Shimmy In The Steering Wheel Normal?

[Hawks]

This is my first truck/suv so I dont know if this is normal but at highway speeds (60-75) I get a shaking in the steering wheel. It is not too bad but it does feel like out of balance tires. I have 2100 miles and it has been doing it all along. I do also hear a "wubwubwubwub" noise while I drive that seems to be consistent with the shimmy in the steering wheel. Have you guys had experience with bad balancing from the factory? The date on the inside of the door is 09/01. Is it possible that the tires have become flat spotted from sitting? If you guys tell me that it is a truck and I should get used to it...I will. But it is the only thing that annoys me about my av.

 

[Chief]

TOTALLY sounds like in order:

1) Tire out of balance - because you say it is in the steering wheel and not "your butt" a front tire.

2) Tire has gone bad. Cords separating or something - again a front tire.

3) Rim is bad or bent.

Time to talk to the dealer. I doubt the tire is flat spotted even if it sat. Tire would have had to have gone flat and sat for it to flat spot in that period of time. Those Goodyears are actually pretty good rubber...

 

[idocpilk]

Have the same thing...when they balanced the tire it helped but still there. Drove another AV...no shimmy. So, its probably a bad tire. But, they ordered my a new one because of a series of problems. I also wonder about the drive shaft, but that would probably shake the whole car...not just the steering wheel. BTW, when they balanced the tires they ended up with a 6" bal. wt. on one of the front tires...seemed excessive to me.

 

[MrFish]

I had/have the same problem. I took mine in quite some time ago for a balance. Both front and one rear were out of balance, so they took care of that. The rear pass tire is "out of round" whatever the heck that means. They said that if the problem persisted to bring it back in for a replacement tire. The shimmy is better, though still there. I haven't gotten around to going back in.

 

[John_B]

I also have the same problem, had the original set of tires balanced 3 times, then put a new set of Michelins on, and had balanced twice, but still have a shimmy at 70-75 mph. Time to start looking at driveshaft, or steering shaft, any suggestions would be welcome.

 

[chazmo2]

Had the same problem with my AV.
Shimmy in the steering wheel at 65-75mph.
The dealer dropped my driveshaft and turned it 180 degrees.
That finally worked.

 

[wrchism]

No shimmy here - at least not up to 90 MPH.

Regarding tire weights - I too was surprised at the size of a couple of them - again on the order of 6" long.

I was also disappointed that the weights were on the outside of the rim. ? On my previous Chevy truck (S-10 Blazer) they put the weights on the INSIDE of the alloy wheel - sure looks nicer.

 

[spambamer]

Right from the dealership i have the same problem. Balanced twice so far and i am waiting for what they will do next. I hope they read this forum and try the driveshaft trick and if not i'll tell them to try it. I'll keep ya posted.

 

[DougD]

Please search on the concept of Intermediate Steering Shaft in this section.  (depending on your model year, since you've posted no info in that regard)

 

[Rocky07]

Had the same problem with my AV.
Shimmy in the steering wheel at 65-75mph.
The dealer dropped my driveshaft and turned it 180 degrees.
That finally worked.

A shimmy in the steering wheel is NOT from a out of balanced drive shaft.  A steering wheel shimmy is due to a wheel balance which could be pronounced or emphasized by a worn or defective intermediate steering shaft.  Dealers claim to do a lot of things, but they can't turn a drive shaft 180 degrees per se.  One end of a DS has a bolt coupling to the rear end and the other end has a slip pline to go into the tranny (or transfer case in a 4x4).  Without know what year your AV is, the DS cannot be end-swapped without keeping slip spline and bolt coupling in their respective place without changing the u-joints.  If your shimmy went away after a so-called "180-swap", it's because you had bad u-joints to begin with.  An unbalanced drive shaft is still unbalance even if they could swap ends.

 

[spambamer]

Hello, I have the same problem @ 72 MPH and the dealer did the wheel Balanced act twice. I called the dealer right out of the parking lot with 5 miles on the truck (200. Now four weeks old and 2100 miles and they told me it's a characteristic OF THE TRUCK. I'm test driving another one tomorrow at the same dealership and New Jersey has the 3 times you get a new car LEMMON LAW and I'm going to use it. $50,000.00 ain't cheep and I'm not living with it. I have no idea what causes the shimmy but I will keep looking at the postings and will keep you informed. Thanks for listening.

 

[Rocky07]

Hello, I have the same problem @ 72 MPH and the dealer did the wheel Balanced act twice. I called the dealer right out of the parking lot with 5 miles on the truck (200. Now four weeks old and 2100 miles and they told me it's a characteristic OF THE TRUCK. I'm test driving another one tomorrow at the same dealership and New Jersey has the 3 times you get a new car LEMMON LAW and I'm going to use it. $50,000.00 ain't cheep and I'm not living with it. I have no idea what causes the shimmy but I will keep looking at the postings and will keep you informed. Thanks for listening.

Ah....that's typical dealer BS.  The shimmy is NOT a characteristic of the truck.  You have an undiscovered problem that the dealer has not found.  Check your tire pressure..  You should have 33-36 lbs if it is the 20" wheels.  If you need to, go to NTB Tire Company.  You may have a out-of-round issue that doesn't show up when spinning the tire for balance.  That sets up a vibration at the higher speed (spin balancing is generally much slower) that will be further emphasized by the tight, rack and pinion steering.

Be careful on invoking the "Lemon Law" as most states that have it require an attempt at fixing the problem 3 times.....not just 3 customer complaint events.  The dealer must "take action" which is not what I understand has happened.

 

[iamchevyman5]

my car has something up with it too. It feels like it shimmys when i've got the steering wheel about 30 degrees left of center. Is this a problem with the wheel hub? When my dad had the car he said he had to replace it on the right side. . .I think. It just kind of feels like when I put the wheel a bit to the left, it 'slips' a bit, sometimes. Tell me what you think.

 

[Rocky07]

Hard to diagnose with limited info.  But, try this.  Because you are experiencing shimmy in a slight turn would tell me that you might have two problems:
1. Source of the shimmy-meaning, out of round tire, bent wheel, out of balance tire or a combo of any of those.  You have to have a "source" to set up the harmonics of a shimmy.
2. Loose or worn steering linkage or suspension components-with worn parts (tie-rod ends, worn steering gear box, idler arm, etc.) any defect in tire and wheel rotation will become accentuated.

How many miles do you have on your '02?  If a lot, say over 100K, you might have some expected wear on these parts.  I sold my '02 Z71 with 161k miles with none of the symptoms you have described.  But then again, it was "baby'd" with most mile being highway.  I would have a good front-end shop take a look at it.  Normal visual inspections do not show worn suspension wear.  A good front-end shop will know how to "stress" each component to reveal that wear.