Ever since "it" happened, the steering wheel shudders when going fast on the highway...and the car seems to pull in a random direction every once in awhile.

I had them recheck the tire for balance, and they said it was dead on.

So, if everything is balanced...what would make the steering wheel shudder? Did I bend something attached to the wheel?

I'm trying to avoid taking it to the mechanic...and I definitely can't make the trip to the dealership.

 

The best way is to take it to a place were they can do on car balancing also called dynamic balancing. Is the same thing, but each wheel is tested on the car until is perfect. If you have a bad bearing or hub, which is likely to happen from an accident, they should be able to tell you. Another thing you can do is lift the car up, put up on some jacks, leave rims and tires on. Make sure the front tires are not touching the ground, turn the car on, turn off the TCS or VSA and put in drive. Have a friend seat on the driver seat and accelarate. Look at the tires, to see if it is swaying, if it is, then is either your bearing or hub, you will need a mechanic to fixed it, since you will need special tools to do it, plus is just too much work, been there before. Hope this helps.

 

If I hit the brakes when the tires are off the ground, will it activate the air bags? It's going from 100+ mph to 0 in less than a second...

 

No. The airbag sensors don't use the speedometer or axles for determining deceleration. The sensors (3 to 5 per vehicle, depending on make) are basically accelerometers that have an internal mass that shifts to complete an electric circuit. Most cars are designed (if there are five sensors) to have 3 of the 5 activate before the airbags are deployed. Most cars have one in the nose, near the firewall and between the two front seats. Other locations are usually redundant (one at each front corner, etc).