a vibration/shimmy at speed, almost as if a couple of the wheels were bent
03-17-2005, 08:14 AM
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a vibration/shimmy at speed, almost as if a couple of the wheels were bent
Assuming your wheels are perfectly straight, your brand-new tires are balanced perfectly... What could be the cause of a shimmy in the steering wheel? It feels almost as if there's some bent-wheel-related wheel hop/shimmy.
It has slowly become more noticeable, particularly when I'm braking... which would make me think it could be the rotors.. but would the rotors also cause a pretty noticeable vibration throughout the car if you were just cruising down the highway?
A friend of mine suggested I replace engine mounts and replace tie rod ends and ball joints. Could these parts cause the sort of vibrations I'm feeling at 50MPH+?
I suppose it could be the wheels/tires being out of balance? I just replaced the rubber on my stock 16s a couple of weeks ago, at which point the vibrations became more noticeable and slowly began to worsen. But they wheel shop claimed to have balanced everything! A friend of mine told me "maybe it's just those new tires.. maybe they're just hard and noisy," but that just doesn't make too much sense to me. It's not noise or a rumbling.. it's vibration, and it shakes things around in my car at speed.. and it's bloody annoying. Prior to mounting these new tires, the vibration wasn't so bad... I just don't want to believe the wheel & tire shop staff were so inept as to improperly mount and balance my tires. Could it be a mount or steering/suspension component issue? Or perhaps the rotors (which, by the way, have less than 20K on them)?
Grr. Rant over.
It has slowly become more noticeable, particularly when I'm braking... which would make me think it could be the rotors.. but would the rotors also cause a pretty noticeable vibration throughout the car if you were just cruising down the highway?
A friend of mine suggested I replace engine mounts and replace tie rod ends and ball joints. Could these parts cause the sort of vibrations I'm feeling at 50MPH+?
I suppose it could be the wheels/tires being out of balance? I just replaced the rubber on my stock 16s a couple of weeks ago, at which point the vibrations became more noticeable and slowly began to worsen. But they wheel shop claimed to have balanced everything! A friend of mine told me "maybe it's just those new tires.. maybe they're just hard and noisy," but that just doesn't make too much sense to me. It's not noise or a rumbling.. it's vibration, and it shakes things around in my car at speed.. and it's bloody annoying. Prior to mounting these new tires, the vibration wasn't so bad... I just don't want to believe the wheel & tire shop staff were so inept as to improperly mount and balance my tires. Could it be a mount or steering/suspension component issue? Or perhaps the rotors (which, by the way, have less than 20K on them)?
Grr. Rant over.
03-17-2005, 08:22 AM
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i'd suggest making sure the tires are balanced and roadforced
Do you get noise with the vibrations? Do you feel th vibrations through just the steering wheel or the whole car? Does the vibrations come and go (vibrates ~50, but goes away at 70, then comes back at 80?) or just get worse the faster you go? any looseness in the steering?
03-17-2005, 09:16 AM
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Re: i'd suggest making sure the tires are balanced and roadforced
Not much noise.. probably none at all. It's a vibration I feel throughout the car, not just the steering wheel... the loose change I keep in the center console cupholders starts to vibrate and makes noise as I drive... the sort of vibration you might expect if at least one front and one rear wheel were bent (or unbalanced).
Generally I don't really feel anything too noticeable until I get to about 50MPH or so.. and the vibrations generally get progressively more intense the faster I drive... hence, I've been taking it easy lately.
Generally I don't really feel anything too noticeable until I get to about 50MPH or so.. and the vibrations generally get progressively more intense the faster I drive... hence, I've been taking it easy lately.
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03-17-2005, 09:20 AM
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Re: I'd start with a re-balance of the wheels. The next thing to look at would be....
Would a faulty steering damper cause the whole car to shake? I mean, it's not like I'm being thrown around in the car, but it's pretty obvious when I'm driving on the highway that something is askew. Things shake around in my door pockets, and the coins in my cupholder jingle around in a most unusual fashion.
Looks like I have my work cut out for me this spring...
Looks like I have my work cut out for me this spring...
