Auto Parts: steering wheel shakes, wheel drive car, torque wrenches

Question
03 Accord LX (4 cyl)--My steering wheel starts to vibrate at speeds btwn 55-65 mph.  At 66+ mph the vibration stops.  I got an aligment & all tires balanced but the vibration still occurs.  Any thoughts on what it could be, suspension maybe?

Answer
    My guess is that they took the wheels off of the car to balance them.  With a front-wheel-drive car, especially a Honda, the tire/wheel assemblies need to be balanced on the car.  More importantly, they need to be be checked for run-out.  In other words, are the wheels rotating around the same axis on the car as off.  If a curb has been hit, or even a deep chuckhole, the rim can be bent a small amount, and that can cause a vibration that won't show up on a computerized off-the-car tire balance.  Another possibility is that someone overtightened the lug nuts at some point and warped the rotor/hub assembly.  Again, very easy to do on Hondas, and only the best most conscientious shops use the right kind of equipment to tighten lug nuts on these cars.  They need to either use torque-limiting socket extensions with their impact wrenches, or use actual torque wrenches.  Believe it or not, the safest way is to use the old-fashioned t-bar universal lug wrench that sits behind the seat of every pickup truck in the country.  Just a little educated restraint with one of these, and over-tightening will never be a problem.  I'd go somewhere else, probably a major chain tire store, and ask them what they use to tighten lug nuts before they work on your car.  If they tell you they have a nob on their air gun that sets the torque, run away.  If they show you a brightly painted bar with a socket on one end that attaches to the air gun, then let them at it.  But, once more, get them to check for run-out, it's a common mistake.