Steering Wheel Shimmy Advice Needed

1456 Views 8 Replies 4 Participants Last post by stim141, Sep 22, 2011

stim141

Discussion Starter · Sep 16, 2011 (Edited)

Had my tires rebalanced at a tire dealer a couple of weeks ago. They said the front right wheel had a slight bend - knew about it and its been like that for ages.

Took the car to the dealer who uses a contractor to straighten the wheel. They did a road force balance at the same time. On the highway the shimmy is still there at around 60 mph and you see the empty passenger seat back vibrating. You don't feel anything in the seat but you do feel it in the wheel and see it slightly moving. If I move the wheel quickly back and forth - even if its not vibrating I can feel something isn't right at speeds but it will correct itself after a second or two.

Took it back this morning and had them check out the suspension. Service advisor said the front suspension was tight but the back shocks appear to be leaking. Would they cause the steering to vibrate? They said they would call my aftermarket warranty to get approval which they won't because they don't cover shocks and I would never have them do it because of the cost and its something I can do in about 1 1/2 hours. If the dealer fudges it and says its something else fine.

Does any of this make sense or am I being led down a costly road? The car even with the bent rim when the tires were mounted last year in October never did this. I got them balanced because of the slight shimmy but the balancing didn't improve the situation so it must be suspension based. What should they have checked?

Save

1 - 1 of 9 Posts

nrphlly

· #8 · Sep 22, 2011

thats obsurd

stim141 said:
Guys you are going to love this....

Finally picked up the car at the dealership this morning and the SA said they couldn't figure it out but the three mechs said it was most likely the tires.

Ok, fine - took it back to the tire dealer - who drove it and confirmed there was a slight shimmy. I've known the guy for years and I can definately trust him. Sat in the waiting room - they removed the two fronts and put them on the Hunter Balancer. Without fully spinning it they called me out and said one of the wheels was bent - front left. The other side was fine except the tire had a very slight - really slight flat spot that is covered under Yoko's warranty.

So the dealer had my car since last Friday - went through the entire thing - supposedly and came back with nothing. The thing that kills me is they were supposed to fix the front wheel bend about two weeks ago which I paid for! Was it bent - no because the tire dealer only said one was bent. Did the dealership attempt to straighten a true wheel and ignore the other? Who knows?!

Didn't call the dealership - drove there and spoke to the advisor who called the techs and wheel repair person and asked them if they (1) fixed the bend and checked the wheels again. They said yes - sure!

He said he would comp the wheel repair tomorrow. The front tire is going to be replaced at the tire dealership on Saturday and they can recheck the work on the (free) wheel repair.

What a complete waste of time!

pure crziness man. Im glad you got it taken care of though. Time is money and like that, they wasted both in one shot.

Save

1 - 1 of 9 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month