Steering Wheel Shimmy/Shake..Have tried everything!
03-21-2011, 12:07 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: VA
Posts: 27
Steering Wheel Shimmy/Shake..Have tried everything!
PLEAE I NEED HELP, GOING CRAZY WITH STEERING WHEEL SHAKE!
Ok, So a little background on my Mustang. I have a 2008 GT and since I have had it, it has always had a steering wheel shimmy (only one owner before me). The dealer where I bought the car told me that I had a bent rim on my OE rims. Ok great....so I saved up money and finally were able to get new rims ($1000) that are not OE but the exact same size (18*8.5) and I used the original tires because there was plenty of tread left...after new rim install still a shimmy left to right in the steering wheel. I then took it to another Ford dealer and they replaced the front A-arms and ball joints because they said there was a defect and road force balanced the tires, this worked great for about 12 hours then the shimmy is back. Took it back and they road force balanced them 2 more times...still a shimmy. So the mechanic took it to another dealership down the road to use their road force balancer to see if his was not dialed in correctly...still a shimmy. I asked to him to look at everything in the front end to make sure it's tight and he said all looked good and I did not have the factory clips on my rotors that tends to cause this. He said the only thing it could be are the tires. Great...bought all new tires ($800)...and had the tire place re-balance my wheels again and alignment was good....Now certain times like in the morning my wheel will shimmy pretty badly (Flat spots from just sitting overnight?) but once the tires warm up it gets a bit better....now some road surfaces at any speed I have NO shimmy and many road surfaces I have a bad shimmy. I looked into tramlining I just don’t understand why every other car I drive on the same roads don’t do this at all. I am going crazy! I helped my brother buy an older POS Hyundai Elentra for his first car and guess what....no steering wheel shimmy! I am at whit’s end and have no more money to spend on BS things for the mechanic to tell me to buy. I do have hub centric rings on the rims as well. So after two sets of rims and tires I know it's not the rims/tires. I have read possibly bushings or rotors being replaced but when I hit my brakes my steering wheel is solid so possibly bushings? How do the bushings create this problem? The car only has 28,000 miles on it and never been an accident. It's not lowered or any other mods to the suspension. I feel like if I continue to let this go on it could work something else loose in my front end. I know this has been a common thread but I still have not been able to find anyone posting any solutions other than balancing or tires/rims which are mine are good and brand new now. It's starting to make me way to stressed out every time I get in my car. Please let me know if you have had this issue and how you fixed it or any other suggestions. Thank you for any advice.
Ok, So a little background on my Mustang. I have a 2008 GT and since I have had it, it has always had a steering wheel shimmy (only one owner before me). The dealer where I bought the car told me that I had a bent rim on my OE rims. Ok great....so I saved up money and finally were able to get new rims ($1000) that are not OE but the exact same size (18*8.5) and I used the original tires because there was plenty of tread left...after new rim install still a shimmy left to right in the steering wheel. I then took it to another Ford dealer and they replaced the front A-arms and ball joints because they said there was a defect and road force balanced the tires, this worked great for about 12 hours then the shimmy is back. Took it back and they road force balanced them 2 more times...still a shimmy. So the mechanic took it to another dealership down the road to use their road force balancer to see if his was not dialed in correctly...still a shimmy. I asked to him to look at everything in the front end to make sure it's tight and he said all looked good and I did not have the factory clips on my rotors that tends to cause this. He said the only thing it could be are the tires. Great...bought all new tires ($800)...and had the tire place re-balance my wheels again and alignment was good....Now certain times like in the morning my wheel will shimmy pretty badly (Flat spots from just sitting overnight?) but once the tires warm up it gets a bit better....now some road surfaces at any speed I have NO shimmy and many road surfaces I have a bad shimmy. I looked into tramlining I just don’t understand why every other car I drive on the same roads don’t do this at all. I am going crazy! I helped my brother buy an older POS Hyundai Elentra for his first car and guess what....no steering wheel shimmy! I am at whit’s end and have no more money to spend on BS things for the mechanic to tell me to buy. I do have hub centric rings on the rims as well. So after two sets of rims and tires I know it's not the rims/tires. I have read possibly bushings or rotors being replaced but when I hit my brakes my steering wheel is solid so possibly bushings? How do the bushings create this problem? The car only has 28,000 miles on it and never been an accident. It's not lowered or any other mods to the suspension. I feel like if I continue to let this go on it could work something else loose in my front end. I know this has been a common thread but I still have not been able to find anyone posting any solutions other than balancing or tires/rims which are mine are good and brand new now. It's starting to make me way to stressed out every time I get in my car. Please let me know if you have had this issue and how you fixed it or any other suggestions. Thank you for any advice.
03-21-2011, 12:32 PM
#2
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: PR
Posts: 329
I didn't manage to read the whole wall of text, but I'll just post something similar that happened to me.
When I changed tires for the first time, one of the TPMS sensor bands broke off. The tire shop managed to get the sensors back on the wheels by using a pair of really loooooong zip ties, tying the sensors back to the wheels, balancing them, and sending me on my way...
After a few miles, the shimmy started. It got worse at speed. So I took it back to the tire shop, and surprisingly enough, a pair of zip ties weren't enough to hold a 2gram piece of plastic rotating at 90mph! Damn you, laws of physics! The sensors didn't break free, but they managed to "slide" across the inner rim surface, upsetting the balance.
Long story short, the shop bought a long metal hose clamp, almost like the OEM ones, tied the sensors back down real good, put some Gorilla® glue to the back of it, for good measure, balanced them and sent me on my way again.
Haven't had shimmy problems since.
When I changed tires for the first time, one of the TPMS sensor bands broke off. The tire shop managed to get the sensors back on the wheels by using a pair of really loooooong zip ties, tying the sensors back to the wheels, balancing them, and sending me on my way...
After a few miles, the shimmy started. It got worse at speed. So I took it back to the tire shop, and surprisingly enough, a pair of zip ties weren't enough to hold a 2gram piece of plastic rotating at 90mph! Damn you, laws of physics! The sensors didn't break free, but they managed to "slide" across the inner rim surface, upsetting the balance.
Long story short, the shop bought a long metal hose clamp, almost like the OEM ones, tied the sensors back down real good, put some Gorilla® glue to the back of it, for good measure, balanced them and sent me on my way again.
Haven't had shimmy problems since.
03-21-2011, 12:39 PM
#3
6th Gear Member
Also, most aftermarket wheels require removal of the clip(s) on the wheel studs. The clips were used during assembly and have no function afterwards. The OE wheels are machined to allow the wheels to sit flush against the rotors but on most aftermarket wheels, the clips are an interference. I'd post a pic but I'm at work and it's on my laptop at home. There are other threads that post the pic so use the search feature. Sorry.
03-21-2011, 12:44 PM
#4
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Florida
Posts: 407
My wheel shakes slightly at exactly 60MPH. Taking to other Stang owners, they have had the problem too. No one has fixed it who has had it. I guess it is a defect with 05-09s. Also, my car occasionally pulls to the right. Sometimes my wheel has to be tuned a degree or two to the left to get it to go straight. Sounds minimal but not really.
Oh well... Keeps me an alert driver. Lol
Oh well... Keeps me an alert driver. Lol
03-21-2011, 01:01 PM
#5
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Clearwater FL
Posts: 608
I had pretty much the same problem and taking the metal ring off worked.
http://www.motorz.tv/blog/1129/ford-...-installation/
Check out that video at about 2:40 you'll see what nuke and I are talking about. Check to see if those are on there (I had one per wheel). If those are try taking them off. It fixed everything for me.
http://www.motorz.tv/blog/1129/ford-...-installation/
Check out that video at about 2:40 you'll see what nuke and I are talking about. Check to see if those are on there (I had one per wheel). If those are try taking them off. It fixed everything for me.
03-21-2011, 01:44 PM
#6
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: VA
Posts: 27
Thanks for the feedback guys..I really appreciate it. The only thing is, this has been happening since my OE rims were on, so the band inside the wheel holding the TPMS on should not have affected the original rims yet the steering wheel still had a shimmy. The new rims on the car are having this problem but it is internment on the highway which is making me really confused...if it was something loose in the wheel I would assume the balance would be off constantly? P.S. I have had a war with TPMS sensors since getting my new rims...worst things ever. I was hoping maybe someone could explain how to tell if your bushings are bad in the car, Steering rack bushings or tie rods? I don’t want to spend money to replace all of them if it's not the problem but I don’t know what else to look at. I'm so fed up with this problem that I contemplate selling the car but I really don’t want to. Thanks again guys.
03-21-2011, 02:53 PM
#9
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: VA
Posts: 27
Do you think ordering another pair of hub centric rings could fix it? I guess it's worth a try. After reading the posts again it is possible it could be a loose TPMS band I guess. I used aftermarket ones from AM and when they put my new tires on I noticed the last tire had a very loose band which we replaced with a new OEM band but the other tires were already mounted so I didnt see them. I guess it's possible the tech did not pay attention to them before mounting the new tires and they could just be circling around the rim....do you think the TPMS sensor weighs enough to throw off the balance of the rim?