Please help, I have had a wheel shake issue forever on my 04 GT now and cant seem to fix it. This is my 3rd. set of rims/tires and all suspension parts have been checked and are fine, car only has 50 k miles on it. Wheels have been road forced balanced now about three times and cant seem to fix issue. Its so bad Im thinking about selling car because of it. It all started when tire place changed my first set of rims. Should I take it to Ford because I have been to two tire shops and one other racing shop, sick of wasting money on this !!!

 

I'm having this same issue after a wheel/tire replacement, did you ever get an answer or did you end up selling the car?

 

You guys need to explain the issue. Is it at a certain speed? Rpm? Accelerating? Coasting? Neutral? Where do you feel the shake? Steering wheel, butt.
All these things you should be able to check for yourselves. Find out what speed it starts, rpm, etc
It should be easy to diagnose after that.

 

Drive shaft u-joints, get them looked at?

 

Aftermarket rims? Do you have the right lug nuts? Do they require hubcentric rings?

 

Ever get it figured out?

 

I had the same problem on a Ford Taurus. The cause was one bad rotor. The shake was worse when braking.

 

Outer tie rods?

 

Same here installed wheels and tires from AM along with suspension mods. Drove it for a week to settle in. Brought it for alignment. Picked it up and there was the wheel shake and slightly pulling to the right. Drove better before I had alignment checked unless I just didnt notice it which is very possible

 

Well had the balance on the front wheels checked and they had to add some weight. The Technician told me the wheels had some hop in them and that may be casing my wheel shake. I bought these wheels and tires from American Muscle and will contact them unless they chime in on here tonight......

 

Did the tech use a diagnostic balancer? The hop they are referring to most likely is runout in the tire and rim which can be measured by a diagnostic balancer and possibly corrected by match mounting ( the tire is clocked on the rim until it minimizes or cancels excessive runout ).

 

I dont know what the different types look like.

 

Depends on the company but Coats for example calls one of its latest the Coats ProRide

 

Thats what they used. They had to add weights after I recieved them from American Muscle. I have now had everything checked. The technician told me the wheels had a little hop. Now I am wondering if I recieved defective front wheels. I will try my OEM wheels to see if thats the source.

 

I took a ride with my OEM front wheels installed today and surprisingly all the steering wheel shake is gone. Contacted American Muscle to tell them that the wheels they sent are out of round. They requested a shop report and I am in the process of getting it.The shop told me this was the issue front the get go, but I didnt want to believe them . Now I know for sure. I even tried adjusting the air pressure for the new wheels.

 

If your tire shop is using a diagnostic balancer they will be able to measure runout on the tire and rim. The Coats machine will let them know if it can be canceled out by clocking the tire on the rim or if it is excessive to the point where either the rim or tire needs to be replaced.

The only caveat is that the rim has to be properly affixed to the balancer which depends on the rim design.

I've never messed with an AM wheel but if they are Mustang specific then they shouldn't require hub centric rings and should be a hub centric design with the lug nuts only required to clamp the wheel to the hub.

If the wheels are lug centric ( meaning the lugs do double duty of not only retaining the wheel but also centering it ) then its very important how the wheel is affixed to the balancer.

In either case the wheel should be centered on the balancer using the proper cone from the rear in conjunction with a pin plate that simulates the lug nuts clamping the wheel to the hub. This will provide the most accurate setup both for balancing and measuring run out.

Using a cone in the front of the wheel to both center and secure the wheel is the least accurate method although sometimes necessary depending on the equipment available and the design of the rim ( looking at you Toyota and your silly as hell odd ball hubs and wheels ).