 

Glad you got it figured out.

 

Its funny cause something like that is all it takes. I used to work for a dealership and that's the first thing I'd always do. Make all pressures the same. So if people still did complain of problems relating to this we knew we didn't have to blame the pressure.