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I was driving on the highway today and I noticed that my car started to shake. I slowed down and it stopped. I repeated this a few more times and it seems that the shaking starts around 50 mph and the faster I go the worse it gets.
This isn't just the steering wheel shaking, though it does do that a lot. This is the whole car vibrating. I checked my oil levels and they were fine.
I have a 2009 Subaru Legacy automatic transmission.
One of two things I think could be happening here. One of your wheels might have thrown a weight and become unbalanced. Second thing to check is to see if you have any ice buildup on the inside of the rim which would also have caused an imbalance. (Not knowing if you are in a winter climate where you are would figure into the second part of this answer.) Either way, it does sound like a wheel imbalance of one sort or another. If you cannot find any ice buildup, I'd take it to a tire shop and have them check the tires.
the two likely culprits are unbalanced tires (i.e. they've gone out of round over time, or as suggested above, lost a weight), and some failed suspension component (perhaps a rubber bushing). unless you do further analysis yourself, a tire shop could answer the first question, and your mechanic the second.
Before all the checking balance, check the "other" out of round. My one in a million 1972 gem of a Pontiac (< $1000 TOTAL parts and maintenance spent last 20 years, and paid, any DIY free work neglible). More than 20 years ago, new NTW tires went out of round after a year or 2. As in tire wear made no longer round tires. Several tire shops claimed out of balance,all redid previous shop's balance and alignment. SOLUTION: an old radiator shop mechanic listened to the symptoms, radiator shop but an overall master mmechanic. He simply put a board under spinning wheels first test, the gap narrowed and widened as the tires were no longer ROUND. Sold the tires cheap via "the thrifty nickel" magazine, to a guy using for only city driving...so didn't care... no bad vibration until about 50 mph, worse vibe with more mph. Heard then, that NTW sold cheap because like flawed clothing(seconds), the tires sold had flaws or poor quality. Lol, none of the mechanics who rebalanced, claimed each previous shop didn't align and balance right ...but none took a fast enough test drive. All they needed was 50 mph or especially 65 or faster to see there work FAILED to fix the vibe to shake and shimmy at speed... not like any REAL speed needed, like in late 1970's when that Pontiac would go south over 1000 miles ti hit the Fla border in less than 11 hours, including fuel stops and fast food stopNeat zero mph eating some if the 10+ nearly 11 hr trip time, before the final leg instate.
