New Rims - Now a shimmy in the car
#1
New Rims - Now a shimmy in the car
I have been driving my 2007 GT with the stock 17's on the car and I recently put some new rims on 18x9 Front and 18x10 on back (Thanks to my wife for the big 40th b-day gift. In 10 more years I can buy the suspension). I noticed that at about 50 to 60 the steering wheel would shimmy alot. I had a wheel alignment done and all four wheels rebalanced. They found the alignment off a little and the front wheels needed to be balanced and more weight added. American Muscle stood by there free mounting\balancing of tires and credited me for the re-balance of the front tires. Now at about 60 to 70 there is a slight shimmy in the steering wheel, almost a little visually noticable vibration. Is that normal? If not, what else should I check?
thanks for the help,
Gary
thanks for the help,
Gary
#2
A shimmy can be anything from a miss-balanced wheel, to a wheel that wasn't mounted properly.
Try taking the wheels off first and remounting them. Make sure you use the standard cross-star pattern for tightening the wheels. I normally use a breaking bar and put all my weight on the lugs, but I believe the spec is for 80 ft. lbs of torque per lug.
Drive it again and see if that shimmy is there. If it remains, it's likely the wheels are still out of balance.
The problem with most balancing is that it's done with zero load on the wheel. It doesn't accurately simulate what's going on with the wheel/tire package when it's on the car. This is why road-force balancing is such a good idea.
There's also a difference in where the weight's are applied. If the wheel is out in the center but the weights are applied to the rim, it can't adequately correct the balance of the wheel.
Another possibility is that one, or both of the wheels on the front of the car aren't perfectly round, or have too much run-out. We all like our replica wheels and most the time it's not a problem. However, they are cheap wheels and sometimes this type of thing happens. It's why you end up paying thousands of dollars for quality wheels.
Try taking the wheels off first and remounting them. Make sure you use the standard cross-star pattern for tightening the wheels. I normally use a breaking bar and put all my weight on the lugs, but I believe the spec is for 80 ft. lbs of torque per lug.
Drive it again and see if that shimmy is there. If it remains, it's likely the wheels are still out of balance.
The problem with most balancing is that it's done with zero load on the wheel. It doesn't accurately simulate what's going on with the wheel/tire package when it's on the car. This is why road-force balancing is such a good idea.
There's also a difference in where the weight's are applied. If the wheel is out in the center but the weights are applied to the rim, it can't adequately correct the balance of the wheel.
Another possibility is that one, or both of the wheels on the front of the car aren't perfectly round, or have too much run-out. We all like our replica wheels and most the time it's not a problem. However, they are cheap wheels and sometimes this type of thing happens. It's why you end up paying thousands of dollars for quality wheels.
#3
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I had the same issue after my 18x9.5 CS69s were mounted and it ended up being a balance issue with the fronts. After the second balancing job, the shimmy was gone.
What type of balancing machine was used as a RoadForce will defnitely help ensure it is right on... especially with wider rims.
What type of balancing machine was used as a RoadForce will defnitely help ensure it is right on... especially with wider rims.
#4
Team Mustang Source
I had the same issue after my 18x9.5 CS69s were mounted and it ended up being a balance issue with the fronts. After the second balancing job, the shimmy was gone.
What type of balancing machine was used as a RoadForce will defnitely help ensure it is right on... especially with wider rims.
What type of balancing machine was used as a RoadForce will defnitely help ensure it is right on... especially with wider rims.
#5
Did you take off the lock washers on the front studs? There's one on each side. That might help slightly. Helped with mine. I have some shimmy in mine at times too. But I need to get the alignment checked cause I went down a dirt road and might have knocked it out a little bit.
#6
+3 on the Hunter Road Force Balancing. I had a set of 19" Saleen PJ rims on my 07GT. The steering wheel had a slight vibration from 45-70 M.P.H. My Ford dealer balanced the rims twice with no luck.
I went to the Hunter website, used their dealer locator to find a nearby shop with the road force machine.
Had the wheels road force balanced and the vibration was totally gone. Here is a link to the Hunter dealer locator.
http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm
I went to the Hunter website, used their dealer locator to find a nearby shop with the road force machine.
Had the wheels road force balanced and the vibration was totally gone. Here is a link to the Hunter dealer locator.
http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm
#8
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Before you do anything, pull off all your wheels and check the lugs for small retaining rings. The factory is bad with leaving them on and they will definitely cause the issue you are describing. They are used during assembly to keep the rotors on. I'm willing to bet you've got one or two on there, especially since you've already paid or balancing and an alignment.
#9
Team Mustang Source
Before you do anything, pull off all your wheels and check the lugs for small retaining rings. The factory is bad with leaving them on and they will definitely cause the issue you are describing. They are used during assembly to keep the rotors on. I'm willing to bet you've got one or two on there, especially since you've already paid or balancing and an alignment.
If that isn't the issue, then Hunter RoadForce balancing is the next step.
#13
Mach 1 Member
Tim
#14
This is what it looks like..
Also what Rich said, if you don't have one, buy a torque wrench and torque the lugs in a cross pattern to 100 ft lbs.
#19
I took off one retaining clip off 3 of the bolts and 2 off of the other one. I have driven about 100 miles at various speeds and the shimmy is now gone. Not sure how someone figured this out, but I am glad they did.
Thanks for the help.
Gary
Thanks for the help.
Gary
#20
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Those Clips are called Tinnerman Clips as an FYI. No Need to remove if you run OE wheels with the Back Cuts on the Inside. A Must to remove on a wheel with a Totally Flat surface or spacers.
KC
KC