Californication

Hello. I've been having an issue with a steering wheel shimmy on my Civic Coupe Ej1. D16Z6. I have performed a process of elimination but only to reduce shimmy, but not eliminate it at high speeds, 70-85 mph.
Note: Shimmy only occurs at certain parts of certain freeways. Some freeways create no steering wheel shimmy at all @ 70-85 mph.

I have replaced:
1. Inner & Outer tie rods + (upper ball joints on both sides) (front).
2. Alignment
3. Brand New falken Ziex tires 205/40/17 on Volk GT-P's (Balanced).
4. Rear struts & Upper control arms.

I can't think what else can cause this mild to medium shimmy of my steering wheel on the freeway. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks.

Note: PepBoys did mention that I may need front struts replaced soon & rear wheels have not been rebalanced since I bought them from a friend. Also, the front passenger side of the car was crashed by previous owner which was repaired except for passenger side (stock) upper control arm which for some reason has small camber).

ezone

Drive it at the speed it shimmies.

Work the gas pedal while noting the shimmy.

Does acceleration and deceleration make the shimmy change?


This says it is probably a pavement issue.
Semi traffic and undermaintained highways can make almost any car feel very lumpy. You can't fix that.

Ah, a chain store. That explains a lot.

Californication

No de-cel and acceleration does not change the shimmy.


There's no doubt that pavement sucks, especially is Southern Cali. But the steering wheel has a continuous left-right motion shimmy which occurs even when roads don't appear to be cracked, and on some new freeway pavement.

Since my steering wheel doesn't shimmy on some roads, but shimmys a lot on worse roads, doesn't that indicate a worn out part? Someone mentioned steering rack?

ezone

That would seem to eliminate axles/inner joints as a possible cause....

If this only happens at high speeds (maybe 50+):

Normally I would think this is a tire related issue.
Balance, or the tire does not spin round and true.
A balance problem makes it shake harder the faster you go.

HOW accurately were the tires balanced? (It is easy for someone to screw this up, or be lazy and just say "good enough" instead of actually trying to do a good job.)

A tire (or wheel) that is out of round (but properly balanced) might cause a shake within a certain speed range, or it might mimic a balance problem.

If your steering wheel waddles at low speeds too, that is a tire related problem that should be easy to see. Tire is lumpy or not round, bent rim, slipped belt, etc.

Your wheels are aftermarket: Different offset? Different tire diameter?
A big change in the wheel offset can cause all sorts of road feedback issues.

If the wheels have no centering rings, they might not even be centered on the hubs. That will cause the same thing as an out of round wheel, because it is actually not round once it is bolted to the car and spinning.



Um, you have 17s, thin 40 series tires, and bad roads. I'd EXPECT your rims are bent.


Anything is possible.
Should be easy enough for someone to inspect front suspension for obviously wrong looseness. Check and eliminate that possibility.
Part of front suspension check. Rack itself is very unlikely, but inner tie rids might be.


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Easiest and fastest thing I can think of:
Got a set of stock tires and wheels you can try? That would at least tell you whether or not your 17" tires and wheels are your problem area.

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When did this issue start happening?

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If you want to just look cool, there's a price you gotta pay.

Californication

The steering wheel shimmy/vibration does not occur at low speeds, only in the 70+mph range.

These wheels have been balanced two separate times with no change in the problem. Once at local tire shop, and again at a chain store.
Keep in mind that it is only my steering wheel that vibrates, and not the dashboard/front end of my car, in which I have experienced with unbalanced tires, where the whole front end of the car shakes violently.

THIS might be my issue. I do notice that there could be a significant gap between my hub and wheel assembly, I'm not sure if the wheel is entirely flush with the hub.
I will buy centering rings from a rim shop and see if this solves my issue, thanks so much for your help! I should have known.

I've hit a few large potholes over time and thought I had bent my rims, but my shimmy issue never got worse over time, just stayed the same on certain parts of the freeway I drive daily.

Not trying to "look" cool, just bought a pair of rims that a friend was selling for a steal. What I do with my car is for myself and I could care less what any other lame thinks. I knew getting larger wheels, with low profile tires comes with downsides.

ezone

You might look up the wheel manufacturer online, see if you can get them directly.
I'd try to use aluminum or steel rings and plenty of anti-seize, not plastic rings.
If they (tire shop employees) were the brightest bulbs on the tree, they should have figured out the problem IMO......(If you did your part right and told them what the problem is and let them figure it out.) If you dictated the work you wanted done, then all bets are off.

Plenty of people are perfectly happy to blindly follow orders.


A relatively HUGE imbalance would shake the dashboard/whole car. HUGE. FREEKIN' HUGE.

A small imbalance on the front tires will normally be felt only in the steering wheel.
An out-of-round condition caused by improper wheel centering can/will have a very similar imbalance effect.

Any good tech should have been able to notice and note damage to the wheels. The majority probably aren't and don't care enough to do so.
I was just sayin'. Some people expect to ride Cadillac smooth on a lumpy turd.

Californication

Never really told them about the problem because I had originally thought tire balancing was the issue. And the same shop I go to usually does tell me when a rim is bent. But they could of certainly overlooked it.

I'll go ahead and try to remedy this with centering rings, and hope it works out. Thanks again for all your input and responses, it really did help.

ezone

Hope it works.


On the poor balance thing.....Here's why I said it

Our tire balancer machine at work is is set to cut off at 0.29 oz per side (it rounds off to display zeros), and it could look great on the readout while still technically a wee bit out of balance.

But most people won't notice only a 1/4oz imbalance.......

BUT
If there is 1/4 oz out of balance on both sides of the wheel, and both are near the same spot on the wheel (circle), then that adds up to 1/2 oz imbalance total, and THAT CAN BE FELT in many cars as a steering wheel twitch at highway speed.



I adjust our machine to display true readings, and get them balanced to within 0.10oz per side if at all possible (or within 5 grams per side). ESPECIALLY on smaller diameter tires.

I think it is no more difficult or time consuming to be this accurate. It IS time consuming to have to do it all over again.

I do it the way I know works very well, and I do it the first time.
I HATE to do a job over again later for free.

But that's me.
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Other LAZY (or less knowing/caring) employees will shortcut the job, placing all the weights on the inner lip while ignoring the opposite plane (outer edge).

(If you want to know the differences, google tire balancing, static balance, dynamic balance.)

They have gotten away with being lazy for so long, they can't even remember how to do the job right when it counts!
I know, because I've had to fix their work.



Stick-on wheel weights just make their work worse. Half of the people in the shop can't even set up the machine for using stick-on weights on the wheels, and are too uncaring/lazy/stupid to learn.

You wouldn't believe the problems this causes, this SHOULD be simple work!

/rant

wgbernardo12

If you have that aftermarket wheels the hub of the car are not fitted properly on the wheels may be you need to put hub eccentric rings on your wheels to fix the issue.